July’s Awesome Ottawa award goes to Leah Bartlett, to support a live-action recreation of Cassius Coolidge’s paintings of dogs playing poker for Ottawa’s Nuit Blanche.

“We will have four to six ‘dogs’ playing poker, drinking whiskey, and eating bone cookies,” explains Leah. “And there will be one or two empty seats at the table, for members of the public to enter the painting and join in.”

Visiting members of the public, Leah notes, will be required to wear dog collars at all times. And after one or two rounds, “the cat bodyguard will escort the humans out and bring in new players.”

Leah is a local health planner in Ottawa. You can follow her progress at dppottawa.weebly.com.