Dog is my wingman
I spent much of my time at the BlogHer expo looking for mascots to take pictures with. For all the time I spent doing that, I see I missed at least half of them- Paris over at DogTipper found the Pine Sol lady, the Jimmy Dean sun (who looks exactly like my high school history teacher), and a…piece of Swiffer lint, I guess. Some people have all the luck. That’s what I get for going home too early.
Nonetheless, I found some singular photo opps myself:
A dog from Canine Companions for Independence, exhibiting the classic “Is she going to take my temperature?” look;
The team from I Can Has Cheezburger (my number one celebrity encounter- I was jazzed! Love those guys! I want their shirt!)
Oscar the Grouch, just because I always wanted to hang out on the Sesame Street set;
A rather frightening encounter with a silent Mr. Pringles suffering from a bad case of hydrocephalus;
A less frightening encounter with a California raisin. Am I the only person on the planet who remembers these guys in Will Vinton’s Claymation Christmas? Though me being me, I still remarked that it would be way scary to have him at a vet expo, an obscure example of veterinarian humor that soared right over the head of the 20 year old Raisin Board intern;
…..and my personal favorite, which I have to explain:
I love the philosophy product line. They had a booth at BlogHer there with some gift bags full of samples, but in order to get one you had to take a picture holding up one of their signature ‘philosophy’ placards.
I flipped through the choices, watching the other attendees clump into giggling groups to get their photos done. Every single quote was about friendship, and I was standing there by myself. I would have looked like I was posing for an ironically sad mug shot.
I wandered back to the P&G booth where the pet bloggers were hanging out to see if I could entice any of them to go take a picture with me. They had all already done it by that point, and suggested I borrow a flat pet to accompany me instead. Which would have worked, but then-
I stole the puppy from Helen Woodward Animal Center. Let me clarify- I borrowed, with permission, the adorable eight week old terrier blend Yahtzee who was there with the Helen Woodward Animal Center. I assured them that despite my appearance I was actually a totally trustworthy veterinary professional and we would only be gone a minute. Then I swept off with the puppy, announced to the people at the philosophy booth that I found a friend, and voila.
Lesson learned: Woman walking around BlogHer telling people she is a pet blogger: Persona non grata.
Woman walking around BlogHer with an adorable puppy telling people she is a pet blogger: ROCK STAR. To be fair, I could have been telling people I blogged daily at “Confessions of an Axe Murderess” and it wouldn’t have mattered as long as Yahtzee was with me. Now, NOW finally, I really get this commercial:
That was me, as the dude, except instead of collecting phone numbers I just wanted product.
Silly me, I thought I could just swoop in, take my picture, get the lotion and get out. 30 minutes later, I was still stuck at the booth while people lined up to meet Yahtzee, so I figured might as well turn this into an impromptu adoption opportunity amidst the throng clicking and tweeting this dog. Five people took down her information, by the way, and the next day she was off the website.
I think the people from the P&G booth started to panic a little bit after the 40 minute mark, but trust me, that dog was working it. I think I know what needs to be done at BlogHer next year in New York. ASPCA? Call me!
