FROSTY PAWS GIVEAWAY for National Adopt A Shelter Dog Month!

Photo courtesy of Frosty Paws®

Super-Exciting Post Alert: Please note that the contents of this post may lead to uncontrollable tail-wagging.

October is National Adopt A Shelter Dog Month!  The generous people who make Frosty Paws® Frozen Treats came up with a great way to celebrate National Adopt A Shelter Dog Month -- by giving away Frosty Paws prize packages!  They have provided me with TEN Frosty Paws prize packages to give away to ten of my readers.  As my readers well know, Frosty Paws is one of my absolute favorite treats, so I am thrilled to be hosting this giveaway.  

Each prize package consists of two coupons for a box of Frosty Paws for you and a plush toy Frosty for your human puppy siblings.  [Total ARV $17.63]  Please note that the Frosty plush toys are not suitable for dogs.  Since Frosty Paws are only available in the United States, I can only award prizes to U.S. residents.

To determine who gets a prize package, I am holding a Support Your Shelter/Rescue Challenge in honor of National Adopt a Shelter Dog Month.  For various reasons, we can't all go out and adopt a shelter dog right now, but there are many other ways in which we can support animal shelters and rescue organizations.

This is how my Support Your Shelter/Rescue Challenge works:

To enter the giveaway, post a comment below telling me how you &/or your humans have supported an animal shelter or rescue organization in the past (by adopting a shelter/rescue animal, volunteering, donating money or goods, etc.), or how you have helped a homeless dog find a forever home.  
(If you are unable to post a comment below, you may enter by sending an email to me at garth.riley@rocketmail.com.  I'll do another post at the end of the contest which will include the email entries.  Please put "Adopt A Shelter Dog Frosty Paws giveaway" in the subject of the email.)

There are many ways you can support your local shelter or rescue group: by adopting a shelter/rescue dog, fostering a dog, volunteering for a shelter/rescue, making a donation to a shelter/rescue, participating in or attending a fund-raising event, etc.  If you have provided a foster or forever home for a homeless dog, that counts, even if you didn’t go through a shelter or rescue organization.  This will hopefully give others ideas of ways they can help support their local shelter or rescue organization.

To give you some ideas, I'll tell you about some things my humans and I have done recently to support animal shelters and rescue groups.  This year, my mom, dad, and I have helped animal shelters and rescues by:

Organizing & participating in Dog Scout Troop 194's fundraiser for SEVA GRREAT (Southeastern Virginia Golden Retriever Rescue, Education and Training), sponsoring my buddy Cisco's bid for the Richmond Animal League 2013 calendar, participating in the Richmond SPCA Dog Jog, contributing to Odessa Rescue and Rehabilitation's chip-in for Jasmine, donating items to Odessa Rescue's auction, attending Henrico Humane Society’s Bark in the Park, supporting Marr-Velous Pet Rescues & Adoptions by attending Yappy Hour, and referring friends to local animal shelters and rescue organizations.  See how easy it is to help homeless animals! 

If you haven't done anything to support your local shelter/rescue organization, you can still enter this giveaway by doing something and then posting a comment about it.  If you don’t have money to donate, you can donate your time or you could donate something you make to an auction.  Mom was very pleased and amazed that a frame and five ornaments she donated to Odessa Rescue’s auction brought in over $100 for Odessa! 

Bonus entry:

To get an additional entry in the contest, do something during the month of October to support an animal shelter or rescue organization, and post a comment (or send me an email) about it.  Make an additional donation, take a shelter dog for a walk, attend a fund-raiser, etc.

The contest is open to dogs, cats, etc., but you must have a dog family member or friend who will enjoy the Frosty Paws -- I don't want any coupons going to waste!  You must be a United States resident because Frosty Paws are only available in the U.S. (sorry my non-U.S.-resident friends).

The contest begins today and will continue through 12 midnight Eastern Standard Time on October 27.  Winners will be chosen by a random drawing.  I will put all names in a basket and will draw ten names.  Winners will be announced on October 28.

Don't worry if it takes a while for your comment to appear.  I moderate the comments, so they disappear after you type them, then appear after they have been approved.

Good luck!

Many thanks to Frosty Paws for providing all prize package materials, including coupons, plush toys, and shipping envelopes, and for paying all shipping costs!  The giveaway was totally their idea!  I LOVE Frosty Paws!  (and no, they are not paying me to say that!)

Doing my part to support Henrico Humane Society
at Bark in the Park 2012 (Frosty Paws-eating contest)

"In a Frosty Paws-eating contest, 

everyone is a winner." - Garth Riley

Super Exciting Stuff!!!

I have some super exciting stuff to tell you about:

Exciting Thing #1:
Mom just got her first article published in the blog doggyWOOF.  It is called Road Trip! 7 Tips on Traveling With Your Dog.  Mom will be writing an article for doggyWOOF each month on various doggy-related topics.  I'll be sure to post the links to her articles.   

