Actually, this is an odd one, and I know a lot of you post photos so I have to share this little bit of caution.

Normally, I don't mind my photos being passed along as long as there's a point back to me, or if it's for non-profit. However, someone out there actually well... stole my dogs and is claiming them as their own. (They didn't change Simon's name though, but they changed Caleb's. Poor Libbers, he always takes second fiddle to his big brother.)

I kind of have to laugh a little, in that it's a major website apparently, and I've gotten several notes and emails from people congratulating me on dog of the day... and I had no idea what was going on, since I'd never even heard of the website. (Seems like a really nice site though, at least, and the comments on my photos and dog are very sweet.)

However, sadly, this makes me really want to throw huge copyright images over my images at this point. I really wouldn't want someone making a scam and selling my dogs to unsuspecting people over the internet (gee, shock, you spent money and there's no dog!) or using my photos commercially. I've never felt there was a worry before -- yep, I'm naive and didn't think my photos were commercially viable, and I don't put them out there in high resolutions good enough to print good prints from, but who knows. I'm sure Simon's on some mug in some other country somewhere, haha!

So, just a warning to all of you who post photos places (and no, the photos didn't come from here, I'm pretty sure they came from my blog or my flickr account, based on what's there) might want to consider using photoshop or another program to put a copyright on them, or if you have a camera, embedding the copyright in your photos. I do do that, so I do have a pretty solid case to stand on, and I've already written the site admin explaining the situation. I feel bad, because there's a lot of nice comments and it's truly an honor to have my dog and photos up on a major site, and I don't mind sharing if the credit goes back to me...well, and Caleb gets his name back. Poor Caleb!

I don't mind sharing at all - I'm thrilled to share my dogs with people, I'm quite proud of them all. However, they're MY dogs, and if I have to scoop the poop, pay the vet bills, share my bed, teach them to have manners and not be heathens, and of course wipe kitty litter off of sneaky noses (oh yuck!) I darn well want people to know that, and I'm sure the rest of you would too-- so just a little heads-up, and be careful of photo lifters!