The pets of Balloon Juice calendar is now up and running and available at Cafepress:
As always, all profits go to MARC: Marion Animal Resource Connection.
If you find a mistake or a misnamed pet, please let us know as it can be easily fixed. MUCHO thanks to Beth, our freelance graphic designer who does this thankless task every year. Her website is here if you need someone.
Mathguy
I was planning on getting it anyway, but Saber’s long saluki snout is featured in the April montage, so this is a must buy. JC–Thanks for putting it together.
John Cole
@Mathguy: Thank Beth!
Mathguy
Thanks Beth!
Mary G
Those pups on the cover are adorable !
Viva BrisVegas
When’s the naked mopping calendar?
01jack
Thanks!
Jumping Eddie Wagbottom appears in July.
mrmoshpotato
Ordered!
Thanks John, Beth and everyone who sent in pictures.
Major Major Major Major
Hmm, anybody see Samwise on there?
CaseyL
Oh, this is great – ordered two, quite painlessly. Thanks, Beth! And thanks, Cafe Press!
Genine
Yay! I got mine. :-)
WaterGirl
Where’s the “Fuck it!” in the we’re doing it live title?
raven
Crap, I got it in the cart, hit PayPal and then decided I should wait until after the holidays since we’ll be gone to the Sugar Bowl. Too late.
HinTN
I got the two I promised you I’d order, Cole. I know that was pre-Cafepress restoration but I gotta have one for the office, too.
Beth: Lightning presiding over all those cats in January is too funny.
HinTN
@raven: What dates are you in NOLA?
lee
Being on the cover, my two maniacs are Balloon-Juice famous!
(which is the best kind of famous)
BruceFromOhio
@lee: your pups are capital G GORGEOUS! Thanks, Beth and John and jackals for making this happen!
Gonna get my three for all my calendaring action…
J R in WV
I was in New Orleans twice for Mardi Gras while in the Navy – my ship was named for a WW II navy hero and his widow lived in NOLA, we paid courtesy calls on her, she joined the officers for tea in the wardroom. Everyone else did Mardi Gras. Too many stories to tell!
Then ship was ordered to major overhaul/rebuild at Pascagoula MS yards – most backwards place we ever lived! But we could drive to NOLA in our ’61 Plymouth Fury, this was ’72. So that’s three visits. Then WVU was invited to the Sugar Bowl, and dad took the whole family — new years eve in NOLA was nearly as good as Mardi Gras.
Then years later, in order to encourage high attendance, EPA and LA and MS depts of env prot hosted a great working session about using the internet and XML to exchange complex data. In fact they did it for several years, and I went 3 times, once with a contractor, once with a good friend co-worker (Steve) and once the two of us with our wives, on our nickle. All great times.
Love New Orleans! Was heartsick when Katrina happened, and rescue did not. I will never forgive Bush and the Rs for that whole catastrophe, by which I refer to the total lack of planning, execution, caring, nada.
Middlelee
Ordered!
Thanks Beth.
Beth
@Major Major Major Major: samwise is in there. When i’m back at my computer i can tell you what month.
beth
@Major Major Major Major: samwise is in march, second from the left in the top row.
beth
thanks, you all. but everyone who sends in a photo and/or buys a calendar is really to thank. this is a project i look forward to each year. i love seeing the photos and hearing the stories. it’s bittersweet, too, when i learn that a beloved companion i’ve been seeing photos of for years has walked on.
a wee beg. i’ve been an inhouse designer for the past 15 years or so with freelance being an opportunity to do work i normally don’t get to do or to help out an organization i’m involved with. i recently followed a dream and moved my husband and our dog to asheville, nc, which is a more amazing and financially challenging place to live than north central indiana (i’m from chicago, btw). i took my job with me but that will go to part time shortly. there are a lot of designers here and finding a local design job has not been as easy as it was in the past.
in short, i’m moving the freelance up from occasional fun to active side hustle and would appreciate any leads or offers of work. i have my very casual behance portfolio up and my freelance website should be live later today or tomorrow (we’re going for a hike this afternoon with the dog — priorities.)
zhena gogolia
Thanks, Beth, I just ordered two.
Major Major Major Major
@beth: yay there he is, thanks!
Elie
Thanks Beth! Just ordered two.
poleaxedbyboatwork
El Blogpadre:
@beth:
Arriving a bit late to this thread, so no worries if no reply, but was wondering if there’s a way to view the pet pics in any given month so that the names are more clearly visible for positive confirmation? (When I zoom in to the max enlargement on my tablet, the letters IDing the pets are muddy and illegible. Notta big deal, just curious if I’m failing to notice a simple solution.)
Will say: I sent a handfulla pix at the last moment onna flier (never really expecting Huck to be chosen) and was pleasantly surprised to see the old cock honored with selection twice (once as a pup in July and one toward the end of his 16 years featured in December, both showcasing Huck’s goofy “fuck-yeah-let’s-do-this!” grin).
As Beth notes above, sometimes it is bittersweet. My wife and I got Huck from a shelter in south Fla. in aught-two shortly after we lost Albee at age 12, primarily as a mate for Pepper and also b/c he sported a brown eye and a blue eye as had Albee — tho Huck’s eyes were marbled; brown eye hadda blue crescent on top and the blue hadda brown crescent on its roof. Huck and Pepper and I hadda leave Fla. after my wife was killed inna car crash a couple years later. Just too much heartache to stay. Went a little crazy for awhile, course, but I always had the love of our dogs, which meant everything. Pepper made it 14 happy, healthy years, and Huck tipped over this spring after 16 grand years, which ain’t a bad run and you can’t say life cheated you if you make ‘er that far, but it still brings both warm loving remembrance and the searing pain of loss whenever I think of them all.
But. That’s life. It’s fulla pain and loss and heartbreak, but it’s also (thankfully) full of joy and wonder and love. If you let it. The helluvit is you must accept the former as a precondition to the rewards of the latter.
Not wanting to overburden anyone with TMI, but just wanted to convey: My wife woulda been absolutely ecstatic about Huck’s being chosen for the calendar and prolly woulda ordered scads for herself and friends, but I’ma console myself with two that will order in near future.
Thank you both, John and Beth. The pet calendar is wonderful idea for a good cause, and I, as do all, very much appreciate your efforts.
Shane in SLC
The calendar looks great as always; I’m looking forward to it hanging on my wall.
Out of curiosity, what’s up with the big black box in the page for October? (Where my cat Hagrid poses handsomely.) There are a few blanks on other months, but that one’s especially large and glaring.