Cheers, tears as Bee pet contest ends as Cash claims victory
Cash is king!
In the Daily Bee’s first-ever pet pics contest, a two-year-old pure bred Boxer named Cash took top dog honors.
Cash’s parents, make that owners, Jamey and Becky Layman, pulled out all stops to help their precious pooch prevail. Although, strangely enough, most of the 1,830 votes for Cash came from family and friends from as far away as Japan.
“We both agreed to pay the entry fee and on the last day we kicked in $20,” said Becky. “The rest of the votes came from Facebook friends and other dog lovers.”
Gus, owned by Sagle’s Barbara Copley, finished second by a wet nose with 1,620 votes.
Debra Rawuka’s 14-pound cockapoo, finished in third.
“It was literally a dog fight the last few hours of the contest,” said contest coordinator Dave Kosiba. “Votes were coming in online and people were walking in the front door to cast votes right up until the deadline,” he said.
One pet owner had her checkbook in hand at the Bee’s front door wanted to know how much it would cost for her dog to win.
“The problem was, nobody really knew,” Kosiba said. “The vote total kept changing so fast somebody told her that $500 would probably do it. She didn’t pay that.”
A total of 7,680 free and sponsored votes were cast for the 69 registered participants. Thirty-three pets didn’t receive a single vote.
The Laymans haven’t broken the good news to Cash. He is $100 richer. Cash will also be featured in the Panhandle Animal Shelter’s 2011 calendar.
PAS received $300 as a donation from the participants and the Bee as part of the contest.
The Laymans, who don’t have children “just Boxers”, treat Cash just like a child. For example, Cash’s entry photo was taken at Cash’s Puppy Shower. Cash has gone through two training courses at Pend Oreille Vets and is about to go through slyball training. Slyball can be compared to horsejumping mixed with a fetch relay.
Most of Cash’s votes came in online through Pay Pal but Cash’s supporters soon learned how to access the free vote function on the Bee’s Web site.
“This was a pretty savvy group of voters,” Kosiba said. “Cash started popping up on social media sites and before you knew it, he had hundreds of votes a day coming in.”
Conscratchulations, Cash. Good dog!
The contest was not without some controversy.
As soon as the voting opened, Kosiba received an e-mail from Rod and Carol who wrote:
“Who’s running this contest — ACORN? BUYING VOTES!!!!!! How UN-AMERICAN can you get?
“I’m ashamed to have actually been a part of this.”
Kosiba wrote back: “The idea is to have a fun contest and raise money for the Panhandle Animal Shelter.”
Carol barked back: “Well why don’t you sell drugs also? That’s a good way to raise money!!! Selling votes is illegal I don’t care who or what the money is for.”
Woof.
A local business owner stepped into a potential business cat-astrophe last week when he came to the defense of canines in the contest.
The fur flew after he received phone calls and comments from the cat-lover set and even an e-mail that featured an upset-looking cat as well as a Photoshopped cat indicating that felines are the number one species.
It’s unfortunate that what should be a nearly cat-atonic exercise in democracy made people fight like cats and dogs. Just purrrrrfect.
We received this note Thursday about Ernie, who finished 11th in the contest.
Gail Allard called in first to say how much they enjoyed the Pet Pic’s contest.
“My children Brody and Brittany kept track of the votes and campaigned for more votes from family and friends for Ernie.
“Since they kept track of the votes they didn’t think they were going to win, but were excited about being part of raising money for the Panhandle Animal Shelter.
“Sad to say Ernie passed away a couple days ago from being attacked by another dog.”
This was a hard blow to the Allard household as Gail had brought Ernie home to give some comfort to Brody and Brittany after the death of her husband and their father. Brody was 13 at the time and Brittany, though not living at home, found comfort from Ernie as well.
Gail felt blessed that Ernie had Mary Jane Davis DVM from Pend Oreille Veterinary Service watching over him all night after his emergency surgery. Mary Jane was the one to call Gail with tears in her voice to let her know that Ernie had passed away.
David Keyes is publisher of the Daily Bee.