Help Save Moon Doggie Coffee Roasters

Just found this blog post about another fantastic program to help dogs (in this case Bassets)…if you are a coffee drinker (and I know most of you are) please consider helping the puppies!!!

Pam Tanzey, Artist

Duncan Bunkin Punkin Pie is the little song I sang to Duncan when he was a baby. It’s how he got his nickname Bunkie. That’s him in his Movie Star glasses. This is his personal coffee flavor from Moon Doggie Coffee Roasters. You can still order it and even though he’s been gone five years, his flavor will still help to rescue Bassets.

That’s what they do, besides being an outstanding, award winning Micro Coffee Roaster, Bob and Donna Funk help rescue homeless, abused, old and ill Basset Hounds. In fact on their menu page there is a long list of special flavors they’ve created to fund various rescues all across the country.

Due to a recent illness, Donna was in the hospital for two weeks and is home still on disability as she recuperates, they have fallen behind and their store landlord is threatening lock them out.

Rescue…

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Is your dog really blind?

My favorite part of book signings and other events is answering people’s questions. I’m basically a shy person and not very good at initiating conversation, so questions open the door nicely for me.

One of the questions I am often asked is “Where does the name Blindogg Books come from?” which is usually followed closely by “Why is it spelled wrong?”

The story begins in 1992, or maybe 1993 (cue the flashback music)…

 At that time I was raising and socializing puppies for Guiding Eyes for the Blind. It was a volunteer thing and I really loved it.

Part of socializing potential Guide Dogs is taking them to public places to give them exposure to “real-life” situations.

Many employees at local business became accustomed to seeing me with my puppies, but on one occasion a girl at the register of a local hardware store didn’t know the drill and told me I couldn’t bring my dog into the store. The girl at the next register recognized me and told the new girl “It’s okay, that’s the blind dog guy.”

The blind dog guy—I liked it and decided to shorten it to blind dog for use as my screen name on AOL (remember it was the early 90s) as an homage to my involvement with GEB and, as a bonus, it sounded like a cool blues-guy name (I love the blues).

Of course AOL wouldn’t let me use blind dog because of the space between the words, I tried blinddog, but it was also rejected because (believe it or not) somebody was already using it. My third attempt – blindogg – was available so I took it.

Since then I’ve used blindogg as my official “computer name” and when I released my first novel I decided to use it as my brand name – incorrect spelling and all.

Probably not the most riveting story you’ve ever heard, but it’s all I got. So if you see me at a book signing you won’t have to ask, but please ask something else—it’ll help keep the conversation moving!