Mirth Watch Thursday: Pet Blogger Gift Exchange Edition - Wag N Woof!

It's that most wonderful time of the year! Time for stressing out about gift-buying and menu-planning and trying to scratch things off your mile long to-do list!

But it's also time for the annual Pet Blogger's Gift Exchange - offering a lovely respite from all that stress. Why, you ask? Isn't a gift exchange just another thing to stress out about? No! Not when you do it like Pamela from Something Wagging This Way Comes and AJ from I Still Want More Puppies, the co-hosts for this year's event. These very wise ladies have come up with a "gift" exchange idea that doesn't involve buying anything! It's all about sharing the gift of "encouragement and blog love."

I was very excited when I was paired with Janet from Wag 'N Woof Pets! If you've never visited their blog, you should go there. Now. (I'll wait.)

Are you back? I mean, how freaking cute is their blog header??

And how cute is their whole crew? If you know the hubs and I at all, you know we can't resist a beagle. (My first dog as a child was a beagle, and the hub's first dog was our beagle, Bailey, who we got right around our first wedding anniversary.)

They've got 2 beagles (Kobi and Cricket), 1 Golden (Sheba), and 2 cats (Conrad and Samantha). 

And, of course, there's The Momz - Janet.

Rita and I love Janet and the crew at Wag 'N Woof! {Disclaimer: If asked, Rita will say that she does not in fact love the cats. Sorry, Conrad and Samantha.}

Now, if you already knew that Janet reviewed both my novels on her blog, you might think I love her and her crew just cuz they said nice things about my writing. But you'd be wrong! 

I discovered Wag 'N Woof earlier this year. (Or maybe they discovered Pooch Smooches first, which lead me to their blog?? I forget....) Anyway, this is one of the first posts I remember seeing there, which had pics of their cute puppy crew on Memorial Day. (Sadly, they lost Moses, their other Golden a few weeks later.)

With a good looking crew like that, of course I'm hooked. And they're wearing bandanas. Love. 
 
Even though we live faaaarrrrr away from each other... (We are almost in opposite corners of the country - them in New Hampshire, us in So. Cal.)...

...I still believe it's quite possible that Janet and I are sisters from another mister. (That doesn't work as well as "brothers from another mother" does it?)

After all, we both are an odd mix of word-/number-lovers. You don't often get a word and a number lover in the same bod. (We both love to write, and yet we both have/had careers dealing with math - Janet's a bookkeeper, and I used to be an accountant.)

We both like to smother our dogs with love: (Even if the dogs don't exactly love it. Tough, dogs! Suck it up!)

We both have an affinity for putting cute elf hats on beagles. (Seriously - the same freaking hat. That's Cricket on the left and our Bailey on the right.)

I'm pretty sure neither of us can resist a beagle puppy: (Again, Cricket on the L, B on the R.)

And we both try to stay fit with our pups! We've even both sported pics of ourselves in our SlimDoggy gear with our pups on our blogs. 

And, sadly, we both lost beloved pups to cancer. :(

So, that's why I love her - but you'll love her too. Check out her blog, which is a lovely mix of fun mischief posts (this recent one where Cricket steals the cat's bed is one of my faves. Such a typical beagle!), helpful posts about keeping fit with your pups, and heartfelt posts trying to help shelter dogs find their furever homes!

If that's not enough to entice you to stop on by, Rita recorded a little PSA (Pet Service Announcement) for Wag 'N Woofs, which tells you why you should stop on by. 

(I have to preface this by saying that this is Rita's first time using the Yakit app, and we couldn't figure out a way to get more recording time added, so she had to sing really fast! I've included her lyrics below, so you can follow along...)

Here comes Wag 'N Woof, here comes Wag 'N Woof,

Right down Pet-Blogger Way!

Beagles, a Golden, and 2 cute kitties,

They play and nap all day!

Dogs are stealing beds, cats are sleepy heads,

All is merry and bright!

So head to Wag 'N Woof and read some fun stuff

Cuz Pet Blogger Exchange is tonight!

Merry Christmas to Janet, and Cricket, and Kobi, and Sheba, and Conrad, and Samantha (and the hubby/daddy!). Looking forward to reading more wonderful blog posts from you in 2014!