My Excellent Adventure in: New York City!

Me & Molly O'Neill

I'm just back from a whirl-wind trip to New York City to attend the Dog Writers Association of America's annual awards banquet where A Dog's Way Home was up for an award! I took my BFF, Charlene with me (unfortunately, hubby couldn't go) and we went out a couple days early to play.

Anything goes in NYC!

Now I know you may find this hard to believe, but I really love NYC--in small doses. This was just the right amount of time. Once we finally made our way from the airport to our hotel, we quickly changed clothes and hoofed it over to the Affinia Hotel where we met my lovely editor of A Dog's Way Home for drinks and a bite to eat. I even had a fancy martini which made me feel very grown up.

We walked all over mid-Manhatten on Saturday. I love, love, love people watching in that part of the world. It's like anything goes, yet people are so friendly! And who would think that about a whole big city full of yankees. But it's true! We saw the show, "Wicked", Saturday afternoon. It was worth every darned penny. So magical! Afterwards we had a shockingly scrumptious meal at Cara Mia.

DWAA Banquet

It turned bitterly cold and windy on Sunday. We hopped on and off buses to see as much as we could. Then back to the motel to get ready for the banquet! I am happy to report I neither over-dressed nor under-dressed for the event. And all of us at the banquet, no matter how grandly attired, had dog hair on their clothes.

I was beyond thrilled to receive two awards! I received the Maxwell Medal of Excellence and the coveted Merial Human-Animal Bond Award.

"I'm your biggest fan!"

Receiving award

Besides receiving the awards, the highlight of the evening was meeting one of my very, very favorite authors of all things dog, Patricia McConnell. I knew she was up for an award, so I brought a copy of my favorite book of hers, The Other End of the Leash, along so I could ask her to sign it. I know, I'm such a geek, but I was over the moon meeting her. She was very gracious and didn't call security on me. And she won an award too!

Patricia M. & me

So that's my Excellent Adventure in New York City! I was very happy to come home and walk my dogs along a stream and listen to the songs of the first red-wing black birds.

Maxwell Medal of Excellence