A Toast – To You!

Holy crap, second place, you guys!!

Sorry, I just had to get that out! Let me back up a bit…back in June, Foster Dad and I found out that our lil’ old corner of the interwebs was nominated for The Tennessean’s annual Toast of Music City Reader’s Choice Awards for Best Blog. The nomination alone blew us away. The Tennessean is the go-to print news source for Nashville and our surrounding counties. They host the TOMC awards every year, in which Nashvillians get to vote on their favorite of their favorites in every category from restaurants, home improvement providers, retailers, local celebrities – just about everything that makes living in Nashville awesome.

As honored as we were to be nominated in the first place, we were floored when we got the word that we’d been invited to the awards reception, meaning that Heartbeat at My Feet finished in the top three in the “Best Blog” category! Holy smokes! I seriously about fell right over. Last Thursday night we attended the reception, where I was a nervous freakin’ wreck.  Foster Dad and I made quick use of our complimentary drink tickets to take the edge off, then we grabbed some delicious grub and stood by waiting as the winners in each category scrolled across the screens. If you follow us on Facebook and/or Twitter, then you already know what happened next:

I couldn’t believe it! Second place??  Of the dozen or so blogs that were nominated, we won second?? After less than two years in the blogosphere, second place? Second? Seriously?  Could. Not. Believe. It.

All the winners were printed in this Sunday’s Tennessean, and posted online. As if the 2nd place win wasn’t enough of a victory for us, the super-duper part is that a lot of our friends won, too!  And now, some props for a few of our buddies:

Best Local Artist (visual): Amiee Stubbs Photography (2nd place).  Amiee is the photographic genius behind Kaylee’s adoption photos and the Impression-a-Bull project, and is also the gal behind the lense at all of Animal Rescue Corps’ large scale rescue operations. She rocks so hard.

Lauren Revans and Amiee Stubbs, from Amiee Stubbs Photography. Serious awesomeness, right here!

Best Festival: Barktoberfest (3rd place). Nashville loves our festivals, that’s for sure – that is to say, we have lots of ’em! And for one of Nashvillian’s favorites to be dog-centric is pretty dang cool.  This year’s event is on October 12th and admission is free, so mark your calendars!

Best Hotel:  Loews Vanderbilt (2nd) and the Hutton Hotel (3rd place) are both dog friendly and were recent hosts to Agape Animal Rescue‘s annual fundraiser, Glitter & Glam.

A million-squillion thanks go to everyone who voted for us this year. Second place ain’t too shabby, and we are so, so honored. This award means so much to us because it means that there are real live people out there behind our blog stats who are actually reading this thing, and are totally into the antics of our foster dogs, tips and tricks of owning and caring for pets, news about large scale rescues, and whatever random stuff crosses our minds.  So, here’s to you readers! Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts for sticking with us. You are amazing!

Oh, and a super special thanks goes out to local celebri-dog and runway model, Willie Fitzgerald, for the nomination. You are one awesome Pug!  

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