You know how I love to help other people, two legged and four?  

               Well, here is a wonderful opportunity that we are going to try to help with in a BIG way.

We are sponsoring the Grand Prize Award at this year's second annual P.A.W.s * for a Cause Dinner and Silent Auction which will be held on May 12th, 2011 at Hillsborough Vineyard.

If you aren't familiar with P.A.W.s* for a Cause.... please know that this stands for "Prepare A Way --- to a new home, a new life and a better community."     You can wake up your lazy mouse person, if you can even find him   (I understnd they are hiding out from our Beijing Kitty).... and ask him to fly you over to visit their website at  Loudoun After Care

Here is just some of the information that our Mouse Person came home with:

The Loudoun Aftercare Program (LAP) was founded on a holistic approach to healing the individual body, mind and spirit and in so doing healing relationships with family and the community. As a volunteer organization, drawing from the faith-based community, we look to reach out to the Loudoun County citizens to help those who choose to help themselves by offering crisis management for those in the community who do not have even the most basic of needs being met. To that end we provide basic and emergency needs, transitional housing and the core of our program one-on-one mentoring. There is no better way to touch another human life than to share your life by giving of your gifts, talents and time and being there for someone who needs a friend and role model consistently there for them day in and day out.

So there is going to be this wonderful and terrific and very yummy dinner on Thursday, May 12, 2011 at 6:30 PM and it will be held at      Hillsborough Vineyards in Purcellville.

                                                                                 

And see who will be helping you with your eating? 

You will start off with appetizers from The Pines of Florence and then dinner will be hosted by our friends at Tuscarora Mill

                                           Desert compliments of  Narima's Cuisine & Kelly King


                                                                 and coffee from:



                                                                                                                        





But of course, we are the most excited about the super-duper, more than fun, DOG PHOTO CONTEST, which we at Everything & The Dog are sponsoring.  

                                                                                   Here is how it will work:

Go to www.loudounaftercare.org and:

1. Complete the online entry form and submit your entry fee of $25.00 using credit card or PayPal.

2. Submit digital photo in any format by responding to the confirmation email that will be sent to you shortly after you make payment. Limit one photo per entry form.

3. Photos may be submitted up until May 5th 2011 at 5:00 PM.

4. Dog Photos should not include people or other animals.

5. DO NOT INCLUDE ANY BRANDED PRODUCTS, TRADEMARKS OR LOGOS IN THE PHOTO, TITLE OR DESCRIPTON OF YOUR ENTRY.

6. Photos must be the original work of the entrant, may not infringe on any third-party rights and must be suitable for public viewing.

7. The dog in the photo must be owned by the Entrant.

8. Entrant represents that he/she owns all rights to each element of his/her photo.

9. Each entrant irrevocably grants Loudoun Aftercare Program and its affiliates the unconditional right to reproduce, store, copy, publish, transmit, post, display, exhibit and/or otherwise use or reuse the Entrant’s photo and title and each element thereof.

10. Entrant agrees to indemnify and hold Loudoun Aftercare Program and its affiliates, officers, directors harmless from any and all claims, damages, expenses, costs (including attorney fees) brought or asserted by any third party against arising out of the use of any elements of the photo submitted in this contest, including, but not limited to, any claims for trademark or copyright infringement.

                                      Voting and Judging:

11. Voting for your favorite pooch will be conducted online through May 10th 2011 at 5:00 PM. During that time the ten (10) pooches with the most votes will be denoted with a star. So keep checking to see if your pooch is winning.

12. You may vote for your pooch online as many times as you like. Your friends may also vote for your pooch.

13. The cost to vote is $5.00 per vote per pooch.

14. The top five (5) pooches will have their photograph on display the night of the auction.

15. Voting will continue the night of the auction with the “Pooch of the Year” being announced that evening.

16. You must be present the night of the auction, May 12th 2011 at Hillsborough Vineyard (or a representative on your behalf) in order for your pooch to win.

17. Two (2) runner-up pooches will also be announced that evening.

18. The “Pampered Pooch” of the year will have his/her picture in one of the local Loudoun newspapers, be displayed on our website and featured in our newsletter.

19. All proceeds from the Pampered Pooch Dog Photo Contest will benefit Alpha House our transitional housing programs for men and women.



I know this is a LOT of information for one Boy Bloginator, PitBull Reporter Extra Ordinary to give out at one time, but I wanted to make it as easy as possible for you to understand the rules of the contest.       I am so excited I could just pee.

I don't know if I can win anything, but I would like to join in the fun anyway and see if I could raise some money, so when I decide what my photo will be, I will be sure to let you know.

                          Do you know what the Grand Prize is????????????      It is huge.

It is an enormous basket stuffed with doggie goodies and gift certificates, one of which will be a $100 gift certificate from our wonderful company, Everything & The Dog, LLC     We are going to be asking some of our doggie friends to help us fill this basket with everything except the dog .... HA.
You will need to provide your own dog!    So keep reading our blogging and when the basket starts to fill up, we will keep you posted on it's contents.


Tomorrow I will tell you what has been collected so far for the Silent Auction and just let me say there is a lot of fine stuff.


Isn't this exciting?
            Isn't helping other people fun?       
                        And does anyone need an excuse for a big night out and a great dinner?



Love and LIcks,

Your Boy,


Bob