August 23, 2013

Following Up Friday with Questions, Funny Comments & Rita Reading

It's Friday, so time for the Follow-Up Friday hop, hosted by Jodi of Heart Like a Dog and her co-host JoAnn from Sand Spring Chesapeakes. Time to answer those burning questions and follow up on the news.


An Old Photo & A New Banner - Questions Answered
Last week, on (not so) Wordless Wednesday, I introduced our new banner and tagline along with an old photo of our Bailey. Jodi, our lovely hostess for today's hop, asked, "Did I hear you say you designed [the new header] yourself?" Well, yes, but I just did the easy part myself - making the banner using the collage thingy on PicMonkey, but my sis (from GerardArt) did the paintings of all our pups.

Flea from Jone's Natural Chews said she takes a lot of photos, "But I'm not organized. How do you DO that?" Well, it starts with being really anal. I like to have things be organized. As for my photos, I keep them in folders by year, and then I name them by date/subject. If there are tons of the same subject, I recently found a way to "batch" name them using the software that came with my camera.

I wish I'd discovered the batch-naming thing sooner, since I usually take tons of similar shots. Like this one below is from a series of MANY shots from July 14th when Rita slept over at Reggie's house. I told the software to name the series of pics "0714 SleepOver" and then assign suffixes starting with "_01". Easy-peasy!
"0714 SleepOver_07"
I know. I can't help it. It's the librarian in me. (Seriously, I have a masters in library sciences...)

Lions, Tigers & Bears - I Enjoy Funny Comments
Last week's Mirth Watch mentioned the Lions, Tigers & Bears rescue facility here in San Diego.
Wendy of A Brave Face said, "When I think about the exotic animal problem, and look at my little unruly dog, I can't image the moment some person is like 'Ok! We're getting a Tiger! I'll take feedings, you take poop duty.'" That is so true/funny. Can you imagine the size of the bags you'd need to pick up your tiger's poop? (BTW, you should check out A Brave Face if you haven't already cuz Wendy's posts are great, like this one: What's the Rule on Cat Jewelry? As a bonus, check it out and see if you agree with me that her pup June looks like what I imagine Rita looked like as a tiny pup.)

I and Love and You - And They and Love and Us!
In my post about Marketing Genius, lots of folks mentioned they don't have Sprouts stores near them. Well, Charlie from "I and love and you" left a comment saying, "For all of you looking for stores in your area please visit our website store locator. Anything else you need, please reach us at Questions@ilypet.com!" And... I got an email from them saying they saw my review and really appreciated it, as they are a start-up company, and they noticed I said I'd like to try the dehydrated food, so they are going to send me some samples - with no obligation to review. Isn't that nice?

Also on that post, Molly the Wally, The Little Dog with a Blog said, "Sprouts......shudder at the name here...!" "Here" meaning the UK. I wondered why that would be so I googled what "sprouts" means to Brits, and it looks like it refers specifically to Brussels sprouts (whereas here in the US it refers to the new shoots/first signs of life from a plant). Is that what you meant, Molly? Because I tend to shudder at Brussels sprouts too!

Your Dog Does Sing?? - Jealousy & Another Funny Comment
When I asked on Mirth Watch Thursday if your dog sings or says I love you, Sue of Talking-Dogs said, "My mom had a rescue dog years ago - part cocker, part ? - that, among other things, said I love you. Very clearly. :-) Jeffie and Rosie 'talk' and Jeffie 'sings.' Lucy was the real talking dog - very vocal and we carried on 'conversations.'" I'm so jealous! But I guess when your blog is called "Talking Dogs," you oughta deliver the goods.

The hubs' dad also says that they had a dog that could say, "I love you, Momma." They spoke French though. I forgot to ask if the dog (named Finette) actually said, "Je t'aime maman". I'm guessing she said it in English... which is a pretty amazing feat given her being surrounded by francophones! (BTW, it's his birthday today - Happy Birthday, Yvon!)

According to the hubs' uncle, this is a pic of Finette - and it looks like she could carry a tune as well.

In another comment that made me laugh, Diana of I Heart Shark! said, "It's probably a good thing Rita has only muttered 'Momma' in private, otherwise crazies (me) would lure her into their houses with a Himalayan chew. (Now I'm thinking about a dog-snatching ring where the dogs spill it to the cops...) (But a talking dog was worth it, officer!)"

Rest assured, Diana, that Rita could never say "Diana," so she probably wouldn't be able to "spill." But she could sniff you out of a line up.

I'm also very jealous of Kathy at K2K9 who says, "I've not tried to get any of them to say 'I love you' but Hector just DID!! Really, each morning, he would yawn and one of two 'phrases' would come out: Either 'Hellooooo!' (say in a Mrs. Doubtfire voice!) or 'I love you!' A dog that can make you wake up laughing every morning, how special is that? he was one of a kind, but I have noticed that Cooper does the Mrs Doubtfire Hello sometimes!!"

