FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

San Jose, California – June 30, 2010 - A spokesmutt for the Canine Civil Liberties Union announced today that the CCLU has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Chiqui Bay of San Jose, against her human companion Kara Sjoblom-Bay. The younger and furrier of the Bays claimed that Sjoblom-Bay has violated doggie labor laws by having Chiqui parade around wearing a sign asking for votes in the Blog Your Way Around the World contest.

The chief complaint against Sjoblom-Bay is that the signage states that Chiqui will “earn one doggie treat per vote.” According to CCLU lawyer Spot T. Rekard, “the clear industry standard is three treats per vote.” Rekard said that one doggie treat per vote amounts to sweatshop labor.

When contacted for her reaction to the suit, Sjoblom-Bay said simply, “Chiqui can’t count.” Pressed further, she added that the best way to help Chiqui was to go to Blog Your Way Around the World and register and vote for Sjoblom-Bay’s travel blogging essay. The goodwill created by this simple act will directly result in an increase of doggie treat consumption, she suggested.

Chiqui’s publicist, Fluffy O’Hare, said the increasing celebrity Chiqui has enjoyed during her advertising stint does not diminish the negative impact of the paucity of treats she has had to endure. Weakened by the lack of treats, O’Hare said that Chiqui had grown weary of the spotlight and, “just wants to be alone.” However, should the frequency of the treat dispensation increase to a level commensurate with the effort she puts forth, then Chiqui indicated that she would consider increasing the number of public appearances she makes.

“Chiqui is amenable to a settlement if Sjoblom-Bay is ready to deal,” Rekard said. He added that he admired Chiqui’s dogged pursuit of justice.

For additional information:
CCLU Contact: spottrekard at kara-bay dot com
Publicity Contact: fluffyohare at kara-bay dot com

Stephen is giving away three 10×15 fine art prints on his blog in conjunction with being featured on iwearyourshirt.com on April 18. He has tons of beautiful travel images on his site, so head over to his blog and check out the giveaway. Deadline to enter is Monday, April 19, 2010, at 12:00 noon pacific time.

Stephen has opened a shop on Etsy for his fine art photography. He already sells photos on his own website, Bay Images, but Etsy will likely expose a different audience to his work. I’m really interested in seeing how the Etsy shop works out. I haven’t used mine for anything other than getting rid of old art magazines and supplies, so I haven’t done any marketing at all. If anyone has some great Etsy marketing ideas, I’d love to hear about them.

Froppy - © Ellen van Deelen

My friend Luba sent me a link to these pictures of rats playing musical instruments. I loved them, so I just had to email photographer Ellen van Deelen to ask if I could share a couple with you. Her photos do such a great job of capturing ratty personalities. They are funny, curious and smart, and her photos really bring that out AND they made me laugh. Apparently, van Deelen had the idea for these photos when she saw some tiny instruments in a store window. Rats are insatiably curious about everything, so they cooperated by thoroughly investigating the instruments, providing her with some wonderful models. If you click on any of the pictures, it will take you to larger versions of the images on photo.net.

The Musician - © Ellen van Deelen

Our alpha rat was Kat, who was hilarious. She was a little bully. If I was sitting on the couch, and she wanted to get from one side of me to the other, she wouldn’t simply climb over my lap. Instead, she would try to go behind my back by using her tiny hands to try and push me out of the way. And it usually worked too because I didn’t want to accidentally squish her. When we gave the rats treats, Kat would steal the treats from her sisters and go hide them. It wasn’t that she particularly wanted the treats. She just wanted to show them who was boss. She was usually too busy to eat the treats and when she forgot about them later, her chubby siblings would gobble them up. Kat was a skinny little thing, and she lived the longest of all our rats, which was still far too short.

The Band - © Ellen van Deelen

The Irrepressible Spazi, riding around in the hood of my sweatshirt - © Stephen Bay

I highly recommend that you check out Ellen van Deelen‘s other rat pictures – they are truly wonderful. Please do not use these photos without permission from the photographer. She deserves the credit for her work.

Stephen just posted his pictures from our recent trip to Bhutan. They are absolutely beautiful, please take a look if you have a chance. You can also read my Bhutan travelogue on my travel blog.