The results are in...

...and my entry came in #59 out of 233 entries! Not bad for my first time. It received 5.14 starts out of 11 total.  These are some of the comments I received:

"I don't get the sense that she is actually leaning against the couch. Different lighting might help there."

"maybe if the dog put his head down ears up on her leg and rested it there with a sigh that would keep him alive for a little longer. good work though"

"I really like her posing with this dog. Sitting behind the couch instead of on it. Makes the framing interesting. Nice work"

"It seems weird that she doesn't move her eyes when her dog turns back to look at her.. She looks like she looks through the dog, and not at the dog"

"Nice use of dog tail to explain the light thud occurring in the first half the dialogue! Along with, of course, the inclusion of the dog in general; it was a very natural touch and fit well with the context.
The only thing that felt out of place with the rest of her acting was the crossing of her heart with her palms; doing so felt more like a spiritual motion versus bonding her pet, as she had for the rest of it, but that was about it. That could be a personal opinion though.
Good job!"
 
"Nice, I think the dog perking up on "Hmm?" would have been a better accent than him perking up when he does now.."
 
"The entire animation matches the tone of the voice extremely well. I like how the dog reacts."

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with the response. I also uploaded the scene to my profile page on YouAnimator.com. It's a new site that showcases animators from all around the world. I uploaded it last night and today they posted it on their home page as "Today's Highlight."  It was even posted on their facebook profile! It's really given me a boost of momentum to get started on more scenes. I'm thinking of ideas for this month's selection. I also have a few other things on the back burners that I want to work on.

Didi is sending me ideas for her movie that she is writing. I'm helping her with ideas, but mainly I want to help with visual development, storyboards, layout, and possibly animatics. They way she describes a scene, I instantly visualize it in my head. The trick is getting that picture in my head down on paper or on the computer.

As far as my studio work goes, it can get pretty busy. I have so many irons in the fire that it's difficult to decide which one to pull out and work on. The good thing is that it will never get dull. There is always something to do.