The Hunter Pet Haiku contest ended a mere 8 hours ago and I have already drawn and contacted the three random winners who will be receiving a free month of game time.

Since you can only win one of the two categories, these three are not eligible to win the popular vote. So I thought I’d share their haiku with everyone here, so you can appreciate it properly … and then go vote for your favorite haiku among all the entries on the WoW Petopia Community forums.

First, some fun numbers:

• A total of 29 people entered the contest.
• They submitted a total of 51 43 entries. (Multiple entries didn’t improve your chance in the random drawing, though. And you can only win once anyway.)
• The most entries I got from any one person was 5. The average number entered was around 1.6-ish.
• We’re going to have to run 5 voting polls on the forums to accommodate all the entries. After that, we’ll have a run-off poll to choose the most popular haiku.
• It’s taken me five hours so far to get myself organized to post some, but not all, of the entries on the forums. This may well be because I am very tired right now.

And now for the random winners!

Our first random winner was Phyllixia, who writes the blog Hunters Rhok. She entered the following gem:

Loyal black panther
Sacrificed so I may live
I will avenge you!

I’m considering keeping this on a sticky note near my computer for the next time I get my cat killed. It certainly beats my normal reaction: “Arrrrrrgh! Damn!”

The second winner of the random drawing was Rades of Drenden (US), who blogs at Orcish Army Knife. (Apparently bloggers have all the luck.) He sent two entries:

Culling of Strathholme,
Tank DC’d, but we all lived!
I just pet tanked it.

And one of our relatively few PvP entries:

A rogue sneaks, then saps
then dies from a Big Red Pet.
/rolleyes Silly rogue.

(I decided to allow /rolleyes as two syllables even though I myself always pronounce the ‘slash’.)

[edit] Unfortunately the third random winner of game time hasn’t gotten back to me yet with permission to share his name, but I can share his haiku! Our third winner goes by Chanteloup, which means “Singing wolf” — a very appropriate name, if you ask me! He sent five entries, plus a bonus haiku that deliberately didn’t quite meet the rules. First, his legit entries:

Title: Zoo Keeper
Bats, Cats, Boars, Bears, Bugs
A new beast for every whim.
Menagerie Mine.

I love the list of pet types there. (Reminds me of the TMBG song “Mammals”, actually.)

Title: Snort
A laugh that lightens
A coat in hues of sunset
Attack with joy, friend.

You’ve got to love any poetry that celebrates a hyena.

Title: Mazzranache
Strong, tall, pink you were
The gem of the Golden Plains.
I go flamingo

Vivid! And somehow now I am picturing a flamenco dancer.

Title: Bug Catcher
First a Moth, a wasp
Now a Worm, a silithid
Entomology

You know, I never really think of in-game moths as insect. Too soft. Also, it would creep me out to have a bug that big following me around …

Title: To Camp and Catch
Ressan the Needler
I will love you for always
A Dwarf and her bat

And finally, the not-quite-legit entry:

Title: Secret
I have but one pet
a true ice-blue companion.
my hunter wears cloth

So those are the winners of our random drawing. Now head over to the forums and vote for your choice for popular winner!

(Actually, I haven’t quite gotten all the polls posted yet. And I still intend to post all the entries here. But it’s 8:30am here and I haven’t been to bed yet, so that can wait a bit.)