Top 5!

Ok, so narrowing it down to a top 5 for the 2009 Summer Photo Contest was pretty much the hardest thing I have ever had to do. The criterrier for the top 5 were artistic technique, expression of personality and recognizable summerocity quotient.

First we have Stella! She shows her summerocity like no other with a good ol' fashioned roach in the clover. Her nether regions exposure was also a factor in my selection.

Snowball shows a love for summer and picnics with a smile that could light up an entire kennel. I slap a smile on my face every time I see this pic.

Patrick was selected for pawesome use of color, composition and bootyliciousness in a totally metrosexual kind of way.

Gus, Louie and Callie all share one stick - one stick! What a great way to show your love for each other and summer. Excellent composition and summerocity with standing in water and all.

Now Clover is just so darn cute. What says summer like a pug in crystal clear water floating in a life vest?

There were also a lot of honorable mentions: Pumpkin for the Frosty Paws barf - work it girl! Dexter and Samba for excellent summerocity - I would never want to eat hose water. Dave for pawesome Frisbee skillz. Cody's super cool action shot. Twix, Stan, Randi, Sophie, Dixie, and Bugg, an Maggie and Mitch for their sheer enjoyment of Wallymelon. Dozer for stellar swimming skillz. Tanner for clearly loving the sun. And Mack for just cutting loose inside. All the pics were sooooo pawesome, and this contest has been super fun!

Now vote for your fave!

Summer Photo Contest 2009
	Stella
	Snowball
	Patrick
	Gus, Louie, Callie
	Clover
pollcode.com free polls

All votes will be tallied, and a winner will be announced at 10:00pm on Friday July 3.

Pee S - I have to go to the ophthomologist tomorrow. Poopy.

Summer Photo Contest!

Ok, so this was pretty much the hardest thing I have ever had to do because there were 62 fabulous entries! Here is a video of all the entries, and tomorrow I will post the top 5!

Meg.

Ike's mom here: I'm helping Ike compile his 62! entries for the photo contest, and I noticed that his adoption day countdown ticker is down to just over 2 days. What that means to me is that I missed the anniversary of Meg's death three years ago. While I feel really guilty about this, I am comforted by the fact that I have an artist in NY designing a tattoo of Meg that I am going to have done this summer (thank you Chase Bank for not raising my rates yet so I can make one more big frivolous purchase!) I might have forgotten the exact day of her death, but I will remember her for the rest of my life every time I look at my leg.
I also get to celebrate another wonderful year with Ike (even though he peed on the floor for no reason yesterday - he's in one of his phases, anyone else have bad pee puppy phases?) It's amazing how far he's come in these three years! But more on that on his actual adoption anniversary.
So here are a couple of pictures of Meg who died after just a year and a half with us. She was only 6 and had a brain tumor. She was a very serious Boston terrier and would have had a quite sardonic blog. My sweet Meggo, I will always miss you.

As you can see, Odin is not choosy about the dogs he loves.


The 62 entries and the top 5 will be up tonight!
Oh, and my dad did the annual dog show on his radio show last night. Click on Variations on a Theme at the bottom of the page to listen!

So many entries! So hard to choose 5!

Ok, so the deadline for entries for the summer photo contest is tonight and there are so many pawesome entries that I don't know how I will choose 5 for you all to vote for the winner.
I'm starting the review process early, but you can still submit.
All submissions are due in by 10:00pm CST on Sunday June 28 - today!

Woot, this has been a really fun contest!
I just need a short nap first.

22 Entries So Far!

So there are 22 entries for the photo contest and a lot of them are from dog friends I don't even know! I am sooooooo excited, and the competition is way super fierce.
I had my eyeball stained again, and Dr. Turino said it's healing well but we're looking at another week at least of medicine and ointments - ugh!
And this pic is a couple of years old, but it's in the spirit of the Summer Photo Contest! And I forgot to mention that the winner will receive a fabulous prize!


Also, the dogs over at Rocky Creek Scottie Adventures are having a Stick Out Your Tongue Contest. Here are my entries - how could the King of Tongue pick just one?

Only 3 Entries so far!

Ok bloggers, so you know how I'm having this summer photo contest, well I've only gotten 3 entries! How can my mom pick the top five when there is only a top 3? Remember, the deadline for submissions is 10:00pm CST on Sunday June 28. I would love it if you advertised this contest on your blogs too. I want this competition to be fierce!


Eye update: it's looking a bit better - we'll see at the end of the week or beginning of next week. Sheesh, we're coming up on a month of badeyedness.

