Winery Dogs calendar: a competition and a cause

Those who visit wineries may have noticed how many wineries have friendly dogs. Victoria writer Troy Townsin spotted that in 2006 when he was signing his books at Okanagan wineries. It gave him an idea for a great fund-raiser. Every year since 2007, he has photographed and produced his attractive Winery Dogs of BC Wall Calendar. The proceeds from selling the calendars have yielded more than $10,000 for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Another cause has been added for the 2021 Winery Dogs calendar: It will also raise funds for the Cure Blau Syndrome Foundation. The explanation, which follows shortly, is rather sad. But first, I want to announce a contest to allow two of the readers of this blog to win a calendar, which sell for $15. Troy has set aside two calendars for this competition. I would like readers to send in short anecdotes about their pets to my email address, which is goodgrog@shaw.ca. I will publish some of the best in a future blog. And I will toss all names in a hat, pull out two and have calendars sent to you. Everyone else can go to Troy’s website, www.polyglotpublishing.com, to purchase calendars. He ships them world-wide. I can recommend these calendars highly. Troy is an excellent photographer and his calendars are very well produced. I came to know Troy and to appreciate his calendars when we were both judges at the Lieutenant Governor’s Awards of Excellence in Wine. Until a few years ago, the judging panel met at Government House in Victoria for a few days every summer. We tasted and judged at least 500 of the best wines from British Columbia and have awards to the 12 to 15 of the very best. The seven-person judging panel was expert and also collegial to work with. Troy was one of the best. And the rest of us also looked forward to working with him because he brought a Winery Dogs calendar for each of us. With about 30 dogs featured in each calendar (more than one to a page, depending on the image), this calendar has special appeal to dog lovers. During the last four years, Troy had his young daughter, Lexi, assist in setting up some of the photographs. Her role was to get the dogs to look at her and Troy while he taking the photographs. It was, as she once said, “the hardest job of all.” Sadly, her life was taken last October by Blau Syndrome, a genetic inflammatory disease so rare that, according to the MedicalNewsToday website, it affects one child in a million. “The earliest symptom is usually granulomatous dermatitis, a type of skin inflammation that causes a continuous rash,” the website says. “The rash may be scaly or form hard lumps under the skin. It may develop on the arms, legs, and torso.” The rash can develop around the first year of age. The other effects of the disorder are increasingly more damaging to the patient. “Lexi was the inspiration and original founder of the Cure Blau Syndrome Foundation, a non-profit that her parents started to search for a treatment and a cure,” Troy writes. “The work is continuing to honour her legacy and to fund research into treatments for the inflammatory condition.” In the 2021 calendar, Lexi is pictured along with several of the winery dogs she coaxed into posing for Troy’s camera. I would urge my readers to consider this calendar. The causes it supports have a great deal of merit. For those wishing to compete for a calendar, the deadline is December 21, in order to give Troy time to get the calendars in the mail.