The Days of Johann - an agility dog!

It's time for...Johann's Annual Howling Howliday Giveaway!!!

Posted: 25 Nov 2009 04:34 PM PST

Yep, that's right, it's time for Johann's Annual Howling Howliday Giveaway!

The contest begins at 12:01AM tomorrow, Nov. 26th (that's one minute after midnight, tonight) EST, and runs through midnight EST Christmas Day, Dec. 25th, 2009.

Last year was such a success, Mum and I scrambled around the past couple of weeks getting everything ready for this year's big event.

Like last year, it's a Holiday-themed photo contest, with 1st, 2nd and 3rd place prizes. The photo with the most votes and views will be the winner, second place number of votes and views gets second place...(well you get the idea)! The prizes are gift prize packages made up of some of the most amazing dog products on the market!

And this year, we've added in a way to help some pups in need! We encourage every one who enters to help out the shelter and the nice folks, that rescued me from a life on the streets. They helped Mum find me and give me the most amazing life a dog could ever have.

My shelter is the Southside Animal Shelter, a no-kill non-profit shelter, located here in Indianapolis, that rescues pets from all over the city. They take the unwanted ones from shelters that are full, find them roaming the streets (like I was, with my Mum, sisters and brothers), and take in all kinds of unwanted kitties and pups, then finds them amazing homes, just like I have. They will keep them all fed, healthy and happy until they get adopted if it's one day or even several years.

We're not asking for much, just a dollar if that's all you can spare. We know it's tough times, so if you're participating see if you can spare some to help out the needy pups and kitties, K? And ask your friends and family who are voting for ya to make a small donation too! The shelter sure could use some foods and supplies to help the pets find their furever homes!

We want to siriusly thank all the companies for their amazing generosity in making some pawsome contributions to the prize packages. Thank you to....

Furminator
Dr. Harvey's
Dog Tag Art
Floaa Dishposables
4 Paw Creations
KoKos Pet Spa
Coryelle Kramer, Animal Communicator
Big Paw Designs
Camp Run-a-Pup Deer Antlers
Petit Four Legs
K9 Yard Patch
Sew Crazy Dog Lady
Best Bully's
Animal Translations
Pop Dog Art
TrueBlue Pets Natural Grooming Products
Simon and Schuster - "Inside of a Dog"
Ark Naturals
Canine Earth
EcoSMART
Rock Star Pooch
Punk Rock Dogg
BiologicVET
2HoundsDesign
PetSmart
K9 Klear Up

And we expect more next week! You can see and visit all the sponsors (and check out their generous donations) on the contest page. Be sure and visit them, support them, K?

To help get you some votes, we made a cool button you can put on your website or blog to promote your pawticipation! Just right click and save to your 'puter. Then add it to your blog or website. Or you can click to the contest page, find the button, click on it and grab the html code.

Head on over, register, upload your photo and get your friends and family to start voting. (Only one vote per person per day, K?) There's no need for visitors to register to vote for you, or add a comment to your photo. The earlier you enter, the better chance you have of racking up those votes!

So what are you waiting for? Get goin! (Well, starting at one minute after midnight, EST that is :)

Great weekend hike!

Posted: 25 Nov 2009 04:40 AM PST

Amazing weather this past week for this time of year. I think it was in the high 50's, no wind, and kinda sunny this past weekend. How lucky are we?

So what did we do? Yep, we went hiking on Sunday!!! Can I tell ya how much I love hiking? Arrroooo!!!!

We went to the River Road Park again, since Mum thought we would enjoy hiking in the woods more than anything. Can she read my mind or what? She had us sit again at the canoe launch, but we were most interested in getting going!

The first thing we did was venture into the dense. Lot of great smells in there, burrs up the wazoo, even some thorny bushes that didn't bother me as much as Mum, BOL!!

This is the only blooming thing we saw on the entire hike, a little woodsy flower, with an amazing purple color.

We stopped to take in the White River views. Without the leaves on the trees you can see a lot further. The river wasn't too high or too low, and wasn't flowing very fast. So it was super quiet...and we just took it all in.

Gracie had this odd mesmerized look on her face all day, guess that's what nature does fur a hippy girl, BOL!

We hiked about a mile through the woods, then we got on the walking path. We walked the entire path which is five miles. At the end of the path, before heading back there is another woodsy area to hike through. So we ventured on.

There were a lot of squirrels back in here, which made us go bonkers, of course :) And it ended at the little creek that flows into the White River.

We stopped and Mum saw this tree that had dead leaves, but they hadn't dropped yet. We thought it was a very cool nature work of art.

Speaking of art, on the walking path back we saw these vines that had lost all their leaves. There were probably 50 or so birds rattling around in there. And you know how much I love birds! We would make a little sound and they would fly out, then immediately come back. Then, we'd be quiet, and it would start all over again. Such a fun game!

Walking around the neighborhood, I've recently become obsessed with drains. This time of year, they have very different smells than other times of the year and I just can't stay away from any of them. Thankfully for Mum, we only had one drain on the walking path...

After the five miles on the walking path, we got back into the woods for another mile hike through there. Gracie was wide eyed on this trip, but not nearly as manic as her last venture into this woods. She was really enjoying herself. And Mum found out how helpful she can be, when Gracie pulled her up a steep hill, after Mum slipped. Sometimes leash pulling can come in very handy, BOL!!!

Mum loves moss, it's so artistic in nature she says. There was moss everywhere in the woods this time, even on the south side of the trees. Whoops!!! Here's one of her favorite moss pics from Sunday.