Daisy lost her battle on August 18, 2008.  But she never lost her spirit and this photo (by Bev Hollis) shows exactly how she felt about Cancer.  Humor was Daisy's way of life and she taught us all that without love and laughter neither people nor dogs would be able to fight the brave fight.   We miss her every single day.

SO NOW IT WILL BE TIME TO ELECT THE DOGS FOR THE 2010 CALENDAR!       We are so excited, and here is what our friend Erich tells us:

2010 "Cancer Can't Keep A Good Dog Down" Calendar Submissions Begin – After the great response and success of last year's FIRST EVER 2Dogs "Cancer Can't Keep A Good Dog Down" Calendar, we're doing it again! Submissions for the 2010 calendar begin NOW and continue through July 15^th.

So, what is this calendar and how do you get involved? Last year we put together a beautiful calendar full of pictures of our dogs (and our delightful token cat-dog) who have either passed from cancer or are still fighting the disease. The response was overwhelming, and we were flooded with photos and stories of amazing animals and their heroic battles. After all photos and stories were submitted, they were posted to our web site and people voted for their favorite K9 Heroes. After the votes* were tallied, winners were announced and 13 dogs were selected through the number of votes* they gathered, and their photos and stories were featured on our first calendar.

But – and this is the really cool part (well, I think so anyway) … every photo that was submitted was printed in the calendar. Everyone was a winner! Every beautiful face was there! The dogs who didn't win a month still won a place on the calendar and in our hearts.

So, how does this work? Well, here are the instructions below. (For those of you who were with us for last year's calendar, the instructions are basically the same. Only the dates have been changed and I've clarified the requirements for the digital photo submissions.)

If you or someone you know has had or currently has a dog with cancer, you are invited to submit your dog's photo and brief story to 2 Dogs. We ask you to please limit your submission to one digital picture per dog, and limit your story to 1 to 2 paragraphs per dog. So, if you currently have or have had a dog with cancer, here is your opportunity to honor him or her in the calendar. If you have had more than one dog with cancer, yes, you may definitely submit EACH dog's photo and brief story. Please submit your dog's photo and story to: calendar@2dogs2000miles.org . And, of course, give us not only your dog's name, but your name and contact email as well. 

When does this start? Right now. The deadline for photo and story submission is July 15, 2009 which gives you plenty of time to get those photos and stories submitted. You will receive an email notification of receipt of your photo and story. All photos  and stories will be available for viewing and voting on at our web site sometime after the July 15th deadline. After then voting will begin.

How will we decide which dog represents each month? Well, here's where you come in again. EVERYONE gets to decide -- whether or not you've had a dog with cancer. Everyone gets to vote, so please pass the word to friends, family, and co-workers. 

Here's how voting will work. Sometime after the last dog's photo and story have been submitted and all photos are up on our web site, voting begins. With a small donation of $1.00 per vote*, everyone gets to vote for his or her favorite dog(s). For example, if you want to vote 10 times for your best friend Speckles, you would donate $10.00 for Speckles and he would then get 10 votes. Or you can split your votes. If you like several dogs, you would donate X number of dollars for each dog you like and each dog would get that number of votes. Even better -- you can vote as many times as you want. This means you can vote multiple times for one dog, or one time for many dogs, or any variation thereof, and come back throughout the voting period to keep your pick in the running by casting more $1.00 votes. Voting will be open until the deadline. It's really very simple: $1.00 per vote and you can vote as many times as you want for as many dogs as you want.

 Now here's the other great news. No dog loses! While there will be only 12 dogs on the main calendar and one dog featured on the cover, each dog not chosen will still have his or her photo published in the back of the calendar. Every dog's photo submitted for the calendar will be published.

OK, here's a summary:

(1) Submit one photo and one story (1 to 2 paragraphs) per canine cancer patient – submission of photos and stories is FREE and should be sent to: calendar@2dogs2000miles.org. Photos should be at least 1 meg in size. What does this mean? Set your digital camera on the highest resolution possible. This assures the best quality photo. But what if your dog has already passed and you only have old photos? Then you can scan the photo at the scanner's highest resolution and submit that. 

(2) If you have sadly had more than one dog stricken with cancer, you may submit each dog's photo and story. Photos may be of dogs who have passed or dogs who are still here fighting their cancer.

(3) Please be sure to submit a story with your one photo. 1 to 2 paragraph limit, please. We limit this because there is only so much room on the calendar for the stories. (For those of you who would like to post more photos and longer stories about your dogs, please remember we have the puppy up! blog for just such submissions. Check out the puppy up! blog here: http://puppyup.blogspot.com/ and please consider submitting your dog's story and photos. If you'd like help doing so, simply email me at: erich@2dogs2000miles.org and I'll be happy to help!)

(4) Submissions begin immediately and continue through July 15th, ending at midnight EDT.

(5) Photos of all dogs will be posted on our web site shortly after the July 15^th deadline, and voting begins at our web site as soon as the last photo is put up. (I will announce when voting begins.)
(6) Each $1.00 donation = 1 vote. You may vote (and thus donate) multiple times! Please do! Please invite family and friends to vote as well! Votes will be cast at our website.  
Remember, each calendar will spread the important news about canine cancer, so please consider giving them as gifts to vet clinics, colleagues, groomers, your own favorite vet, as well as family and friends.

ALL photos will be published in the calendar. While only thirteen dogs will be chosen (to represent the 12 months of the year and the cover), based on the number of $1.00 votes each dog receives, EVERY photo submitted will be published in the calendar. Pictures not included in the body of the calendar will be published in the back pages, so every dog's picture will appear.

This calendar will not only help get the word out about the seriousness and prevalence of canine cancer, but will also be a lasting tribute to those beautiful dogs who struggled with and are still struggling against this disease.

We hope you will be part of this effort. Send in your photos and stories to calendar@2dogs2000miles.org , and please pass the word to family and friends.

 Well that is a lot of words from Erich, but he has a BIG job to get all the news out.  If you have a question, just ask me, BOB, and I'll help you if I can.


Just wanted to tell you that our Princess Daisy raised over $2000 from her voting friends and we want everyone to try to exceed that amount of votes this year.     It can be done.   Every single dog or kitty who has this awful disease or lost their battle needs to "REPRESENT"   as I understand is said in some circles.      I like that!   REPRESENT!   it's almost as good as PUPPY UP!

And BTW  (another thing I love is those initial thingies)........ LUKE AND HUDSON AND MURPHY ARE COMING TO LEESBURG, VIRIGINA (our town) in September.   Around the first of that month.     We are so excited.   We could just pee.  (outside, please WillowBee!).   I'll be BLOGGING a LOT MORE about that soon.   We are having a BIG EVENT that will no doubt include a evening CandleLight Memorial so we can all remember all of our lost ones.

          So get those photos and stories submitted.   Do it Now.   Don't Wait.    Now.   

Love and LIcks,

Bob
.........small brother of the most amazing BullDog Princess the World has ever known and loved
..................... taught me all I know about Blogging and life
........................... and I forgive her for saying I was dumb as a stump