Just a quickie from Bay to Barkers last weekend. These four were out swimming for a while, and then came back and hopped into the truck. They were waiting for mom and dad to give them something to drink, when they spotted me.
I really love the picture as a whole, but the guy in the upper-right-hand corner totally cracks me up.
In case you haven’t read the edit on the contest post above, Autumn’s family’s golden retriever, Ceili, is in the hospital after emergency surgery. Last I heard she was doing okay, and we’ll have more information tomorrow.
So in her honor, I’m posting a golden retriever. This is Lily, the 6-month-old golden. She seems worried, doesn’t she? Well, we all are.
The pictures look a little odd… kinda tilted. This is because the street they were taken on is… kinda tilted.
Man, she really does have that ‘please hug me and tell me everything’s gonna be all right’ expression down pat, doesn’t she?
Concerned dognoses all up in my bidnezz.
This is right outside our local coffee shop, the Chameleon.
Fiona is a repeat customer from way back. I haven’t met Humphrey before. The two of them together are a force to be reckoned with.
Fiona’s the smaller one, unsurprisingly.
Yup, that’s Humphrey. Super-photogenic.
I really have gained a new appreciation for poodles and poodle mixes since I started this blog. They’re such great dogs.
Oh, when you’re smiling, when you’re smiling, the whole world smiles with you…
Two different yet equally distinctive happy faces.
Fiona, with AT&T Park (hate that name) in the background. Bisected by a giant white pole, but whatchagonnado?
Edit 5: And the winner is… listed at the bottom!
Edit 4: Sounds like Ceili is doing okay. I’m guessing, based on only a little sketchy information, that the surgery went all right and she’s recovering at home. I’m sure she appreciates all the happy thoughts, as do I!
Edit 3: Autumn’s family dog (Ceili) is in emergency surgery! OMG! The prognosis is tentatively good, but nothing is certain. Please send good thoughts her way.
Edit 2: New daily posts are happening below this post, as with the last two weeks, so that more people will see and vote. Scroll down for the dog of the day.
Edit 1: Argh argh argh. I categorized one of the dogs picture under the category ‘Dgos’. Which means I didn’t post it at first. Fortunately the person who submitted the picture was actually paying attention and set me straight! I did a quick check and didn’t see anything else like that, but if you submitted a dog picture (or more) and don’t see one of yours here, and you haven’t won in some other category, please drop me a note and let me know.
First off, congratulations to both Lucca and Lady Jane: the two tied for first, with 29 votes apiece! Looks like I’m going to be giving out more t-shirts than I originally thought. Not to mention Kaylee and Elly, who got 28 votes, after starting out the weekend at half that! I’m not sure but that the two of them wouldn’t have pulled out in front if the contest had lasted a few more hours.
Second off, the dogs contest voting begins today. I tried to get three separate people to judge the semi-finals of this one, and they all said ‘no’. (Well, two said ‘no’ and one just didn’t answer at all. I would have cadged Autumn into it except she hasn’t been available.) And more than one of the people submitting entries are friends, and I just don’t feel like trying to figure out how to be impartial, so here’s what I’m doing: I’m limiting finalists to one ‘dog’ entry per person (using my best judgement in the case of people who entered two dog pictures.) And I’m leaving out anyone who already won. This narrows things down to seven choices, and I’m just going to hand that off to you guys.
So, here are the entries. Pick the one of these seven you like the best!
ENTRY 1: Penny the Beagle/Corgi Mix, Ecstatic for Memorial Day on Huntington Dog Beach
ENTRY 2: Violet the Schipperke/Pomeranian in her Glamor Shot
ENTRY 3: Bowpi the Basenji Doing the Hula with a Confused Chihuahua Mix
ENTRY 4: Elvis and Priscilla the Basset Hounds Explore the Beach
ENTRY 5: Devo the Extra Cool Terrier (…of some sort…)
ENTRY 6: Chilling Costa Rican Street Dog
ENTRY 7: Curry the 16-week-old Chi-Weenie Grinning Like a Madman
ENTRY 8: Chico the Pit Bull Mix, Being Goofily Delighted at Life, in his Jogging Clothes!
This was an interesting contest… it looks like Chico the Pit mix and Penny the Beagle/Corgi may have come equipped with their own fan clubs. (And rightly so… they’re both adorable.) Chico took a commanding lead in the 20s within the first two days of the contest, followed by Penny at 16, almost as fast. Everybody else (after a last-minute surge by Devo) came in at between 5 and 7 votes. Honestly, I think this is more to do with the competitors just giving people too many awesome choices; I could have voted for any of the pictures in this contest with no hesitation, and the votes just got spread out amongst all the options.
Thank you everybody for your submissions. I will be contacting the winners of each group over the next two weeks to get your t-shirt information. And as for the bandanas… well, that might take a little longer (we haven’t had them printed up yet!) but once I do have them, I’m going to send one to everyone who participated. (Well, unless you don’t want one, of course!) Thanks, this has been a lot of fun for me.
