Oh, DEAR!

I was so excited to be asked to write a story for our local most wonderful community events website. It is a wonderful wonderful wonderful site, the brainchild of two great gals who send out a weekly email directing everyone to the site to see what is going on in Western Kentucky, attracting folks from all over the region, including eastern Missouri, southern Illinois and Indiana, and western Tennessee. They have over 4000 subscribers and even more viewers. So I was beyond thrilled to get the chance to educate folks on the bad idea of puppies as Christmas presents, and the horrors of puppy mills.

In this endeavor, I asked you, dear readers, to supply me with photographic documentation of doggy disasters, and you, dear readers came through! I had chosen this shot ("Welcome Home!") for the feature image, as I'm sure you'll agree it is just wonderful:



And here are the rest of the "winners":


(Such helpful dogs to charm us with their collective creativity.)


Imagine my dismay when I jumped on my computer this morning, full of such excitement I could hardly stand myself, only to find my nightmare come to life. Instead of my photo of canine catastrophe, there, big as life was a photo of a darling little maltipoo, sitting vacantly under a Christmas tree, sporting a Santa hat and coat.

The very, exact image I was striving to erase from the puppy-buying public's consciousness.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

My eyeballs flew out of their bloody sockets and landed on my keyboard. My heart just stopped beating entirely, exploded out of my chest, and plopped into my oatmeal with a thud. Great chunks of my hair fell out in my fists. I fainted. I wailed. I imagined iList readers, clicking on the headline, seeing the maltipoo and thinking, "Oh yeah! Great idea! I can get the kids a puppy for Christmas! Maybe I can find one on the Internet."

AAAARRRRGHHHHHH!!!!!

I had to do something.

Did I mention that the iList owners/creators are just the most wonderful, smart, kind, fantastic saints on the whole of the Earth? I fired off an email thanking them for running the story and begging them to please, please, please change that image! And within seconds, not only was the Christmas tree puppy gone, it was indeed replaced by the Definition of Doggy Destruction. And they even took down the adorable photo of the doodle puppies they had put at the end of the article.

Saints, they are absolute Saints, I tell you.

Oh, if you want to read the article, it is HERE. I am going to walk my dogs in the rain and pick up poop.