Cleaning up the lake...

I mean no offense, but second place because the dog pulled one peice of garbage out of a lake? Once?

Ah, but it's currently first place! And Mary has numerous friends who know her, who know that she and her family, including their dogs, are stewards of the lake they have a camp on. Her dogs are near-constant companions and, since we're talking about Mary, it means lots of time outside. During the summer, it means a lot of time on the water. The cove they share on the lake is a beautiful place in large part due to the efforts of Mary and her family, the 4-pawed members included. That's why I continue to vote for her photo!

I am so very proud of Mary for wanting to do this. There are so very many dogs waiting in shelters and rescue organizations, waiting for there forever home family to come and get them.. Surely if they were more presentable, they would be adopted sooner.
Our lakes and streams have become a dumping place for the thoughtless people who need to get rid of trash. If Luke can help clean up the beach at their place, maybe it will inspire others to do the same where they live.
That's why I will continue to vote for Luke and Mary for the selfless acts they are performing.

I think this photo is a wonderful interpretation of what this contest represents. And boo on those who leave disparaging remarks! My votes will continue to come your way!

Go Mary! Go Luke (and the rest of your family!) Hope you win. Those rescues will look heavenly with your grooming skills.

Wow, Luke truly is an "eco-pet" ... great to see a pet actually being green and not just a cute photo with some stretch of a story ...

As this contest comes to an end, I'm left impressed with Mary's ability to connect with people who have never met her and get them to actively advocate for what she believes in. I am one such person. I came to know Mary through Flickr a few years ago, I believe, when she commented on some snowy outings I had w/my toddler son. "Peter would do such-and-such, too!" she would write in reference to her own, now grown, son. Through our photos and the comments we shared on them, I came to learn how much alike we are in attempting to ensure our children are grounded in the natural world.

Now that Mary's human children are adults, she has her "dog children" to nurture in the natural world. And part of this nurturing is having them involved members when they are outside and there are things to be done to reduce our human footprints in this world, such as cleaning up garbage as this photo depicts. Obviously, the dogs aren't going to understand this (except perhaps Koi!) That's not the point. What's compelling, is that trying to keep things in their wild state and being as unobtrusive as possible make Mary and her family excellent environmental stewards. It really is a large part of what they are all about.

I'm not alone in understanding this as the more than 1,300 votes show. While I was sharing Mary's story on my social website pages, advocating people to vote for her, many other people who have viewed Mary's photos over the years were doing the same. We joined in a discussion thread these past two months, sharing what we were doing, cheering for one another and thanking, yes thanking, Mary for doing this. It's a bit crazy, considering what a pain it is to have to wait precisely 24 hours before being able to vote again (once in a 24 hour time period, say from 12 AM PST to 11:59 PM PST, would be more sensible.) When the competition heated up at the beginning of this week, we came together even more to drum up additional votes. In these closing days, we have still been getting 40+ votes/day in support of Mary.

Over thirteen hundred votes. That's an average of more than 20/day since she first posted. Think about what an effort that represents to all involved - it's substantial.

Over 3,700 views. That's 1,000 more than the closest contestant or, statistically, over 25% more views. That, too, is impressive.

The people have spoken. I know the rules state the judges will decide upon the top 10 vote garners. That would be fair if the top 10 were within close proximity of one another. They aren't, though. Surely, what would be fair would be to acknowledge the overwhelming support Mary has received over a very long time period, support that is reflected in the fact she recieved approximately 25% of all the votes cast and that she accounted for approximately 33% of all the views from outside the Greenwala website.

Day after day, Mary's supporters have stepped up in recognition of the effort Mary makes when it comes to her local environment as well as what she will do beginning November 2 when her local animal shelter brings her in to work with their dogs to get them adopted. I hope those who judge this contest for Greenwala will take this support into account with the full weight it deserves.

Thank you. And thanks Mary!

Jon Wescott