Autumn and I took a drive down some very… questionable dirt roads last month, on our way to and back from an event in a mountainous area out near Yosemite. How questionable were the roads? Well, let’s just say that when we were done, I spent five minutes peering under the car with a hand-light to make sure that I hadn’t poked any holes in my oil pan.
While we were driving, we ran across (but fortunately not into) a small herd of cows. And these cows were clanging like nobody’s business. Neither Autumn nor I had ever run into cows with actual cowbells before, not even while Autumn was in Ireland. But if you ‘pasture’ your cows in an utter wilderness on the side of a quite steep hill, I can see why it might be a really good idea. (Sorry for the shaky quality of the video… handheld, y’know. But at least you can hear the cowbells.)
They weren’t much interested in us as long as we didn’t get too close.
This one was further down the road. And was VERY freaked out by the car.
We slowed down to cow-speed, and spent around 100 feet trying to figure out how to get the cow to let us go around as she trotted along the road in front of us. Just when I thought she was going to keep out there for miles, she suddenly let us by and then ran off in the other direction.
There’s a little cafe called ‘OZ Lounge’ that’s right on my way home from work, if I walk home. It has jazz, most evenings. What it doesn’t normally have is an adorable 9-month-old husky puppy lounging outside listening to the music. With his duck. Who happens to be named after (or at least the same as) the cafe!
I’m going to have to stop by there more often, if he’s going to be hanging out there!
Perfectly mellow pup, as long as nobody came between him and his duck.
I always think of huskies as grey/black and white. The tan/brown ones are so striking.
The markings really are amazingly intricate.
He really looks like he expects something from me.
Second Airedale we’ve had. (Here’s the first.) He’s a smaller one, but just as nifty.
I am used to terriers being little. Airedales are even a little bit intimidating, knowing how destructive a 15-pound terrier can be.
Airedale Terriers were originally bred to hunt otters. I’m not sure I can forgive them for that.
The standard grooming for these guys always puzzled me. If I were a dog I’d want that fur on my muzzle cut, so I could see, you know, straight out in front of me?
In celebration of Autumn’s triumphant return from the East Coast, here is a ridiculously adorable newcomer to the neighborhood that I ran into in our local java-cave, the Chameleon Cafe.
This pup needs more socialization stat! She was all timid! If they don’t watch out she’ll turn into the only Bernese Mountain Dog in all of history that conforms to the breed standard! (‘Standoffish’ my butt.)
Spotty dog lips. Soulful brown eyes. Maximum adorability achieved.
There’s a little smile.
Edit 3: Wow. Well, that’s pretty cool. We have a tie for first, and second place is one point behind! Full results are at the bottom.
Edit 2: Man, the competition is really heating up! Two of the pics are neck in neck, with a third making rapid strides from behind! This is still anybody’s game, folks.
Edit: as with last week, remember that daily posts will appear below this one.
It’s cat contest time! I persuaded someone I respect as an animal cute-ologist to pick the submissions for me. These are the results. I would like to say that I am honestly sorry to those of you whose pictures did not get picked, or to those who submitted two pictures but only have one here; my correspondent said that this was a pretty tough choice for him, and it would have been murder for me. (Especially as I know two of the people who submitted entries.)
I would also like to note that people really like their cats. I had two people submit between ten and twenty pictures of their cats, despite the rules only saying two. I decided that it was only fair that I limit them to one entry each. (In theory, people who submitted two cat pictures could have ended up with two finalists in this round, though it didn’t work out that way with anyone in practice.) I admit, though, some of those pictures were pretty darn cute.
And I am still trying to get someone lined up to pick the top five of the dog photos for next week, because I really don’t want to have to do that myself. I wonder if I can find someone at Bay to Barkers next weekend (HINT HINT HINT go to Bay to Barkers next weekend) to do it?
So, here are the entrants, again in a quite random order. Please pick one, and again, if you feel like claiming yours in the comments, that’s fine, otherwise I’ll just keep them anonymous.
ENTRY 1: Kaylee the Dog and Elly the Cat Being Goofy
ENTRY 2: Violet the Schipperke/Pomeranian and Zoolander the Black Cat, Napping
ENTRY 3: Drake the Cat (or Possibly Drake’s Cat) Investigates a Camera
ENTRY 4: Lucca the Cat Snoozes on a Laptop (Lucca may look vaguely familiar.)
ENTRY 5: Lady Jane the Cat Hatches Evil Plans From Under an End Table
Results:
Awesome work, everyone!
Of course the poll ended early again. Specifically, it appears to have ended at midnight GMT. I guess because my database is in GMT? But in any case, it hadn’t moved much lately (two votes in the last 24 hours), so I’m declaring polling closed. The final results:
Congratulations, and thank you to everyone who entered. You guys are awesome! Prizes will be sent out all at once, so please be patient, since we have two more weeks of voting for the other two categories. The next category, Cats, will be posted tomorrow!