For our fourth-annual Cover Pet Contest, we narrowed 281 Louisville-area submissions to 20 finalists, then let the public vote for a winner on Louisville.com. These four — including winner Mia — received the most votes. Smile for the camera!
MIA
Golden retriever mix, four years old
Owners: Scott Stuckey and Stacey Spilman
Mia always has a toy in her mouth. Her favorite? A giant Lamb Chop squeeze toy. She really loves salmon skin. And she shares a banana with her dad every morning before going to work with him at the Omni Hotel. “It’s a great place for her to be,” Stacey Spilman says. “She probably thinks that everyone comes to see her and give her pets and love.” Mia also knows Spanish, having been adopted through a Puerto Rican rescue after Hurricane Maria.
SAMUEL L. JACKSON,
AKA SIM SIMMA
American tabby, 11 years old
Owners: Anna Foshee and Kevin Oberhausen
Samuel L. Jackson really, really likes to sleep and look out the window. He also eats a lot. “We call him a kibble connoisseur,” Kevin Oberhausen says. He pretty much likes anything that feels new — furniture, a box, a bag. He kneads his blanket as if he’s making biscuits. “We say that he makes better biscuits than Bob Evans,” Oberhausen says. “He’ll get in a trance and we’ll have to snap him out of it. We call him the Dough Boy.” If he were famous, he’d probably be someone royal. “He’s pretty regal and majestic,” Oberhausen says. “Like Freddie Mercury from Queen.”
GRAYSON
Weimaraner, seven years old
Owners: Diane and Jim Everse
Grayson’s favorite thing to do is walk three miles at Tom Sawyer Park every morning with his best dog buddy, Woodford, a bulldog-pit bull mix. He also likes watching Animal Planet. “When he can see the other animals, he can really get into it,” Diane Everse says. His favorite place to nap is in the foyer, where the sun shines and he stretches out while sunbathing. His duck and squirrel toys are his absolute favorites. He will bring them to you and then try and get you to chase him around. But once he gets bored and tired of playing, he takes the stuffing out and puts it in a pile. If Grayson were a celebrity? “I would say Mark Harmon on NCIS,” Diane says. “He’s extremely handsome and he’s always investigating and keeping his territory rid of critters.”
EMMA
German shepherd, four years old
Owner: Morgan Robinson
Every Saturday, Emma goes to the farmers’ market at Douglass Loop. “And she likes to go swimming in the creek by our house or the kiddie pool when she is playing with our neighbor dog, an Australian Cattle Dog named Toby,” Morgan Robinson says. Emma is a diva and loves to sing along to the piano. If she could have a human job, Emma would be an FBI agent. “She is very smart, observant, loyal and would love to chase after anyone that would try to run away from her,” Robinson says. Emma also loves to smell people’s feet.
This originally appeared in the September 2019 issue of Louisville Magazine under the headline “BFFL.” To subscribe to Louisville Magazine, click here. To find us on newsstands, click here.
Photos by Clay Cook, claycookphoto.com