Birthday Wishes and Contest Below!

Ok, so first off I want to wish my uncle Ansel a happy 640th birthday! We had a small party at Grandma's last night where we ate shrinks with garlic butter and some shrinks with a tomato sauce which was pretty much the best ever! And I know that Uncle Ansel is going to be flying high when he finds out what Auntie Kathryn and Grandma got him for his birthday! Woot!
Here is Uncle Ansel and Auntie Kathryn lookin' all cool n stuff.


I also want to wish Saffron a happy 11th birthday because it was two days ago and we all forgot, and I think she's a little POed. Sorry Peanut Face!


DON'T FORGET TO ENTER THE SUMMER PHOTO CONTEST - DETAILS BELOW!

1st Annual Summer Photo Contest!

Ok, so I am soooo sick of this eye thing, so I've decided to host a contest because I haven't done one in like a bazillion years! And since it's my favorite season because it doesn't totally suck to go outside, and because my mom loves photography, I decided a summer photo contest would be perfect.
The rules: email a photo of you that epitomizes summer - swimming, sunbathing, picnicing, eating wallymelon, whatever it is you do this fine time of year. Only one photo per animal (this rule can be broken if you have more than one photo that is totally pawesome - you will know if you can break the rule.)
All submissions must be in by 10:00pm CST on Sunday June 28.
My mom will pick the 5 finalists and then you will vote!
email: emilyandian @ gmail.com (take out the spaces)
Let the competition begin! Woot!

And this is a pic of me looking like a handsome chap.


Ike's mom here: he doesn't want to talk about it, but his eye is looking a little better. I don't want to jinx it, but it appears to be healing faster than the last grid. I think the healing vibes are working, so keep sending them his way! We will know more by early this week, so paws crossed!

Good news and bad news but not terrible news.

Ok, since I am a positive little dude, I'm gonna start with with the good stuff - first, I want to thank everyone for all the healing vibes because I can feel them and they're starting to help. Everyone has been sooooo supportive in my eye ordeal and so nice to come back and read about my stupid, boring, dumb eye and not skip my blog to read about more interesting and uplifting stuff.
Second, when I got home today from being at the vet with my mom all day again, there was a box by the door and my dad was all to my mom "what did you buy now" and my mom was all "I don't even remember" (which she said kind of freaked her out - that means she has a problem, right?) But anyway, the box was addressed to none other than little ol me! And it was from my super good friend Mason Dixie! And what she sent me is a bag of BBQ squirrel cookies made by 3 Dogs and a Chick and they are soooooooo good! I nomed right away and I have spent a lot of time begging for more. Thank you so much Mason Dixie - you are pawesome!
And now on to the bad news - my eye isn't healing, so they needed to do another grid keratectomy so I can regrow a new cornea because my other new one sloughed off which is totes gross and totes painful. So now I am on seven medications - SEVEN - and only three are oral so I am pretty much getting medications all the time. The only good thing about going to the vet with my mom other than being able to hang out with her at lunch time is that she puts anesthetic drops in my eye throughout the day so at least for that time I can't feel it.
So for the not terrible news - if this grid takes and my eye heals, I won't have to have surgery. If I do have to have surgery, it will be at the ophthamologist and it will suck and my eye will be sewn shut for a week or two and it will be really spendy and I'm glad my mom has a credit card. So everyone, more paws crossed and sorry for the gross eye pics. My mom bought me an eye patch at the drug store but it's too big.

This is me reading the card.


OMD! BBQ squirrel!

Yes, please!

Thaaaaaank you!


And these are all my meds.
Yikes.

Pee S - my eye was numb in the pics so it doesn't look so bad because I will open it all the way then.

My cryin' eye.

Ok, so this eye thing is getting ridiculous because I keep going in to get checked and they say we have to wait and see, but if it hasn't improved by tomorrow, they need to re-grid scrape it. And if that doesn't work, then I have to have surgery which totally sucks and all this for a regular old ulcer!
(Ike's mom here - just a word of advice to everyone with older dogs: take them to the vet right away if anything seems wonky with an eye. I could see his ulcer, and got Ike in right away, and we're still going through this BS. If an ulcer goes for longer, it can get too deep and require surgery automatically. All this is for a superficial non-healing ulcer. And ulcers tend to not heal in older dogs.)
Whatever, mom. So I've been laying around feeling sorry for myself and sleeping a lot because it hurts to open my eye but my mom is giving me doggy pain medicine and also her TMJ pain medicine because it's safe in dogs and she checked with the doctor. That makes me sleepy too but I feel better when I have it. My mom tried to take a pic of my eye but I won't open it when she comes near me because she always puts stuff in it.
This is the worst, and I need tons of healing vibes sent my way! I'll be doing this when I get them.

