Congratulations to Ember, who won this year's PNW Dog of the Year Contest with nearly 1,000 votes! Ember is a 5-year-old Golden Retriever who serves her community in Oregon as a Therapy Dog. She and her human partner work at a local hospital. She is a third generation Project Canine Therapy Dog and also serves as a Hope Animal Assisted Crisis Response Dog. Ember is also an amazing nanny to puppies and helps them learn to socialize with other dogs. This is vitally important if the puppies are to grow up to be therapy dogs. When Ember is not working or supervising puppies, she loves to go to the beach. You can follow Ember's adventures on Instagram or Facebook. Ember is the embodiment of a gracious Golden Retriever. Her and her human partner work tirelessly to help and support people when they need a paw to hold or a shoulder to cry on. They are a wonderful team. $500 was donated to their dog charity of choice, Pile of Puppies, in Ember's name. She will receive a custom made crown, a certificate, a complimentary photo session, a 5x7 acrylic block, and 2 t-shirts for her humans. She also is on the cover of the 2024 Tails of the Pacific Northwest Calendar, which is available to order until Sept. 40. You can see that the voting was intense, but Ember took the lead early and maintained it for the entirety of the contest. She had a lot of competition too! Sterling and Tugboat ran successful campaigns! Tugboat took his campaign to work, where he encouraged boaters to vote. He is a mussel detection dog who works at a very busy lake in Northern California, so he interacted with humans a lot. You can imagine how amused I was when I got this photo. While Tugboat didn't win PNW Dog of the Year, he ran an amazing campaign and many people learned about what Mussel Dogs do and why they are important. I think I'd count that as a win! Great job Tugboat! <3 Some folks got really creative with their campaigns! PNW Snow Dog of the Year Congratulations to Sterling, who has been named PNW Snow Dog of the Year! Why? Well.... As I explained to my Patreon Community: "Sterling and Walker are brothers-in-dog who were on my "Dogs I Want To Meet" Instagram Wishlist. I had been in contact with Lillian, their human, for a few months, but things never worked out for me to actually meet her and the dogs. Secondly, the voting concluded when I was in Michigan. That's a different time zone by 3 hours. I *thought* I was smart enough to have set the voting to end at midnight PST, but I did not remember the time zone difference. My laptop, thinking it was smarter than me, ended the voting at midnight EST, meaning anyone on the West Coast lost their chance to vote between 9 pm - midnight. It was brought to my attention the next morning with some... let's say unsatisfied voters. I spoke with Lillian to apologize and then had a smack upside the head of inspiration. I had to talk to Ember's human first, before I could say anything to Lillian. So, that's exactly what I did! Ember's human has gone through a cancer journey with a dog. She also knows how much my mistake bothered me. (I have nothing if I don't have my integrity.) So, with Ember's human's blessing, I created 2 PNW Dog(s) of the Year awards! Because Sterling is a Wooley Husky and loves the snow, it just made sense to name him Snow Dog of the Year. The Calendars Sterling's Dog Charity of choice, in the event he won, was Washington Alaskan Malamute Rescue League. In order for things to feel fair, I decided that a portion of the proceeds of the sale of the calendar featuring Sterling on the cover will be donated to Wamal. I don't know if we will raise $500, but we will do the best we can. ![]() The Calendars are on sale now until September 30th, with your choice of covers; Sterling or Ember. Or, order both! To order, simply scan the QR code or click the button, below. Thank you! A big thank you to everyone who participated in this year's PNW Dog of the Year contest. My little ol' dog lovin' heart is just so happy!
We helped Pile of Puppies and Wamal. Our little community grew and it was amazing watching everyone support each other. I met new dogs and made new friends. Isn't that what community is all about? Hugs to your dogs! Holly
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Holly CookArchives
November 2023
Categories |