Exciting Thing #2:
I'm one of the sponsors of the 2013 North Carolina Wiener Roast!  The nice lady in charge of organizing the Wiener Roast saw Reuben's trophy from the Silly Photo Contest and she really liked it.  So she contacted mom to ask if mom would make the trophies for the 2013 Wiener Roast.  Mom said she would love to make the trophies, and she also offered to donate one of her frames for the auction.  As if that isn't enough, mom said we are planning to attend the Wiener Roast!  Which means I will get to meet one of my favorite bloggers -- Reuben of Floppy Tongue Joy!  The Wiener Roast sounds like a really fun event, and we are looking forward to it, and we are very happy to be supporting doxie rescue.  (Sure, I'm a lab, but I've got LOTS of doxie friends, and I like to support lots of different rescue organizations.  And the Wiener Roast benefits the rescue group that saved Reuben, so that's all the more reason to support them!)

Exciting Thing #3:
Frosty Paws is sending me TEN Frosty Paws prize packages to give away to my readers to celebrate National Adopt A Shelter Dog Month!  I will post more details about this super exciting giveaway within the next couple of days!

Exciting Thing #4:
I've been having all kinds of adventures that I can't wait to tell you about, but my IT staff and I have been too busy having adventures to blog about the adventures.

A Virtual Awards Ceremony: Silly Photo Contest Winners Enjoying Their Prizes - Part 1

Mom and I have really enjoyed reading the posts and seeing the photos of the winners of Garth Riley's FIRST EVER Silly Photo Contest enjoying their prize packages.  We thought my readers may enjoy them too!

Zosia is enjoying her squirrel from Kygen

Serveta appears perplexed by her trophy

Zosia is not letting the squirrel out of her sight

You should definitely check out the post in which Arabella shows off her prizes -- mom and I were cracking up while reading it.  That girl can balance ANYTHING on her head and snout.

Reuben especially liked the Kygen Fling 'n Floss.  I get the feeling he will be growling at anyone who comes near his Fling 'n Floss.

Casey received two prize packages in one day -- one from my contest and one from the Legacy Boxer Rescue Summer Athletic Competition.  He is one lucky dude!

Zoey enjoyed playing with her prizes too, one of which matched her bedspread -- you can see her post here.

Princeton also enjoyed his prize package, especially the treats.  Check out his post about it here.  He said "Garth, you really know what kittehz like!"  This made me feel especially good, because I have to admit I was somewhat at a loss when putting together the prize packages for kitties.  I don't have any kitty brothers or sisters and I don't really know many kitties.  So I asked myself, "what do kitties like?"  

Then I found these:

How cool is that?  I included kitty tennis balls in many of the kitty prize packages because I think the idea is simply brilliant.  Why should dogs have all the fun playing with tennis balls?  (I've heard they even make tennis balls for humans these days.)

When I was out shopping for the kitty prize packages, I also found some kittie party mix!  I didn't even know kitties liked to party.  But they obviously do, judging from the photo on the front of the package.

So I was quite pleased with myself when the kitties told me they enjoyed their prize packages.  (Aren't kitties notoriously difficult to please?)

Speaking of kitties, Mayzie's brother Smudge won the Grand Prize.  He particularly enjoyed the tissue paper and bubble wrap that mom put in the package to keep everything from breaking.  Check out his post here.  I enjoy playing with and eating boxes, so I understand completely, but the bubble wrap?  That stuff scares me.

Roo found a new use for his Kygen moose toy prize -- as a shiatsu face massager.  He also wrote a very nice post about his winnings.

If you have written a post about your prizes and I haven't seen it, please let me know so I can include a link to your post in Part 2 of the Awards Ceremony.  I think I follow everyone who entered the contest, but I've been having some difficulty keeping up lately.  Also if you write a post in the future about your prizes, let me know and I will include it in Part 2.  

Mom mailed out some prizes last week, but she still has one prize to complete and one prize package to deliver.  She had some technical difficulties with the last one (besides the whole broken arm-surgery-installation of 8 screws and a titanium plate into her arm thing) and will be unable to work on it for a couple weeks, but hopes to have all prizes completed and delivered by the end of October.


Due to the overwhelming success of Garth Riley's FIRST EVER Silly Photo Contest, I am making tentative plans for next year's contest, and am considering making this an annual event.  I'm also trying to convince mom to help me out with another contest soon, because I had so much fun with this one.  I'm thinking of a small contest with only one or a few winners and perhaps a random drawing as at least part of the contest.  I'll tell you more about it when mom agrees to do it.  She said the Silly Photo Contest was very taxing on her mentals trying to keep track of who won what and make sure she sent the right prizes to the right creatures.

I've also got several pieces of big, exciting news, which I will tell you about in an upcoming post.  (Hint: one of these pieces of news involves a giveaway of one of my favorite things to some of my readers!) 

Livestrong Day

October 2, 2012 is Livestrong Day, a day when pet bloggers join to show support for those fighting cancer, and to honor those we have lost to cancer.

Amos, Grampa Booga, and Grandma Gayle
In memory of Grandma Gayle
July 28, 1932 - December 20, 2002

"Her spirit endures in all that is good" 

- Grandma Gayle's grave marker

Ten years ago, my Grandma Gayle died.  I never knew her, but mom says I would have loved her, and Grandma would have loved me.  Mom says I have a lot of Grandma in me, because I make mom and dad so happy, and because I'm always making people smile.

