Ziggy and The Kong Contest

So I saw this contest online to submit a picture with your dog and their classic Kong toy, and they could win a Kong prize package.  I love Kong products - they are great at keeping the dogs busy, and I don't think I could have survived fostering Ziggy if he didn't have a steady supply of Kongs.  So I searched through all my pictures of Ziggy to see if I had any of him chewing on a Kong.  I couldn't find any, so I thought I'd just take a new picture.  No problem, right?  It started with me in the kitchen grabbing a stuffed Kong out of the freezer.  Ziggy looked on hopefully. 

Then I gave him the Kong and he ran to his favorite spot - the living room couch - to chew on it.  I tried a picture but it was too dark.  So I made the mistake of taking the Kong away in order to get Ziggy outside where there was better lighting. 

Ziggy immediately jumped up on me trying to get his Kong back.  I didn't drop the Kong, but sadly I dropped my camera instead.  My next picture of Ziggy came out like this:

After messing around with the camera settings for awhile, I finally got it working again, and was able to take a few more pictures.  Then I had to decide which one to submit into the contest. 

Option 1 - Scrunched-nose Ziggy

I like the way his nose is all wrinkled as he tries to shove his entire mouth into the Kong opening.

Option 2 - Eyes-Closed Enjoyment Ziggy

When Ziggy really enjoys something, he closes his eyes!

Option 3 - Don't Steal My Kong!

Did I mention that Ziggy has a problem with sharing?

In the end, I went with an old picture of Ziggy with his Kong Wobbler. 



While it may not make people want to adopt Ziggy (unless you like a dog demolition expert), it does accurately reflect who Ziggy is, and will hopefully help him win more Kongs to keep him busy and keep my floors safe! 

The contest ends on Sunday May 12th, so if you'd like, you can vote here.  Or adopt Ziggy here!

The Puppies Have Names

There were some great submissions for names!  I had a hard time choosing, but because I have the maturity level of a five-year-old, I had to pick the Donald Duck theme.  Congratulations on selecting the winning names, Harper!  I'm a huge Donald Duck fan.  I even have a poster of him on my wall.  Okay, I don't really have a poster of Donald Duck.  But I am a huge fan, and I might just have to hang up a picture of this Donald:

Donald

 

Daisy

Huey, Dewey and Louie

And just because he's so cute, here's one more picture of Donald:

Naming Help Needed!

All Paws Rescue was recently asked to help with some puppies.  The request came much too late, because six of the eleven puppies had already died due to the heat and other factors.  But we gladly took in the remaining five puppies and made arrangements to have the momma dog spayed.  The puppies are now happily residing in an ex-pen in my basement where it is nice and cool.  There are four boys and one girl, and they need names!  I like to keep their names all part of a theme, to make it easier to remember them - especially if one gets returned several years down the road.  So I'm looking for suggestions - please leave your ideas for names in the comments.  The reader who picks out the names I like most will win.... are you ready?....it's a great prize.... here it is... the names they pick out will be used to name the five puppies!  And as if that's not enough of a prize, there's MORE!  That's right, the winner will also receive the opportunity to be the first to adopt one of these wonderful puppies.*  Can you believe it?  Act now, because this offer won't last long!

Puppy details:

2 male fawn with black mask

2 male black

1 female black

*Winner must complete adoption application, pass background check and adoption interview, and live within 25 miles of Dog Foster Mom.  Winner is responsible for all taxes, adoption fees, and transportation costs.  Not valid outside of the U.S.  

Mouse Naming Contest Winner

Today we had the drawing for the winner of the Mouse Naming Contest.  We used random.org to randomly select the winning comment.

Congratulations to Frankie Furter who won the mouse-naming contest!  Frankie, what would you like to name your mouse?

If you live in the St. Louis area, please order your tickets now to participate in the Mouse Races that will take place next month.  Frankie's mouse will be there!  Well, not the one that used to live under his front porch - but at least the one he will be naming.

