I don't know if you're aware of what a problem rabies is in our community, but you might want to look on this as an excellent opportunity to educate the kiddos about it. Keep in mind the following things:
* While rabid dogs do foam at the mouth sometimes, it's not constant. You probably don't want to apply more than a dab of shaving cream to the edges of the doggie suit's mouth.
* Rabid animals are sometimes very aggressive, but they're also sometimes terrified. You should run away whimpering just as often as you charge at the children.
* Often, rabid dogs become, um, sexually aggressive. For obvious reasons, however, you should confine any "humping" to adults in the store. To do otherwise would be really icky and awful.
* Remember that thwarted rabid animals often bite. Do you have the range of motion in the costume to chomp down on someone?
* Especially in the later stages of the disease, rabid animals become uncoordinated and jerky in their motions. Stagger around, crashing into things, whining.
* The only way to test for rabies is to decapitate the animal and send the head for testing at a diagnostic laboratory. What a great ending to the educational program that would be -- after someone "saws off" the head of the costume, you can emerge from it and answer any questions the tykes have about rabies!
Hope this helps!
Daniel
not a burnt-out animal shelter worker at all
