Best Shot Monday: Sweet Furry Faces!

Time for Best Shot Monday and more sweet furry faces!  This was a fun little accidental shot. Sweet little Hazel here really couldn't sit still for longer than a second or two most of our shoot, but this was a fun little find on my camera card. Shows one of the tricks of the trade! Treats! Below are six more of my favorite shots from the second week of January.

This little bit of adorableness is Gracie. She is about 90% blind. She was one of six dogs who came into the Tallahassee shelter when her owner died. Three of the dogs were adopted out, one was taken by the Leon County Humane Society, and Gracie and her brother Frankie were taken by Tallahassee Big Dog Rescue. Right now, Gracie relies on Frankie as her guide. Big Dog Rescue is currently raising funds for her to have surgery to help her regain her eyesight. She has been seen by the same animal eye team who treated my sweet blind girl Savannah, Drs. Brown and Chandler from the Animal Eye Clinic in Jacksonville, and they are developing a plan for her treatment. The surgery will be approximately $1,700 for one eye or $2,600 for both. Interested in helping Big Dog Rescue help Gracie? You can make a donation towards her surgery and everything Tallahassee Big Dog Rescue does here. TBDR is an all-volunteer non-profit who relies solely on donations. Every little bit helps!

This is Mia. She came through the City of Tallahassee Animal Service Center and had the opportunity to get through the UTOPIA program. The UTOPIA program is a partnership between Animal Services and the Taylor Correctional Institution (TCI) in Perry, Florida. This program began on June 4, 2007, and aims to increase the adoptability of the dogs in training. The Animal Service Center dogs are housed at the TCI for eight weeks to receive socialization and basic obedience training. All dogs participating in the UTOPIA Program must complete their training before being adopted (minimum eight weeks). Programs like these benefit not only the dogs but also the inmates working with the dogs. The dogs learn basic obedience training while the inmates learn to care for another while incarcerated, thereby giving more meaning to their time in the facility. Tallahassee Big Dog Rescue took her in from the shelter and now she is in a TBDR foster home waiting to meet her forever family.

This is Samuel. He's also being fostered by a Tallahassee Big Dog Rescue foster family. He's a super shy, pretty fearful fella, but once we got him outside for some playtime and fresh air, he came out of his shell a little bit. He'll need a patient family willing to take their time with him so he can learn to trust you.

This is Eugene. He and Charming below were part of a litter of nine Great Dane puppies that Tallahassee Big Dog Rescue rescued from a puppy mill case in Missouri. TBDR started off with nine and are down to two! The redheads and I enjoyed hanging out with them at the recent Tallahassee Adoptathon Pet Adoption the second weekend in January. We love dogs that lean on us, and these two are definite leaners!

And lastly, this little sweetie is Emmie. Smaller dogs and puppies are the first to get adopted at municipal, open admission shelters, and Emmie was one of those! She was adopted through the City of Tallahassee Animal Service Center the day after I took this photo! Thanks for stopping in!