It’s the final day of our Survival of the Cutest tournament. The contest between finalists Nemo “Don’t Blame Me For the Winter Storm of the Same Name Headed For New York” the Beagle and Cooper “I Resemble a Black-and-White Cookie” the Border Collie is shaping up to be a clash for the ages. There have been several lead changes in the vote totals already, and there will likely be several more before our competition turns into a pumpkin tonight at midnight.
Of course, we began this search for the cutest dog in Dallas a few weeks ago with 32 competitors. With 30 disappointed dogs no longer in the running comes 30 disappointed owners. Some of these owners have taken the news more in stride than have others.
One person sent me this email after hearing about his pet’s elimination. It translates as “Thanks for nothing”:
It would be nice if we could have seen the votes that came in for us… to know how much we were ahead.
Thanks anyways for the short lived hype and experience.
Another fellow took issue with the way one of our editors campaigned for a dog his pet competed against directly .
Well, it’s good to know we lost to a dog an editor at D Magazine endorsed (in an not so subtle way).
Not that the endorsement did anything; people seem to think those slobbering, flesh-fold piles of pig vomit are cute. Baffles me, but whatever.
Brad Twitty, whose dog Juno advanced all the way to the Furry Four, looked on the bright side with this tweet:
She wasn’t crowned cutest by @dmagazine but @designanddash and I have unofficially crowned Juno “Cutest Mutt in Dallas” twitter.com/bradtwitty/sta…
– Brad Twitty (@bradtwitty) February 6, 2013
(Twitty had even purchased a domain name for the contest, a domain for which he’s seeking another purpose.)
Can anyone think of a use for votejuno.com?I own it for 11 more months and it’s just directing to @dmagazine for #cutestpets2013
– Brad Twitty (@bradtwitty) February 7, 2013
Then there’s Lucy, the only dog in the contest who had her own active Twitter account. In the Sweet 16 round, she was defeated by Bruiser, who has since become her nemesis.
I bet Bruiser was in charge of the lights.#cutestpets2013 #superbowl #SUPERBLACKOUT cc: @dmagazine
– LucyBFreeman (@LucyBTweets) February 4, 2013