ROCHESTER — Visibly hungry, Lilac the cow kept munching on hay. Behind her, Bobby McGee — also a cow — mooed.

They came to the Rochester Senior Center for a community block party event Friday, June 21

Among several other attractions, animals may have stolen the show at the event put on by the Friends of the Rochester Senior Center and local public safety group TRIAD.

Janis Joplin and Lugnut joined Lilac and Bobby McGee for a petting zoo brought by the 4-H Club. Beyond McGee’s moo, the four cows could not provide comment.

But Sue Norton, a Board of Directors member for the Rochester Council on Aging, said the “animals have been a big hit for the kids.”

A police dog presentation by the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Office caught the attention of many block party-goers.

Deputy sheriffs Dennis Desroches and Glen Haley demonstrated the abilities of Axo, a patrol dog, Starr, a comfort therapy dog, and Rusty, a narcotics dog.

“She’s really good at her job,” Desroches said about Starr, a 4-year-old Great Dane.

Desroches said the sheriff's office had found Rusty, the drug-sniffing dog, abandoned on Route 495.

He told viewers to look at Rusty’s tail.

“It’s not going to stop,” Desroches said. “He’s literally the happiest dog I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Desroches later left the presentation and returned dressed in a thick bite suit, while Haley brought out Axo, the patrol dog.

Axo charged at Desroches, who yelled in mock pain and surprise as the dog bit him. Desroches said Axo’s responsibilities are “a game to him.”

“It has to be fun for the dog,” he said.

Another popular attraction at the community block party Friday — a particularly hot day — was a water-spraying machine, according to Norton.

A Rochester paramedic had set the water mister in the parking lot to the Rochester Senior Center building.

Other party features included info tables for different organizations — like Alewives Anonymous and Sippican Rod and Gun Club among several others — and inflatable games set up by Rochester Boy Scouts. Kids chased after massive bubbles blown by a bubble maker in the center of the event.

“The reviews have been wonderful,” Norton said. “Everybody has had a good time.”