Still have two balls - eyeballs!

Ok, so Mango emailed me because he was worried about me and my eye which made me realize that all you dogs out there in the blogosphere must really be stressing about me! Either that or Mango is the nicest huge dog ever and he has a very tender heart and was thinking about little ol' me.
I've been spending a lot of time sleeping and healing but I went to Auntie Kathryn's house yesterday and we watched a movie and I'm happy to report that she is doing a lot better and she doesn't even need a walker anymore and she can go up and down stairs!
I'm going to post an old photo because my eye still looks ookie and my mom is too lazy to take new shots.

This is an old pic of me as El Bandido!

Stupid eyeball.

Ok, so today I went back to the vet for the bazillionith time and they said my eye is no better and because I'm old, I needed to have something called a grid keratectomy done so my eye will start to heal. So what they did was numb my eye and then scrape a needle across it in a grid pattern. WTF? So now it hurts like super way worse and I want to rub my eye all the time and I'm totally not happy at all. My mom said you have to make it worse to make it better so the new tissue will be able to form and that sounds like quack medicine to me and my mom was holding my eye open when they did it and she wanted to puke and totally felt really bad. And now I have to wear a cone when I'm alone! I am going to poop in the doctor's shoe.
No pics because it's too gross and light hurts my eye.

The Blame Game.

Saffron here: it seems we cats are getting blamed for this eye problem the stinky brown one has. It's quite possible the idiot scratched his cornea when he was wiggling around on his back like an uncontrolled epileptic. I know some cats in this house aren't exactly known for their undying love of smelly bed hogs, but to blame us - me especially - is an injustice!
I'm sure you don't recognize me because I never get any blog time.


This is Duncan: Ike chases me all the time. We play. We are friends sometimes. I like Ike. I didn't do it. I'm gonna go now.

This is when I used to be a kitten.


Now I am big like this.

Odin here: Listen, I'm 14 years old, and I sleep a lot. I'm usually on the bed or the couch. On a good day I will fight with Saffron. There is a lot of photographic evidence of Ike and I snuggling. I'm a lover, not a hater. Blaming me for this assault is ridiculous. This is so tiring.
This is a picture of me awake. Cherish it. It's rare.

Look at how we love each other.


Ike's mom here: Well, as you can see, no one is owning up to the assault on Ike's cornea. I suppose it's possible he scratched it while roaching. He had a checkup on Friday, and there was no change. We are happy it's no worse. Tomorrow, or Wednesday, it will be checked again, and hopefully it will have healed.

This is IKE! Auntie Kathryn had surgery a couple of days ago on her back because she squished out a disc in her back and then they had some problems so she is still in the hospital so I am wishing that she could go home today and that she will heal really fast so she will be ok for her wedding in a couple of months. And she has been in pain for a year! GET BETTER AUNTIE KATHRYN!

And this is auntie Kathryn and uncle Ansel at their surprise engagement party at Buca's and I wasn't invited!

Totally an ulcer.

Ok, so it's totally an ulcer on my eye! And my mom said it's linear which is consistent with a cat scratch (her dorky words, not mine.) So now I have to have 2 ointments and one makes my pupil stay dilated and the other is an antibiotic, and I have to go back to work on Friday with my mom to have it checked to make sure it's healing! Why does my mom have to be such a freak that she would notice a shallow ulcer on my eyeball? So that's the deal.
And this is a picture of my freakish eye and my mom only fixed the red eye in my good eye to make me look like a bigger freak. Nice.


I sure wish Martha would come over and nurse me back to health ...

My eye, my eye! And stolen video.

Ok, so last night I was all watery eyed and squinty so my mom looked at my eye and I totally have an abrasion or ulcer on my cornea. I went to work with her yesterday and was there forever, now I have to go back. My mom thinks one of the cats got me (and that I probably deserved it) or when we walked around the lake yesterday and I was roachin I scratched the ole eyeball. Luckily, my mom has a stash of pain medicine so I slept ok. She said they are going to put a stain on my eye (not like that Joe!) and see how deep the injury is. Poor me!
And on a happier note - I stole this video from Wally because it's pawesome and there are 3 different versions you can watch and you can pick the other ones at the end. I went with the construction/garbage guy because I love digging in gross stuff. My bud Wally is more of a rockabilly.