Best Shot Monday: Meet Mackerel

Mackerel_A167953

Holy mackerel, baby hippo, meet Mackerel!  This kid is a total goofball! I've talked here before about the importance of meeting a dog outside of the kennel environment, taking him outside to see his true personality.  Mackerel is a great example of why that is so important.

When I first leashed him up to take him outside, he was very hesitant and seemed pretty fearful.  I didn't have any trouble leashing him, but he was hesitant to walk down the inside hallway to get to the play yard. Sarah and I had to stop several times to pet him and encourage him, talking sweetly to him the whole way.  He also was scared walking by the other kennels that we had to pass by to finally make it out to the big play yard.  But, man, oh man, once we got him out there?  Totally different dog!  He ran a couple laps around the yard with the biggest smile on his big ole face. He'd stop every now and then and just roll around. Once we started tossing the ball, he thought that was the COOLEST ... THING ... EVER!!!!  A BALL!!!  I LOVE A BALL!!!  He'd run so fast after it that he'd end up tripping over both the ball and his own feet before finally grabbing it and running back to us with it.  You can see the dirt on his nose and face in this shot.  That's from him rolling all over the place. :-)

One of the shelter staff who had done his assessment was watching from outside the fence and asked us who he was with a confused look on her face.  When we told her it was Mackerel, she said, "You've got to me kidding me! That's a completely different dog than the Mackerel I assessed.  I've got to change my notes!!"  We had to completely wear him out before he finally just plopped down and looked at me like he was saying, "Okay, NOW you may take my picture."

Two lessons here and I've shared them both before.  First, don't judge a dog by his kennel presentation; think about how you'd feel if you were stuck in a three-foot-by-eight-foot room nearly 24 hours a day, watching the world go by on the other side of your kennel door.  And second, don't buy into the bad rap that the media often gives pit mixes.  Over these last five years photographing, by large majority, pit mixes at city shelters, I can honestly say that these silly blockheads can be some of the most fun, most lovable, most goofy dogs you'll ever meet. Mackerel is waiting for his forever family at the City of Tallahassee Animal Service Center, 1125 Easterwood Drive.      

Best Shot Monday: Isabelle

Isabelle

I've photographed hundreds of beautiful shelter dogs, but this face, this sweet girl, is the most beautiful furry face in the world to me. This is my Isabelle. She's going on 10 now, though thankfully she still acts like she's about five or six most of the time. She and I have had some very long talks about how long she needs to live, as I know that her little sister Molly will be completely lost without her. Molly doesn't take well to other dogs, but she sure loves her Isabelle.  Here's Izzy as a pup.  And here's Molly as a pup.

We've definitely made some adjustments to our dog life since we've been in Tallahassee.  At Home in Jacksonville, the dogs have the run of the ground floor, where we spend most of our time anyway. That's where my husband's man cave, my studio, and one of the the girls' play areas is.  So the dogs are inside with us there.  But here in our Tallahassee house, we don't have anything like that space. This house is a traditional one-story house.  To make matters more challenging, the back yard is not in any way connected to the garage like it is in our Home in Jacksonville.  So Isabelle and Molly are becoming quite the spoiled girls, according to my husband anyway. They still sleep in their crates, but now they are inside with us as much as they want to be. We just have to keep an eye on them to make sure they don't visit the Kitty Litter Cafe!

The cats have even adjusted to having the big dogs underfoot.  Zoey's always been awfully fond of Isabelle, but it's taken Pete some time to get used to sharing space with the dogs. In Jacksonville, the cats were on the 2nd and 3rd floors, dogs on the first.  Now we're all together on the same level! Praying Isabelle still has another 10 years with us!      

Best Shot Monday: Fun Postcard Art!

Hoss Postcard

Hi there! I hope you are well! I know it's been a while since I've checked in here! I took the whole month of January off from creating so I could catch my breath and get back into the swing of things for the new year. I've been gearing up to participate in a couple fun swaps and created this image and a few others for Kat Sloma's Liberate Your Art swap. I've been wanting to create some fun postcards using my shelter dog images just to be able to brighten someone's day and encourage adopting from your local shelter.  Having fun with these!