Military Dog

First, one final reminder that the contest to name a mouse in the upcoming Mouse Racing Fundraiser ends tomorrow, so don't forget to leave a comment on this post if you want to enter.

Second, when my husband got home from his Army Reserve training today, he was greeted by Remi and Noelle, as usual.

And next thing I know, he put his dog tags on Noelle and asked her to stand at attention:

I guess Ziggy isn't the only one around here preparing for boot camp!

Vote for Ziggy!

Yesterday I entered Ziggy in a photo contest. It's not really a photo contest. They call it that, but it's actually a popularity contest. Whatever dog gets the most votes wins their picture on the website for the following week. I was looking at all these pictures of cute dogs and puppies, and realized this would be a great way to get out the word about Ziggy. So I picked this picture.

This is not a great photo in any way, shape or form. The color, editing, and all those other things that professional pictures have are missing. And as for the subject of the photo... well, this is not the photo that would make any normal person want to adopt this dog. But here's the thing. All the other pictures in the contest are of cute, normal dogs. So what better way to get people's attention than to show them a picture of a very NOT normal dog? Hopefully they'll see the small picture, and want to take a closer look, so they'll click on it. Then they'll be able to read all about Ziggy, and even follow a link to his Fan Page. And maybe, just maybe, someone will read about him and say "I know a great home for that dog!".

So, if you're a Ziggy fan, please go vote for him. You don't have to log in or anything. You can vote once every 12 hours, and although he has almost no chance of winning, maybe it'll help him get noticed if he gets a lot of votes. Plus, if you vote, you can download this awesome "I Voted" sticker and let the world know that you voted for Ziggy. Feel free to put it on your blog or website or Facebook page with a link to Ziggy's voting page! Or if you really want to help Ziggy, just skip all the advertising and go ahead and adopt him. Really, that would be great. I'll drive him to you. No problem.

Ziggy's Voting Page: http://www.moderndogmagazine.com/photocontest/dogs/11/01/24/ziggy

Noelle's Vanishing Spots - And A Very Special Contest

First I would like to report that my dog Noelle made a miraculous recovery overnight, and the bumps vanished as quickly as they appeared. Therefore I have now ruled out chicken pox as the cause, and have made a new diagnosis - Noelle has Vanishing Spot Disease. I'm sure the vet will be grateful to me for figuring out the problem. Since I've been unable to find any information about Vanishing Spot Disease on the Internet (can you believe it?! I thought everything was on the Internet!), I will have to let the vet know that we've discovered a new disease in dogs. Maybe Noelle will be written up in veterinary medical journals!

The contest isn't about Noelle's vanishing spots. It's about another doggie -one with amazing brindle furs. Her name is Mayzie, and she is a Mystery Breed Dog. At least she used to be. Then her mom and dad decided to have a Dee-En-Ay test done to find out what kind of breeds make up a Mayzie dog. And they decided to raise money for a rescue group named Mariah's Promise.

This group is doing great things in Denver to save pets and help end Breed Specific Legislation. One unique idea that they are supporting is being headed up by the Oh My Dog Blog. They hope to collect one mile of postcards to send to the Denver mayor, to encourage him to repeal breed specific legislation. Here is the postcard that I sent in (click on it to biggify):

You can find out more about this project at Campaign to End BSL: Operation Denver.

