Imladris Shilohs welcomes "For the Love of Dogs" to West Virginia

Avril Williams of Imladris Shilohs in West Virginia and Maryland sent in this great photo series of two of her Shiloh Shepherds and the "For the Love of Dogs" wine bottles after receiving her order from Chateau Morrisette.

Ariel, a Shiloh Shepherd recently diagnosed with EPI owned by Avril Williams, posing with the wine Avril purchased to support research into the genetics of EPI.
Photo courtesy of Imladris Shilohs.

Let the taste testing begin, Ariel giving Hamish (on the label) a kiss.
Photo courtesy of Imladris Shilohs.

Ariel, two bottles opened and down.
Photo courtesy of Imladris Shilohs.

Apparently Strider, another of the Imladris Shiloh Shepherds, helped polish off two more bottles from the case! *hiccup*
Photo courtesy of Imladris Shilohs.

Strider wiped out after the testing.
Photo courtesy of Imladris Shilohs.

Obviously the Imladris Shilohs did not actually drink the wine — nor will we speculate who did! And we certainly do not suggest any canines partake in taste testing the wine, it's all just photos in good fun. Thank you Avril for sharing them!

WELCOME!

We're not here to update you on the EPI Research Fund or the status of the research project; we're here to celebrate the EPI fund-raising wine project: "For the Love of Dogs."

Well then, how did this blog come about you ask? It all started as we were so pleasantly surprised at the response the "For the Love of Dogs" wine project was getting. We've received interest from folks wanting to know if they could leave a bottle or two at their vet's office, at different training clubs, doggie day care centers and a lot of folks wanting to donate them to raffle tables — just a lot of wonderful ideas. Our answer remains, if they let you — GO FOR IT!

Folks have also inquired regarding getting it into restaurants, using it for gifts and even using it as their wine of choice at banquets as a lot of dog clubs have annual banquets with their National Specialties. Just so many ideas we hadn't thought about and figured it might inspire others as well if we shared them. So we knew we would enjoy hearing about, and seeing, the fruits of your labors and thought a blog would be a wonderful way to share it with everyone. And so "The Traveling Trails, Tails & Tales of EPI Wine" blog was born.

BUT — you know there is always a but — we kept thinking about it and realized we shouldn't just limit it to photos of displays. We're sure many of you have heard of, and may have even participated in, the "Flat Stanley" project where grade school students created "Flat Stanley" paper dolls and sent them off with family and friends to their various jobs, on vacation, and the like, documenting his adventures with photos and stories. I've seen pictures of "Flat Stanley" doing all sorts of things from working a day at the vet's office, spending a day at Disney World, going to the Oscars and even Flat Stanley at the White House. So we got to thinking, why not do something like that with the wine as well.

So get your cameras ready! We are putting the call out to all of our supporters to show us where the wine has traveled. Is it at your vet's office? At your training club,? On a raffle table? Posed with your canine friends? Did it go on vacation with you? Is it with all of you in front of a landmark? The possibilities are endless and only limited by your imagination!

This will be as successful and as fun as we all make it. We're excited to hear — and see — the adventures and ideas from all of you!

Be creative, be humorous, have fun and take photos to send in with your captions or stories to "The Traveling Trails, Tails & Tales of EPI Wine." We will graciously plug websites or contact information of businesses, clubs, etc. who have supported the wine, just include it in the information submitted for consideration for the blog. Submissions can be sent to epiwineblog@gmail.com

Thank you all so very much and let the games begin . . .