The Molly Giveaway: Results!

Hey Blog Buddies,

This morning was the Big Drawing.  Molly was presented with the names of those of you who entered her giveaway in the hope that lightning would strike twice and she would again be able to choose just one lucky person as the winner.  Could she do it?  Fresh from a run with her canine buddies at the dog park, we led her to the Dish of Names...

Whoopsie!  There's two names on the floor!

(Maybe she couldn't concentrate

because she hadn't had breakfast yet.)

But not to worry--I had a plan.

Now we had Two Finalists!

The two names went into the dish

and we all held our collective breath...

Cowabunga!  We have a winner!

Happy Baker??  No way!!!

(Full disclosure:  Happy Baker is a personal friend of mine.)

Congratulations, Joyce!

"Wait a minute," Molly said.  "I picked two names.

You need to look at the second name."

"Why?" I asked.  "The other person is the runner up.

I don't have two sets of charts."

"No," said Molly, "but need I remind you

that you have a number of ort bags?  She should get one.

It's The Molly Giveaway, after all.  I decree it!"

So, the other Finalist, the winner of an ort bag, is:

Lynda, whose blog is A Cozy Little Place for Stitching.

Congratulations!

Please email me with your address, Lynda,

so I can send out your ort bag!

More Disclosures:

Yes, small treats were put into the dish

to encourage our Giveaway Supervisor to pick a name.

No big black dogs were harmed during this procedure!

Thanks to everyone who entered

and regaled us all with stories about your animals!

This was fun!

The last thing Molly said I should do

to wrap up her giveaway

is show you photos of Those Who Went Before.

So, here they are:

circa 1983

From the right, Maxine, our first dog, adopted as a 9-week-old

from a breeder-exhibitor.  She was not "show quality."

She was an only dog for six years, until I began volunteering at an animal shelter...

Then we adopted Moonshine, the zany yellow lab/staff,

my shadow, my baby, my favorite.  Look at those big, brown, saucer eyes!

On the left, Governor, was a senior citizen (10-12) when we adopted him.

We called him the world's oldest half-dead beagle,

but he lived out his last 4.5 years with us.

circa 1990

Here's Frazier, our 15-lb.Maine Coon cat who just loved dogs,

and Agnes, our second basset--both adopted from the shelter.

With four dogs and one cat, we were now one animal

over the max according to local ordinance.

My shelter volunteering had to come to an end.

Time passed, the original four died of age-related ailments,

and Agnes was left by herself and none too happy about it.

Enter Mandy, adopted from another local shelter in 1994,

one of the sweetest dogs I've ever known.

circa 1998

She had her ears back at the shelter and she looked a lot more like a mix.

Upon arrivng at our house, the ears went up and we realized we had ourselves

what appeared to be a purebred German Shepherd Dog--or very close.

Agnes (at 12 years of age) perked up the minute they were introduced.

They lived happily together for three years.

After Agnes left us at age 15, Mandy was very lonely.

circa 2006

So we adopted Timmy, our third basset (left) to keep her company.

We adopted him from basset rescue and he had issues:

easily bored, very smart and big-time separation anxiety.

You can just imagine.

Timmy stories would be a blog unto themselves.

Timmy was a "breedist" (wasn't comfortable with breeds other than bassets),

so when Mandy left us (at only age 10 in 2003), we got another basset, Beulah (right).

She was Timmy's opposite:  easygoing, mellow and low maintenance.

He seemed to calm down (a little) after she arrived.

Timmy left us first (at age 12) in 2009, then Beulah became an only dog.

You may have noticed her photo in my sidebar--she's co-founder of this blog.

She stayed around just long enough to help me launch it,

then left us a month later at age 13.

We were dogless from February to September of last year.

I didn't know if I even wanted another dog.

Then I saw Molly's photo on the Internet,

and the rest is history.

If you've read this far and are still awake, you certainly have staying power!

Thanks for reading, and for visiting!