Souper Bowl, Round 2!

Those of you who have corresponded with my on my personal email any time in the last 5 years have seen this quote in my signature:

“He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion.  Until there are none, rescue one.” Unknown

Yes, I agree, signature quotes can be super pompous and annoying and are often worth reading over.  And I am sure that most people read right past my quote as well (but the fact that gmail puts it in grey and often minimizes it in threads doesn’t help either).  But I just can’t get over the sentiment of this quote.

My pets offer me a love that is so hard to describe.  They teach me so much.  So much.  And there are so many homeless pets that could offer the same sort of life lessons to people that my guys have offered to me.  And I want to remind people of that so that’s why I keep that quote in my email signature.  It doesn’t just apply to dogs.  It applies to cats and of course horses.

(I love this picture of Cinco and the Omnivore.  They are both smiling.  Anyone who has had the joy of loving a pet knows that smile.)

Last year I hosted a charity event on Branny Boils Over to raise money to donate to the ASPCA, our family’s charity of choice.  I’m doing it again this year and I need your help.  Yes, I could write a check for any amount I please, but I’d rather enlist you guys to spread the word about animal love and well-fare by making a bowl of soup in honor of a loved pet and telling me about it.  Details will be posted below but first I want to show you guys a few pictures of the pets from the past year, especially since we’ve doubled the number of animals running around here since Souper Bowl #1.

Vinny, our newest pet and a pit bull, one of the most abused breeds of dogs around.

Blue, our first dog, the oldest of the bunch coming in at over 9 years old.

Lucy, the Omnivore’s little bundle of joy.

Lucy, again.

Flo.  The mutt that has my heart.  Cinco is in the background.

And Fahrney, whose extreme coolness cannot be described in words, at all.  Don’t try.  He begs you.

So here’s how it works.

1) You make a bowl of soup, take a picture, and record the recipe.
2) If you have a blog (food related or not), you dedicate an entry to a pet you love(d) (and, yes, it can be the same pet from last year!), including a picture of the soup (and the pet if you’d like) and the recipe.  You let me know you’ve done so by linking to THIS BLOG POST within your own blog post and emailing me at brannyboilsover at gmail.com
3) If you do not have a blog you simply take a photo of your soup and email it to me along with a recipe and a short blurb about the pet you are dedicating your soup to.

For every entry I receive, I’ll donate $1.00 to the ASPCA.  Last year we reached over 50 dollars.  Let’s beat it this year!  The deadline is January 31st and the final round up will go live on February 5th, 2012, the date of the SuperBowl.