since some were asking... here's the 'long' story of my BIG adventure...

Mom saw an advertising for "Make Your Dog Famous" for Milk-Bone where if you won, you'd be on the cover of the box. She sent in my picture via email (the one for my profile) and thought nothing more of it. She thought she might get a coupon for a free box of bones or something.

The Milk-Bone team was traveling the US in their Canine Cruisers, stopping at over 40 stops gathering more pictures along the way.

All sumer went by and then Mom got a call from MilkBone telling her that I was one of the top 100 finalists (20 per size category) and they were now sending our pictures out to the judges.

More waiting and then another call. This time I was one of the top 20!! (5 per category) They told Mom they were going to put our pictures on the web site and MilkBone fans would vote for their favorites.

Mom went on an email frenzy and told EVERYONE she could to go and vote for Ojo. You had to vote for each category (Small, Medium, Large & Extra Large). After the first day, I was in the lead and never looked back.

Voting finally ended and we had to wait for the tally. Then THE phone call came -- Ojo won!

Ojo (along with the other 3 winners: Lucy from NC on medium; Sandy from AZ on large and Casey from IL on XL) were the first time in MilkBone's 98 year history to ever have a pet's picture on their boxes. They beat out over 47,000 dogs!

Ojo and family then traveled out to NYC for the big announcement on the TODAY show. MilkBone treated us (especially OJO!) like a Queen!

Ojo was getting pretty anxious - after all, not many grassy spaces for a potty break let alone how can you play ball in NYC?

We went to the TODAY show the next day. Ojo was SOO happy. She finally got to play ball. Ojo didn't care who was there, what was happening, or anything. She took her ball, tossed it to the crowd, camera men, on air talent -- she didn't care as long as they played. If you watch the TODAY show, she was in the "plaza" area outside.

They took us inside for hair / makeup and since Ojo is such a baby dog for me, she got to go too (all the other dogs were too big to go inside). She played ball down the hallway of the dressing rooms and got to meet Al Roker.

We then had to wait backstage near the kitchen until our segment was on. Ojo was nervous and wouldn't you know my dog was the offical "gotta go" dog there -- nice.

Rachel Ray was a guest that day and backstage was prepped for her segment. Trying to keep Ojo calm (she really had pent up energy), I did short tosses to her to occupy her time. Well, she missed once and her ball landed on Rachel Ray's set, right into a pile of rice (that day on air, you can see the ball dent on the rice pile too, funny).

Finally it was our time to go back outside. They wanted to use Ojo as the "tease" into the segment (the commercial lead ins) so she was happy --- more ball time. the MilkBone spokesman had a video clip then introduced each winning dog. Ojo was the last dog introduced. They wanted her to play catch so we tossed the ball on camera, and luckily Ojo caught it too.

They had us stick around until the end of the show with Al and Anne (Katie & Matt had other segments inside to do).

Ojo and Sandy then went to Central park for awhile. It was fun - lots of people came up to us asking if we were the dogs on the TODAY show. So fun!

After we got back to Indy, Ojo and I had to go to Chicago for her photo shoot. The photographer was from CA, her trainer from CA and her marketing / press from MN. So much for my pooch! :-)

Ojo had a fun time at her photo shoot. We were there for 5+ hours - shooting & playing ball. She played so much she had blisters on her pads for days. Once again, MilkBone put us up in a hotel and took very good care of Ojo.

It seemed like forever but about 6 months later, we got a call. Our boxes were set to ship. MilkBone sent us a case of boxes with Ojo on it and coupons for more. We were SO excited. Nothing beats walking into a store and seeing rows of YOUR dog on the most famous Dog biscuit box on the shelves. TOO cool!!!

The entire experience was one of the best times for pet lovers. So much bonding with our dogs, gushing over them and just proud love.