The National!! At a distance...

Alas, we weren't able to go to the Great Dane Club of America National Specialty (aka "The National") this year. Last year we had a blast there - and as I wrote in that post, if you like Danes or are even just interested in them and you are ever within visiting distance then for Pete's sake GO!! It's simply awesome - you'll see more wonderful dogs and meet more knowledgeable people than anywhere else on earth.

This year it's in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and the trip just didn't work out for us. But I was going into withdrawals (yes, despite having four five - I'll explain tomorrow - Danes snoring around my feet as I type this, just hush) and really feeling the pain of missing the National this year...

...and then to the rescue come Scot Billings and Ginnie Saunders! With lots and lots and LOTS of wonderful pictures!! Scot has been documenting the National for many, many years - you can see pictures from this year's festivities here, and on the home page for his Rokadane web site you can find links for previous years.

Ginnie's DaDane web site is one of the best all-around Dane web sites anyway - she has written weekly articles for many years about Danes and also has a wonderful and HUGE links directory on her site.

But her photography is breathtaking - go look at her photos and you'll swear you can just reach out and touch the dogs! It absolutely is the next best thing to being there!