I think Grandma and I would have been great friends.  Like me, she loved the beach and the river, and she loved being outdoors.  She also LOVED labs.  She always gave Christmas presents to my black lab brother Jake, because she understood that Jake was my parents' furry, four-legged child.

Mom says Grandma made the best crab cakes ever.  She would catch the crabs in her crab pot off the dock, steam them on the deck so they wouldn't make the house smelly, then spend hours picking them.  Mom says now you have to go all the way to Tangier Island to find the only crab cakes that even come close to Grandma's.

Grandma was always doing nice things for others.  She remembered everyone's birthdays.  She baked cookies for the UPS man at Christmas.  She gave strangers rides to their boats, so they wouldn't have to walk carrying groceries all the way from the market to the town dock. 

We like to think that Grandma and Jake are playing on a beach together now, with all of the family's previous labs and boxers.  Amos, who was Booga's beagle when Grandma & Booga got married (see photo above), is in the middle of the melee, howling with joy.

This post is dedicated to Grandma Gayle 

and my black lab brother Jake.  Cancer took them both.

Odessa Rescue Auction - Buy Cool Stuff, Support a GREAT Cause!

My friends at Odessa Rescue and Rehabilitation are holding an auction to raise money for their rescue.  Odessa Rescue is a Richmond, VA-based 501(c)(3) organization staffed entirely by volunteers.  They rescued my good friend Rita the Naked Pit Bull and have helped LOTS of pups find forever homes.  (You may remember Rita from my Blogville Pitty Post Day Post, Meet My Pittie Friends.)  We think Odessa is a wonderful organization.

This is one of my favorite photos of Rita

Rita in one of her many dresses

Mom has donated some of her crafty things priceless works of art to the auction.  She is offering 5 of her hand-crafted bone-shaped personalized polymer clay ornaments (like some of the prizes she made for my Silly Photo Contest), as well as one of her frames that she paints and decorates with polymer clay bones and beads and little glass stones and stuff.  (Some of you may recognize the ornaments in the photos -- mom used the ornaments she made for Casey and Reuben as examples.) (Don't worry, she's not auctioning off Casey and Reuben's prizes.)

In addition to mom's crafty things priceless works of art, you can bid on earrings, a purse, Marilyn Monroe stuff, super-awesome looking toy/treat packages, a faux fur dog collar, doggie t-shirts, human t-shirts, etc., and you can even get pawtographed photos of Rita for a sponsorship of $25 or more.

The auction items are posted on Odessa's Facebook page, at the following link:
Odessa Rescue Fall Auction 2012 
You bid by posting a comment on the picture of the item you want. I've copied and pasted the rules below for your convenience.

Auction Rules:
Thank you for participating in our Fall Auction!
1. Be polite. 
2. Tag Team Bidding is allowed.
3. Auction will run until Saturday, October 7, 2012 at 8pm EST. 
We are a 501(c)(3) animal rescue group based in Richmond, VA. We are strictly run by volunteers, so you can be sure that your donation is going directly to the benefit of the animals in our care. We use monetary donations to pay for medical care, good quality dog food, training and community outreach. Winning bids must be paid no later than October 14, 2012 or the winning bidder will forfeit to the second highest bidder. Shipping is the responsibility of the winning bidder unless otherwise noted in the item descriptions.Our PayPal address for winning bids and sponsorship funds is odessarescue@hotmail.com. You may also mail a check to Odessa Rescue, PO Box 191, Mechanicsville VA 23111.
Happy bidding!

Check out what they have -- you may find something you like!

Rita really appreciates your support!!! 

Sadie Saturday!

Yesterday my black lab cousin Sadie came to visit!!!  We had LOTS of fun.  (We always have fun together.)

We played tug

We played in the yard

We ate Frosty Paws

We kept an eye on the neighborhood

But I think Sadie missed her mom and dad

This is me after Sadie went home

Fabulous Frosty Paws Friday: a VERY Special Delivery

(I'm a little blurry 'cause
I was SO excited)

Yesterday, a guy in a big brown truck delivered a big box to our house.  It was addressed to ME!

Mom usually lets me help open packages, but she said this one had  something called dry ice in it, and she didn't want me getting into the dry ice.  So she opened it for me.  LOOK what was inside!

The very very very nice people at Nestle Dreyer's sent me a big package filled with boxes of Frosty Paws!  I guess they must have liked my blog post about my big win at the Frosty Paws Eating Contest.  

I really wasn't expecting any type of compensation for the right to reprint my blog post in the Full Scoop (I was actually quite honored when they asked), but when they offered to send me as many packages of Frosty Paws as could fit in my freezer, I said SURE, twist my paw!

Just look at all these Frosty Paws!

(My tail was waggin' SO HARD)

My cousin Sadie is in town this weekend, so I shared my Frosty Paws with her.

Mom had to help out Sadie
by holding the cup for her.

I didn't need any help

Nom nom nom
Peanut butter Frosty Paws is the best stuff EVER

I may have to have some friends over for a Frosty Paws party!

Thank you thank you thank you Nestle Dreyer's!