Annie's Going Home

Beverly (left) and Annie

Annie has had a good stay with us.  Tomorrow she'll go back to her home in Connecticut with Grandpops, fellow Follow the Dog Home author, Bob Walsh.  Grandpops opted out of New England's single digit temperatures, and a round of snow, for warmer temperatures and better scenery in Hawaii and Mexico.  That lucky dog.  Annie has been with us enough to make herself  at home, and she does.  Beverly shows little jealously, and more or less treats Annie like she's a sibling.  Neither dog knows they are subjects in our family book, Follow the Dog Home, but people are starting to take notice when I take the dogs out for walks and play.  See you later Annie.  Beverly awaits your next visit.

It's Not a Snowman, It's a Latte Stone

Carlito Rozanski with Latte stone

 

 

This blog entry has nothing to do with dogs, and everything to do with friendship.  I love contrast and an old friend in Guam illustrates it with a simple picture on his Facebook. In this photo you see my pal, Carlito. That is not snowman, that is a Latte stone. Ancient Chamorros sculpted them from limestone. Of course there's no snow in Guam either, which tells me Carl was probably in Japan. I spent a lot of time with Carl riding around the island in our little white Guam Cable TV news car, complete with rainbow logos on the sides. We always had fun. And what would a ride with Carlito be without a side trip to the corner store to pick up some beetle nut? Beetle nut is the island equivalent of chewing tobacco, and it turns your spit blood red.  I reconnected with my Palauan pal just the other day by way of Facebook.  It's Carlito's way, and Facebook is the way of the world.

Dog Climbs Tree!

I saw a dog CLIMB A TREE!  I'm not kidding.  He climbed A TREE--not once, but twice!  I was taking a walk with my German Shepherd, Beverly, and two Golden Retrievers named Buddy and Taffy.  Buddy and Taffy were littermates.  Without warning, Buddy saw a tree to his liking and with Dwight Stones jumping ability, and catlike claws, he managed to spring and pull himself up into a wedge in the middle of the tree with thick limbs growing out.  It was about four feet up!

Buddy in Tree

About twenty minutes later, another tree with a crook in the middle.  Boing!  Up goes Buddy.  

Buddy, Round Two

"He does it all the time," his owner told me.  Really?  Hey, whatever wags your tail.  Buddy, I'm sure is getting a whiff of something good up there.  Maybe that's why he leaps.  But if not, it wouldn't be a leap to say he does it to show off.  Really, he put on a show, and gave us all a good laugh and great pictures.

1st Contestant of Photo Contest

Meet Shiloh!  

Thank you to Jan Norman Seibert for sending in this adorable picture!

If you'd like to participate...please email photo to info@followthedoghome.com or post your favorite family dog picture to the Facebook page and reference photo contest for a chance to win a signed copy of the newly released Hardcover, Follow the Dog Home! 

The winner will be notified on January 31, 2012.

Suggestions: Send us a close up shot of an adorable pet moment that would melt the hearts of FB fans or a close up of your dog doing something cool!

Click Here to See All Contestants

Home Invasion

Kevin with Annie

One of the premises of Follow the Dog Home is to follow the dog wherever it takes you.  In this case, I followed Annie to bed.  She is my dad's Corgi.  She comes and stays with us whenever Dad goes away.  And as you can see, Annie the visitor, has no problem making herself right at home!

A Very Good Book Review

Waking up winter mornings in New England can be tough.  You can probably figure out why.  But there's always good news, and sometimes it comes in the form of a visitor.

Annie & Beverly waking up Amanda

Annie is visiting with us for two weeks.  My dad, fellow author of Follow the Dog Home, picked a perfect time to leave town--as soon as we starting hitting overnight single digits.  He left Annie with us and bolted for Hawaii.  Such a lucky dog--him and her.

The good news is this:  our review in Publishers Weekly was terrific.  It called Follow the Dog Home, "quaint and most darling."  It is, we know it is, now the world will too. Here's a link to the review: Publishers Weekly on Follow the Dog Home

A Dog with a Nose for a Book

When I propped Follow the Dog Home up next to Beverly, my goal was just to show her in the same frame as the book.  It was purely a marketing attempt.  My wife, Jean, saw it as something different.  She thought it looked like Beverly was reading the book.  That's one of the things I like about photography: people see different things in the same thing. When I look at it now, it looks like her nose is keeping the book up, almost like a holder with a football on a field goal attempt.  The story behind the picture is this:  this is the only picture of many I took that didn't come out blurry.  Beverly paused for just that split second that enabled me to get a still shot.  It came by accident, and I'm glad it did.  Beverly, if you don't know, is the dog we followed home--thus the book title: Follow the Dog Home.