Northern People: Dogs are calendar girls

Northern Living

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Lucy is featured in the "365 Puppies a Year" calendar. Special to the Record-Eagle
This photo of Cassie can be seen in the "365 Dogs" calendar. Special to the Record-Eagle

January 8, 2012

Photos chosen for national publications

BY MARTA HEPLER DRAHOS mdrahos@record-eagle.com The Record Eagle Tue Jan 31, 2012, 02:50 PM EST

WILLIAMSBURG — Cassie the

dog is a minor celebrity around

town.

The chocolate Labrador

retriever, owned by Marlene

Clemenshaw, of Williamsburg,

appears in the 2012 edition of

“365 Dogs,” a popular national

calendar.

“It’s one of our best-selling

calendars, incredibly popular,”

said Maggie Gleason, publicity

assistant for Workman Publishing

Co. in New York, which

publishes the calendar. “Every

year we get hundreds of submissions.”

Cassie, now 8, was selected

for the calendar two years after

her photo was submitted in its

annual contest, Clemenshaw

said. She’s pictured on the May

9 page next to a frog that wandered

onto the family’s deck.

“She kept patting it,

but she wouldn’t hurt it,”

recalled Clemenshaw, a

retired nurse who lives

on Elk Lake. “Every time

the frog would jump, she

would jump. I said, ‘I have

to get the camera.’ I tore

into the bedroom and laid

flat on the deck to get the

picture.’”

The 8-year-old Lab isn’t

the only area calendar

girl.

Lucy, a toy poodle

owned by Sue Hefron, of

Traverse City, appears in

another 2012 Workman

calendar: “365 Puppies a

Year.”

“I submitted the photos

last March, and I had

forgotten all about it, and

I got home from work one

night, and there was a

big, huge package,” said

Hefron, who opened the

parcel to find a copy of

the calendar with a note

reading, “Congratulations!

Your puppy’s a winner!”

“Of course, I had to

order a dozen calendars

and give them away to

everybody at Christmas,”

she said.

Lucy, now 2, is pictured

on the Oct. 5 square as a

fluffy white puppy wearing

a curious expression.

“She was sitting there in

the sunshine enjoying her

otter bed,” said Hefron,

who nicknamed the sometimes

naughty bundle of

energy, “Lucy Lohan.”

“You talk to her, and she

tilts her head. We call it

the ‘Lucy look.’”

Gleason said it’s unusual

for two calendar winners

in the same year to come

from the same small area.

“There are people who

have submitted for years

and years, and they finally

get in,” she said. “It’s very

exciting for them. It’s a

great way for people to

celebrate their pets or, in

some cases, memorialize

them.”

Cassie is the second canine

in the family to pose

in a calendar, said Clemenshaw,

who passed out

“365 Dogs” to everyone

from her children to her

dog boarder and groomer.

Her daughter, Yvonne,

sent in Cassie’s photo after

her own dog appeared

in a calendar about four

years ago.

But the attention hasn’t

gone to Cassie’s head.

“Every day at 4:30 I quit

what I’m doing and spend

an hour with Cassie,” said

Clemenshaw, who bonds

with her pet over exercise.

“We walk 4 1⁄2 miles a

day, three times a week.”

Hefron said she hung a

calendar at work and gave

another to her mother

at an area nursing care

facility.

“She had to tell everyone

this was her granddaughter

puppy,” she

said. “We’ve gotten a lot of

mileage out of this.”

Think your dog has a

shot at becoming the next

calendar girl — or boy?

The publishing company

is accepting entries for its

2013 calendar until Feb.

1. For more information,

see www.workman.com/

contests.