But getting back to Mayzie - she will be donating 50 cents for every guess on the results of her Dee-En-Ay test. You don't even have to be right, and she'll donate anyway! Every person and pet in your household can make a guess of their own. Plus another doggie named Zona offered to match the donations - so that is a total of $1.00 for each guess from a person or doggie or kitty cat. Then to make things even more interesting, JD and Max, two doggies living in the United Kingdom, are offered to donate 50 pence for each guess to their local rescue group known as Dog's Trust. And since Mayzie is one of Noelle's favoritest friends, Noelle has now offered to donate to All Paws Rescue, the rescue group I volunteer with, an amount matching whatever is donated to Mariah's Promise, in honor of Mayzie. She wanted to match the donations from JD and Max also, but I told her I couldn't convert pence into pennies if my life depended on it, so she should stick with matching the U.S. dollar amount. So please, help support rescue dogs in Colorado, the United Kingdom, and Missouri, by visiting Mayzie's blog and making a guess on what breed she is. Tomorrow is the LAST day of the contest, so go guess, right now! Even if you don't have a blog, you can just put in your name and e-mail address, and if you don't want to share your e-mail address, you can put in MY e-mail address and I will keep your prize if you win. Oh, I did mention there were prizes, right? So go already! Click here to guess!  Thank you.

Reactions Contest Ended

Thank you to all of you who entered and helped me come up with some new reactions buttons for the bottom of each post.  Here are the winners!

Adorable - I made this one up, so when I post pictures of cute puppies or kittens you can vote if you find them adorable. :-)  Winning donation will go to All Paws Rescue.
Amazing - This one was entered by Anonymous and the winning donation will go to BAD RAP.
Inspiring - This was entered by Anonymous and the winning donation will go to Common Sense for Animals
Gutwrenching - This was entered by Anonymous but they didn't leave a group!  If you posted this winning entry, let me know where you want your donation to be sent.
Dog Gone Funny - This was entered by Ketstang - let me know where you want your donation sent. 

Thanks again to all of you for playing along! 

I got a new foster cat yesterday - I've named him Gandalf.  More info and pictures coming soon!

New Contest: Reactions

You may have noticed the new buttons at the bottom of each post that say "Reactions" and let you select if you find a post funny, or interesting, or cool.  I like knowing what you think, so I hope you use these buttons often.  But the default categories of "funny", "interesting" and "cool" are not quite right for me.  I don't think they capture the entire range of emotions you may feel while reading one of my posts. Perhaps I should include options like "Sad" or "Too Much Information"?  Since I'm not creative enough to come up with my own reactions and had to use the default ones, I'm counting on you guys to help me out.  And to give you a slight bit of extra motivation, and because I think its fun, I'm turning this into another dogfostermom blog contest. 

To enter, leave a comment on this post with your suggestions for button descriptions.  You can enter just one reaction, such as "Boring", or many reactions, such as "Hilarious, Horrifying, and Heartbreaking".  Enter as many reactions as you want, just be creative.  I will select my favorite five reactions and use those in place of the default "Funny, Interesting and Cool" reactions.  Whomever is the first to post each of the selected reactions will win a $10 donation to the charity of their choice. A total of $50 will be given away, one for each selected reaction.   And if you choose to donate to BAD RAP, your winning entry will be matched as part of my challenge and double the amount will be donated.  I hope you have fun thinking of entries.  If you don't want to bother with setting up an ID to post with, you can post as Anonymous, and then just be sure to include the name of the charity you'd like to donate to if you win.  The contest will end in one week.  Please, help me come up with something more creative than "Funny, Interesting and Cool".   I can't do it without you.

Wet Cat Contest - Winners Announced

Wow, you guys made judging easy - with only two entries, I don't even have to wait on my niece to pick the funniest one. They're both hilarious...

from http://www.crazywebsite.com/Website-Clipart-Pictures-Videos/Funny-Pets-Animals

and
from http://washingcats.com/


so I'm declaring both entries the winner! JulieB and T Fortuna+, please post your winning charity in the comments, or e-mail me at dogfostermom@aol.com. A donation will be sent to the charity of your choice - thank you for humoring me and playing along. For those of you who've told me you are not computer literate and couldn't figure out how to play along, I will do my best to come up with a contest that you can participate in next time! After all, my niece was looking forward to playing judge, so I have to give her something to judge with more entries so I can keep being her favorite aunt. At least that's what she tells me... although come to think of it, she only tells me that when her other aunts are not around. Hmmm... do you think a seven-year-old has mastered the art of telling people what they want to hear already? Do you think I'm going to be in trouble with my sister or my mom if they read this and it turns out my niece is really 8 years old? I am awful with remembering ages and birthdays. I'm sorry, niece. All of my memory space in my brain is apparently being used up remembering the lyrics to songs, which is obviously much more important than remembering little things like birthdays and ages.

