It started as a joke. A few dog bloggers who noticed we were all supporting Obama during the primary started calling ourselves "Cranky Dog Bloggers for Obama."
Then the crankiest and best known of us all, Pet Connection's Gina Spadafori -- a nationally syndicated pet columnist and New York Times' bestselling author -- decided to make it more than a joke, and created Bark Obama!
Most of us had covered politics, government, and hard news on our blogs before -- you might be surprised just where pet blogging takes you these days. But this was the first time we'd really come together from our diverse backgrounds and professional lives to lend our voices to one cause: electing Barack Obama the 44th president of the United States.
And that's how Bark Obama! was born. We're a very diverse group of people, from vegans to hunters and everything in between. Our posts are just as diverse, covering the economy (hey, one of us is an economist!), the horserace, political humor, the polls, the media, campaign ads, and a category we call "Hysteria" that's a favorite of mine.
The bloggers involved, in alphabetical order, are:
Patrick Burns, a/k/a Terrierman, is the author of Terrierman's Daily Dose. He owns working terriers and spends his free time hunting with them. He lives in Virginia.
Kathy Flake writes the WhatDoIKnow blog. She and her Golden Retriever, Bailey, live with her husband in a suburb of London, England. (Kathy is also a Kossack.)
Dan Gauss is a "performance portrait" photographer, specializing in sighthound breeds. He travels the country with his significant other, Margaret, and their pack of assorted sighthounds. He posts on their travels and other subjects to the Hare-Brained Express Tour-2008 blog.
Christie Keith is the "Your Whole Pet" columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle's SFGate.com Web site, and a contributing editor to the Pet Connection syndicated pet-care feature. She blogs at PetConnection.com and on her own blog, Dogged. She lives in San Francisco with her two dogs, Rebel and Kyrie. (That's me!)
Dr. Patty Khuly is a veterinarian in Miami, pet-care columnist for the Miami Herald and the author of Dolittler, a popular veterinary blog. She and her son share their lives with a many animals, including Sophie, a French Bulldog.
Susan McCullough is a top-selling author of dog care books, a frequent contributor to many pet magazines and websites, and blogs at The Allie Chronicles. She lives in northern Virginia with her husband and the aforementioned Allie, a six-year-old larger-than-life Golden Retriever.
Selma Mulvey offers a Canadian point of view. She actively fights laws that discriminate against dog breeds and pet-owners, and she blogs at Caveat.
Luisa Serrano is the author of the Lassie Get Help blog. She keeps working border collies and Border Cheviot sheep. She is also an advocate for pit bull terriers, and owns two who will change everything you thought you knew about this breed. She lives in Southern California.
Gina Spadafori is a best-selling author of pet-care books, a long-time syndicated pet-care columnist and the lead blogger at PetConnection.com. She lives in Sacramento, and shares her home with four dogs, two cats, a parrot and flock of chickens.
Shirley Thistlethwaite writes the YesBiscuit! and Everybody Secede Now! blogs. She loves all kinds of dogs (tall, small, scruffy, fluffy ...) and lives in South Carolina.
Kim Campbell Thornton is a top-selling author of pet-care books, the pet-care columnist for MSNBC.com and a blogger at PetConnection.com. Based in Southern California, she is currently living in Seattle with her husband and their three Cavalier King Charles Spaniels.
Mary Young, PhD is a professor of economics at Southwestern State University, a cattle rancher and a noted trainer of hunting retrievers. She and her husband live in Lee County, Texas, on Windfall Ranch.
Come visit us!