Who wants to see THE MOST AMAZING THING EVER?

Check it out!:

Avatars!  Great Wall!  China!  HOLY BANANAS!

Thank you so much, Annie!  You might literally be the coolest person in the universe.  Lookit!  She took my book all the way to the Great Wall of CHINA!!  And I know from The Amazing Race that there are lots of steps involved, so she must have climbed them all with the book — in hardcover! — and everything!!  I am in total awe.  Annie, you RULE!  HOORAY!  Thank you THANK YOU!!  🙂

My goodness!  So that already made this the best week ever, even before the start of my guaranteed-new-favorite-TV-show-in-the-history-of-ever.  YES!  This Thursday, it’s time for…GREATEST AMERICAN DOG!!!!  Dude, have you seen these ads?  Behold all the wondrous dogs!!

Zap2It’s Great Dogs Photo Gallery

And as if it weren’t enough that they cast twelve ridiculously awesome dogs, it turns out one of the judges is Victoria Stillwell!  She’s the dog trainer on It’s Me or the Dog, a program I’ve become a little (OK, a lot) addicted to ever since I started watching it as "research" for my new Pet Trouble series.  I love her!  First of all: awesome British accent.  Second of all: she’s smart and she adores dogs of all shapes and sizes.  AND she makes dogs happier wherever she goes!  What’s not to love?  I think she’ll be an EXCELLENT judge.  And I think she’d like Sunshine, so I have high hopes for season 2.  ;-)  Hee hee hee.

As far as I’m concerned, it’s entirely worth watching all the videos on the official site:

Greatest American Dog Official Site

So far my favorite contestant is ALL OF THEM!  How could they eliminate any of these dogs?  Look how wonderful they are!  Look at Elvis’s face!  And Tillman’s!  And Ezzie’s!  And Kenji’s!  And Preston’s!  I’m not sure Victoria’s going to like all the goofy little outfits (I know Adam doesn’t!), but these dogs all sound very well-trained and mad clever. 

Unlike the dogs in my new series…have I talked about this very much yet?  Pet Trouble is coming out next summer, and I hope you all like it!  Each book is about a different "bad dog", except of course, I’m of the school of thought that there is no such thing as a bad dog.  ;-)  All the dogs in this series really want to be good dogs; they try to be good dogs.  It’s not golden retriever Merlin’s fault that he’s so good at escaping from the yard.  Little beagle Trumpet doesn’t know that everyone doesn’t love her howling.  And as for Princess…what’s wrong with rolling in a mud puddle now and then?

I can’t wait to see the covers for these!  I’ll share them as soon as I can…I hear there are photos of dogs involved, so I’m certain they’ll be marvelous.  🙂

What’s really fun is thinking about the dog owners, who are all kids in 5th and 6th grade, and what they expect from their dogs and how they’re surprised by what they get instead.  Personally, the kind of dog I like to live with is small, snuggly, easy to pick up, hypoallergenic (like Sunshine, who is mostly poodle), and fluffy so I can bury my hands in her fur.  Yeah, I do think Sunshine is entirely perfect.  :-)  But I am still madly in love with every other kind of dog.  Tiny funny Yorkies and Pomeranians!  Squashy-face bulldogs and pugs!  Sleek elegant greyhounds and dachshunds!  Wriggly lovemuffin Labs and golden retrievers!  Smiley mutts of all kinds!  Awwwwww, I love them ALL. 

I’m pleased to see that there are a couple of mutts on Greatest American Dog.  Maybe that means Sunshine will like it better than that elitist Westminster show.  ;-)  Hmmm…considering how much she’s been barking at the previews, we’ll see about that!  But I’m sure once I explain that she needs to pay attention and take notes for when we try out for season 2, she’ll settle right down.  Right?  Whee!

Anyway, it starts this Thursday (July 10) on CBS at 8pm, so next week  I’m sure there will be more dog talk in amongst the dance show yammer-yammering.  🙂