Despite my apparent summer slack, I actually had several posts swirling around in my head that were looking promising in that they just might make it to the keyboard in a timely manner however your regularly scheduled unscheduled post has been interrupted by a special event; we’ve been nominated for a Liebster Award by our new friends at The Rusty Dog Blog.  Thank you!  (Head on over there, we’ll wait.) I have to admit, that not only am I kind of a home-body in real life, but I’m not all out-reachy in the blogosphere either. I don’t often go wandering around for blogs to read unless I see a picture or name in someone else’s comments that looks promising. Even then, I hate to fall behind in reading and commenting so I try to keep my list fairly manageable but reading through the list of The Rusty Dog’s nominees has inspired me to add to my reading list many more inspirational bloggers. Now I’ll have to go read through their nominees and find even more. Will the (wonderful) madness never end?!

 

Ok, so here are the rules:

Nominee posts an image of the award on their blog.

– Nominee links back to the nominator’s blog and of course thanks them.

– Nominee answers 11 questions nominator ask of them.

– Nominee then nominates 11 new bloggers they deem worthy with less than 300 followers & make sure to tell them.

– Nominee poses 11 questions for their nominees to answer.

 

And here are the questions:

Here is what I want to ask my nominees please put how long you have been blogging at the top of your answers!

I have actually been blogging for nearly 13 years, but only “dog blogging” since January of 2012 when I brought Ray home. I’ll gear my answers toward this blog.

1. What inspired you to start a blog?

My biggest inspiration was actually Love and a Six Foot Leash. I wanted to start fostering and documenting that process. Life actually threw me a curve ball in the form of Ray, so the blog became about the trials and tribulations of raising a puppy and of Pit Bull ownership.

2. What inspires you to continue writing? My dogs inspire me, my volunteer work inspires me and other bloggers I read inspire me. I love being connected with so many like-minded wonderful people with whom I can share in our triumphs and our tribulations.

3. Are you volunteering anywhere? Why or Why not? I volunteer for the Allen County SPCA, as well as sit on their board. They are an organization I believe in and I support their mission of finding homes for as many animals as we can.

4. How often do you read through your own blog? (Come on…We all do it!) I actually rarely do it, unless I’m looking for an archived post to reference.

5. What does your life consist of besides blogging? Volunteering, networking, work, family, nesting in our newish home.

6. Would you call yourself an expert? Of what? I consider myself a Jill of many trades and a master of none.

7. Three silliest questions/remarks people make about your dog: A) Will he bite me? Will he eat my dog? B) It’s all in how their raised. C) He’s too big to sit in your lap.

8. What’s the roughest rescue-dog experience you’ve had? Would you change it? I actually have a rough one that will probably nag at me for the rest of my life, but I don’t want to give too many details other than to say I helped facilitate an adoption that did not end up well. Knowing what I know now, yes, I would change it.

9. What do you feed your dogs? They are currently eating Dr. Gary’s Best Breed, Grain Free Chicken. It is rated four stars by Dog Food Adviser but I spent some time with their rep who really answered a lot of my questions and fears about not feeding a five star food. Julius’s day-play also stocks it. Previously, they were eating Wellness Core Grain Free Original quite successfully, then suddenly seemed to have no interest in it.

10. What’s the most hilarious rescue-dog experience you’ve had? About 20 years ago or so, I had a rescue dog, Daisy. She was a medium sized terrier type. We also had in our neighborhood a raccoon who liked to forage in our trash cans. One night I heard the raccoon in our very small front yard and I wanted to try to chase it away but do so without harming anyone. My bright idea was to stand on the porch, holding Daisy, waiving her in the air in the direction of the raccoon, and saying “shoo, shoo!” Yeah. It didn’t work.

11. Three most important things for people to know about rescue dogs: They are individuals, all with different personalities and their own story. We don’t always know their back story and they are not “broken.”

 

Ok, that took a bit of brain power and now I need to come up with a list of my own. Well, like I said don’t have a super extensive reading list, and being a bit of a rule-bender, some of my nominees will have way more than 300 followers, but hey, you’ll love them.

The Questions:

1. Does your pet have a “go-to” trick?
2. If you could change one unchangeable thing about your pet, what would it be and why?
3. If you could change one unchangeable thing about yourself, what would it be and why?
4. Cake or pie?
5. If you could pick a super power-you can read your pets’ mind, your pet can read your mind, or you can leap tall buildings in a single bound-which would it be?
6. If you could meet one animal celebrity, who would it be and why?
7. What one human celebrity would you like to meet and why?
8. How did you decide upon the name of your blog?
9. What is your proudest pet ownership moment?
10. What is the best compliment you’ve ever received?
11. What movie have you seen so many times that you basically have it memorized?

My Nominees:

My Mini Pet Pig –I know, right!!!

Dogbird Daily lots of great info and they also write at Team Unruly as does A Collection of Madcap Escapades whose dogs are very similar to ours in ironic ways.

Beagle Bratz who are great friends to so many.

Keeping up with Moby who we cheered for for so long at Woof.

Tails of a Foster Mom because who doesn’t love an everyday hero?

25 Castles on 25 Clouds -that’s some emotion for you.

My Two Pitties-positive dog and cat ownership at it’s finest.  I just love them.

Oh Melvin-my blogging  life and list wouldn’t be complete without them.

I’m ending with 10 because any others I would add have just been nominated by my nominator.