New Format; Cabbie is not hypo-allergenic

You probably noticed the new format of my blog - unless you're really unobservant, like me. I decided it was time for a change. I've been reading other blogs lately and they've inspired me to improve this blog. So I'm going to try to post more often, and make my posts more entertaining or inspiring or educational. Or at least longer.

I am a dog person, and I've heard that dog people are all about pleasing others. I want you to be happy, and I want you to like me, so I'm going to put more effort into making this a blog you look forward to visiting. This is no longer just a place for me to keep a record of my fosters - now it is becoming a blog about my life. And if I ever have more than four readers, I'll be amazed that anyone else could find my life interesting. After all, cleaning up after dogs and scooping litter boxes is not all that entertaining. But for you four readers out there, thanks for sticking by me, and hopefully you'll find the changes that I'll be making an improvement. Unless you're unobservant like me and you don't notice any changes - then nevermind.

Cabbie, my foster kitten that was adopted on Saturday was returned yesterday. Turns out he is not hypoallergenic. I am sad for the family who adopted him because they really wanted a cat. Being allergic to something you love must be awful. Cabbie and Cilla seem very happy to be together again. They are going to stay up at PetSmart for a week to see if they can get adopted.

Don't forget the Wet Cat contest ends tomorrow. Want to play? Here's a tip - go to www.google.com/images and type in "wet cat", then click the Search Images button. When you find one you like, copy the link below the picture, then paste that link (or re-type it) into a comment that you leave on the Wet Cat post here. In order to be fair and impartial, I'll be letting my seven-year-old niece judge the entries and pick the one she finds the funniest. We have a similar sense of humor (we can go back and forth with the whole "knock-knock - who's there - banana" joke for half an hour - or until my sister threatens us with bodily harm if we don't stop already). So I'm sure she'll do a good job with judging the entries. Check back tomorrow afternoon for the winner.

Wet Cat Contest

I like contests - have you noticed? So I've decided to bribe you to play along. Did I say bribe? I meant entice. But I couldn't think of anything that I could offer that you would really want. Some bloggers have contests and give away gift cards worth hundreds of dollars. I don't have hundreds of dollars. And I didn't figure a little $10 gift card would be much of an enticement. Plus I'd feel guilty giving away money solely to find people to play silly little games with me. Still, I wanted to come up with something (I really like contests). So here's what I came up with - whomever wins the contest will get a $10 donation made in their name to the charity of their choice. Now $10 may not be a lot of money to you, but I think all charities, even the huge national charities, appreciate any small donation, because it all adds up to help their cause. The only rule is the charity must be a 501(c)3 charity. It can be an animal rescue group like Heartland Humane Society, or a children's charity like Compassion Int'l, or a group like the American Cancer Society or JDRF. It's totally your choice, if you win. So here's how to play!


This first ever official Dog Foster Mom contest will be about cats - wet cats, to be exact. Here is a picture I took of a cat named Athena right after she had a bath. She looks happy, don't you think?

So your job, should you choose to accept it, is to find a funny picture of a wet cat. I'm not suggesting you go give your cat a bath - surprisingly there are not many catz like Athena who really like to get wet. But I'm sure there are many pictures of wet cats out there on the great big world-wide web, and if you want to play this game, you just need to go find them. Then leave a comment on this post with a link to the picture you like best. One entry per person please. The contest will end on Tuesday the 18th at 1:00pm CST. At that time, I will pick one entry that makes me laugh, and that person will be declared the winner. I hope you enjoy the idea, and have fun!