Love that. And she didn't even have to TRY. Her dog would just say I love you. Lucky! (If you are unfamiliar with the "Mrs. Doubtfire Hello" go here and watch this 17-second, guaranteed-to-make-you-laugh video.)

A Wee Follow-up Re: the New Book
Look what came in the mail! It's my the review copy of Rescue Me, Maybe.

Rita was... less than thrilled. But I managed to get Rita to read a bit of it. 
Here's her review: "This book looks - and smells - really good. I would literally like to tear through this book!

Now I have to sit and read the book for the 800th time. "They" say, if you want to write, write what you'd like to read. They say this because you will end up reading your book 800 times! So you don't wanna get toooo sick of it. Anyway, the 9/16 launch date is creeping closer!

Wow, that was a lot of following up. I hope you hung in there.

Thanks again to Jodi and JoAnn for hosting!

22 comments:

  1. Brussel Sprouts is indeed what we meant. We are having a bumper season this year so they will be in the shops well before Christmas. Yuky yuk. I think what you call sprouts we call shoots. Good luck with the reading. Have a fabulous Friday.
    Best wishes Molly

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    1. I have to admit, my nephew's girlfriend made these roasted Brussels sprouts with some kind of maple glaze at Thanksgiving last year - and they were actually tasty! It was the only time in my life I ever willingly ate Brussels sprouts!

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  2. Oooh... ick! Brussel Sprouts!
    Great follow-up! Thanks for the mention :-) We also frequently howl with our dogs, but I probably shouldn't tell that to many people ;-)

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    1. I've tried to howl with Rita (I probably shouldn't tell that to too many people either) but she wasn't having any. She just looked at me with great concern for my sanity.

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  3. Many comments. Ick to Brussel sprouts. Wish my camera could do the batch naming. Love the picture of Finette; it's like an old Our Gang photo. Had to give a presentation on our family last night in German class. I pushed your books. Showed pictures of the covers and then took in What the Dog Ate. Don't expect a massive bump in sales from the 7 people in class. Under separate cover (aka email), I will send a talking dog video. Can't remember where I got it.

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    1. The batching feature is awesome. Wish I'd discoverd it sooner! Would have - if I read the instructions. Thanks for pushing the books! So, how do you say "What the Dog Ate" in German? My sales have been terrible this month - the worst by far since the book came out - but I sold one this morning, so maybe it was someone from your class!

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    2. It would be something like Was der Hund isst. Or Was die Hundin (for a girl dog) isst.

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    3. Sweet. I can add that to my short list of German phrases that I know.

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  4. Great follow-up Jackie and such exciting news about your book. I'm jelly. I have no time to work on my book. Boo hoo. whine. whine.

    I seriously thought you designed the entire header yourself, where can I get a talented sister like yours. I have two and neither one of them can do anything near that. Would you trade by chance?

    BTW I like Brussel sprouts. They taste like mini cabbages. :-D

    have a great weekend!!

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    1. I have 4 sisters plus 1 bro and they are all very talented. They are also super funny. So, I'm gonna stick with them! If I didn't like them, I'd give you a two-fer deal, but sorry... no deal.

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    2. Hey, wait a minute missy. Which one of us would you trade? I'm the least talented so I think I'd be a goner for sure!

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  5. How neat that you got your review copy!

    Love Rita's review too. :-)

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  6. How exciting to get your review copy. And certainly we don't blame you for reading it the 801th time.

    You reminded me why I gave up photography years ago. My organizational skills are barely in existence.

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    1. It makes me crazy to not keep them organized. Of course, I also used to print a ton of my faves and put them into albums - but that's too much trouble anymore. I have a bunch of them in a box that need to go in an album or two!

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  7. wonderful fuf! Your sis does great work! Have a great weekend.

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    1. She does great work - and she's super fast! I hate her! I like to paint as well, but I'm super slow and meticulous. She cranks her paintings out, and I love her style.

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  8. I know what you mean about reading the book over and over again. Mom is getting tired of reading it at this point. We almost have a joint release date too!
    I think if anyone asked me for blogger advice I would tell them to make sure that photos are organized! I realized when searching for photos for the book how poorly my photos were organized the first six to eight months. It is so frustrating knowing the photo is somewhere, but where? Also, if you resize, keep the original size too. In the early days I often resized the original and saved it so when I wanted the high res, it was gone. I think I have a system that works now.

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    1. That is so true about the resizing thing! I didn't realize that at first and I kinda ruined some pictures of Abby that I wish I still had the full high rez version of. Now I keep the high rez versions by year/date, and the lower rez versions that I use for my blog, I store by year in a separate "For the web" file.

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  9. Congrats on your great book, "Rescue Me, Maybe" :)

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  10. I love the photos of you and Rita with the new book! Her expressions are priceless.
    I used to be super organized with photos and such, but I seem to have lost my touch. I think the older I get the less neat and organized I am. I used to border on obsessive compulsive, and I'd like to get just a little of that back. So hopefully you can hang onto your organizational skills!

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