Thank you very much - again

This post is (very long! and) embarrassingly overdue. Some very fine bloggers have chosen to recognize us here at Bringing up Bella by presenting us with some awards and I have been remiss in thanking them for the honor. (On the bright side, at least they're all from 2012.)

As usual, because I'm so paranoid about breaking rules, I tried to investigate the origins of each of these awards to understand the true intent and am left even more insecure than ever. Blog awards do seem to suffer from a good game of "telephone" where the conversation changes over time due to the interpretation of the individuals involved.

So, while I'm including "the rules" as best I've come to understand them, I'd really just like folks to enjoy the nomination as a token of my admiration and appreciation for their hard work without feeling the pressure to comply with "the rules". This goes double for those folks who've received the awards previously.

Additionally, I have set only 1 rule for myself: I can't nominate anyone I've ever nominated before. To be honest, this rule only exists because if I continued with my previous rule of only nominating folks who've never been nominated by anyone before, I'd never get this thing published. ;)

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The first award received this year was the Pawsome Blogger award given to us by the remarkably kind Dachshund Nola.

Speaking of Pawsome bloggers, Nola is one of the most dedicated, friendly and supportive bloggers in the pet blogging community and we are truly honored by her generosity.

The rules for this one are pretty minimal: "Nominate 8 blogs that bring me fun, love, laughs and furiendship". I can work with that.

What follows is a list of blogs that make me smile, chuckle and even laugh right out loud sometimes.

Basset Momma
Fabulous Flo
Little Dogs on Long Leashes
Mango and Dexter's Great Adventures
My Brown Newfies
My Tail Hurts from Wagging So Much
Snoopy's Dogblog
The Spoiled Doxie

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Coming on the heels of that award, we were delighted, and humbled, to be presented The Kreativ Blogger award by the gracious Pamela over at Something Wagging This Way Comes. And I do mean humbled as Pamela chose to forward this award to blogs she considers to be "visually creative" (i.e. - we gots good pictures - my dad would be proud.)

I'm sure most of you know Pamela and her Golden Retriever, Honey, but if you don't, she's an incredible blogger whose posts always stir good, thoughtful conversation as she looks at life through the prism of her dog.

There are a few rules for this award:

1. Share 7 things you don't know about me and
2. Pass the award along to 7 other blogs.

Okay, so, 7 things you don't (or might not) know about me. (Don't you all already know more than you ever wanted to about me? You must.) However, in keeping with the spirit of things, here we go:

1. I am a registered, card-carrying sci-fi/fantasy dork. It's true, I can recite, verbatim, "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" (not to mention, "The Commentary!") as well as most episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Max Headroom and Doctor Who.
2. I totally dig musicals. (Not helping the dork-factor here, I know.)
3. I have been known to forget to eat/sleep/bathe when something catches my obsession attention.
4. The only magazine I actually subscribe to is Wired.
5. I am also a registered, card-carrying klutz. Ask Jan. Or Bella. I break things (sometimes me) and tend to bleed and burn with fair regularity (especially, yet not exclusively, while cooking. I have literally burned myself mowing the lawn.)
6. I am a voracious reader and often have upwards of 5 books going at any given time.
7. My favorite author is Kurt Vonnegut.

And in keeping with Pamela's little "twist", I'm going to pass the award on to 7 blogs I think fit the "Kreativ" criteria. These are the blogs I go to when I want to "oooh" and "ahhhh":

Eva the Sheltie
Poochie Freak Photography
Romping and Rolling in the Rockies
Roxy The Traveling Dog
Two Dogs, One Camera, Priceless Moments.
Two Pitties in the City
Whiskered Paintings

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Also in January, the lovely Dachshund Nola honored us again with the One Lovely Blog award. Nola's requirements were pretty simple: "This award is designed to recognize fellow bloggers and show appreciation for their work." From what I could discover of the history, however, the intent of this award was to recognize blogs that are "newly discovered".

So to make it interesting, I'll take Nola's recommendation of selecting 7 blogs and add the twist that they be new or at least new to me. Allow me to present:

2 Punk Dogs
Daily Dose of Jack
Enzo the Sato
I'm Kind of a Big Deal
Jowls of Fury
manymuddypaws
Tails from the Dach Side

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Finally, February brought us The Versatile Blogger award from Donna of Donna and the Dogs - a blog and blogger I truly admire for her informative posts, her dedication to rescue, her love of Labs and her biting wit.

The Versatile Blogger award comes with a few rules:

1. Thank the award giver and link back in your post. - Thank you, Donna. :)
2. Share 7 things about yourself. - Seriously, I'm just not that interesting so how about 7 things about Bella instead?
3. Pass this award along to as many as 15 blogs you enjoy reading and let them know about the award. (See below.)

Okay, Bella's list:

1. Bella trims her own toenails. (Jan built her a "scratching post".)
2. Bella has been sprayed by a skunk 3 times. At least now we keep supplies in the house.
3. Bella looks like a black dog. Bella's hair, however, is only tipped black and is really tan underneath. So her hair shows up on all of our clothes and furniture regardless of color. Grr. Arg.
4. Bella knows 27 "commands". (Although you don't actually "command" Bella to do anything. She's smart, not necessarily obedient.)
5. Bella has been attending Agility for Reactive Dogs since October, 2011. She LOVES it.
6. It took most of the summer to get Bella to step over a stick in preparation for the class.
7. It took 5 minutes to get her to go over the A-frame. Now we can't get her off of it.

And now to recommend 15 blogs. 15 people are about to hate me with heat of 15-thousand burning suns because they all probably have this award already. Remember, if you already have the award, pay no attention to the blogger behind the curtain. Just know that I think you rock!

Brando and Bogart
Brown Dog, CBR
Cleopatra, the Border Collie
Dachshund Nola
Dakota's Den
Dip-Dip and The Bridge
Dog is God in Reverse
Donna and the Dogs
Hound Dog Mom
Jets Agenda
Kol's Notes
Kootenai's Climb
My Dogs Love Me
One Pibble's Wish
Something Wagging This Way Comes

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I follow a lot of blogs and I follow them because they're all great: they inspire me, entertain me, move me and motivate me.

You're probably already familiar with many listed here but I encourage you to check out the ones that might be new to you. There is a tremendous amount of talent and good humor out there and, to my mind, these lists represent some of the best of it.

And to those who thought so well of us to include us in your lists, we really do appreciate your kind words and consideration. It is truly an honor to be in such generous company.

Peace.