We have a contest in our magazine every month. It's called "Abby Tracks" and is sort of like a 'needle in a haystack' kind of thing. You have to locate Abby's paw print in the book somewhere and then send in an entry, along with a paragraph or two about a favorite memory of some type, recipe, or short story. The instructions are in the book each month.
It still amazes me the number of people that talk about the paw print. Just last night at our Kiwanis meeting it was a topic of conversation between several of us. What also amazes me though, is the number of our readers that don't even know Abby is a dog, much less our dog!
When we started the contest in All Things Country, Abby was our only pet. She was just a puppy - and a big handful to us. I hadn't owned a bigger dog since I was younger - only poms and yorkies. So this 'someday 50 pound' ball of fire that joined our lives was a bit overwhelming at first. In fact, we tried giving her away a couple of times. The last time we tried, down at Green River during a camping trip, was about as close as we ever came. She was on their boat, just wanting to call it home. They had lots of kids! But, the mom on that very same boat vetoed the idea before the kids could even bat their big ole' eyes at her.
So, we came home from that camping trip with her - and remarkably, the very next day her whole attitude changed. She actually started to mind, somewhat at least. It was like she knew what we had planned and she figured she had found a good home, she may as well appreciate it. She is, of course, still a handful for us, it's the beagle in her. But she won't be here forever, so we'll just continue to put up with her.
We started the Abby Track contest after deciding the keep her for good. The contest is a real hit each month. I've only managed to forget to put the paw print in two editions since we started. Boy, did we get phone calls those months! One month I forgot to take it out from the previous month, so we had entries with two locations. I've definitely improved over the years, as it's been a while since I've forgotten it.
We've offered some pretty incredible prizes along the way too .... all thanks to our great advertisers! We've had cabin stays in the Red River Gorge area, jewelry from Dan's in Winchester, a gem mining gift package, dinner gift certificates, zip lining and paintball tickets. It's great fun to be able to spread a little fun around - and then present the winner with something fun to do!
If you are interested in sponsoring a prize one month, please contact us at 606-723-0478 for more information. You can even have the entries sent in to your business to see how many you get - and do the drawing from your business.
Thanks everyone - and have a great Friday!
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