WINNERS!!!

What a great weekend!  Our beautiful weather continued, so Brutus had lots of good walkie time, and got to play outside with all his buddies at the Funny Farm.  Ohio State not only won their game, but locked in a BCS bowl game.  It might be late fall, but everything is coming up Roses in Ohio!!

What could be better???  Thought you'd never ask....

We are ready to announce the winner for Brutus' "That's Ridiculous" contest!!!!

My husband, Paul, poured over the entries last week, even visiting blogs to see some more background on his favorites.  There were many great entries, but after much deliberation, one stood out in it's level of ridiculousness!  

And the winner is (drumroll, please):

LORENZA

Those who know this most fashionable dauschund from Mexico might think she won based on the fact that she must have 50 dresses made by her grandma.  That might win her a modeling contract, but it was her mom's sacrifice for Lorenza that Paul felt took things to a whole new level.  Her mom actually cut off her long locks because the hairdryer used to style them stressed poor Lorenza out!  Wow!  Some might say it's ridiculous, some might call it devotion, but we say it's prize-worthy!!

As her prize, Brutus and I are commissioning a drawing of Lorenza by the fantastic Lili Chin. Those of you who have followed for a while may remember her work when I posted it during Brutus' birthday week.  Others of you have met Flat Brutus, who is the slightly more 3-D version of that drawing.  For those of you who haven't seen Lili's work, here is what she did for Brutus (click here to see more of her drawings):

Lili also donates a portion of each drawing to a dog rescue group of your choice, so it is not only Lorenza who is winning here!  Several of our other blogging buddies have also commissioned her work, so I plan to do a post featuring those pieces, including the completed one of Lorenza.

Brutus and I want to say a BIG thank you to everyone who played!  It was so fun to host this contest, and we have a new appreciation to all you who have done the same.  Next time I hope to be better organized, seeing as a few of you had to remind me of your entries (sorry!).  But posting the pictures, sharing your stories, and linking to everyone's blogs did more than just make for a fun contest - we met several new friends who stopped by for the first time!  Our blog would be nothing without all you who follow it, so again we say THANK YOU!!!  

Well, all this excitement has completely exhausted The Brute!  Time to go recover from the weekend (look at that body outline - yowza)!