Zippy

Day 127, 2012 Karen went from one kennel to next to bring an adoptable dog from the Marion County Dog Shelter for me to photograph. As each dog entered the room I couldn’t help but think, “Can these guys get any cuter?”

My heart pretty much melted when Zippy came into the room.  He got extra points for just being cute, I don’t even have to mention what a looker the little guy was.

He was a tad bit camera shy, but what a trooper. He did his best to put his best foot forward for his glamour shot.

Timber

Day 126, 2012 Yes, Mr. Model T is not always so perfect. In a few moments time he went from being a sweet and innocent photography assistant to destructo dog.

I could have stopped him, but the lights were up and he was having such a wonderful time. Get the full story here Itsa greyt day

Freckles

Day 125, 2012 Can this little girl possible be any cuter? This is Freckles and she’s available for adoption at the Marion County Dog Shelter. She comes in an instant love package… and you get free freckles!

Of course, she has just a tiche of ‘tude adding to her already incredibly sweet personality. When she finds her new family, they are going to be just about as lucky as you can get.

And of course, giving kisses to the assistant was just an added bonus. She really knows how to work her crowd.

Moose

Day 124, 2012 I am volunteering at the county shelter to take photos of the adoptable dogs. I wanted a colorful background for them and ordered the blue background this week. I finally got a chance to try it out tonight.

Moose drew the lucky straw and once he warmed up a bit, he was quite the ham.

The fur ball

Day 123, 2012 When I talked to the vet about coming up to photograph Miss Buttercup, they warned me about the fur balls.

Seriously, how could another dog be a problem? I love dogs. As we drove up the country road to their place we passed by the herd of goats grazing in the pasture. We were in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains and I never really did think about the safety of the goats from coyote.

Once we arrived, we walked around the deck to the back of the house to enjoy the amazing view and quickly make my plan for Buttercup. As I was setting up, the fur balls arrived. A pair of beautiful great pyrenees, racing in to make sure that their neighbors were safe. Their jobs are to guard the goats, but with us they were as gentle as lambs.

This one made himself to home as he watched me set up, not really caring that he was on the stage for Buttercup. I whistled for a test shot and he looked up and promptly moved. Not far enough away for Buttercup though. They were happy to be held at bay with the doc as he handed out cookie after cookie to give me just a few minutes to work with Buttercup.

Buttercup

Day 122, 2012 at roughly the same time that the red head came home, our  vet brought home an adorable silken wind hound puppy. If she were red, she would be a miniature Timber, or she could be a hairy whippet.

Instead, she is an absolutely beautiful 9 month old silken. When we got to their home, she did a thorough job of washing my glasses with her sweet little kisses. She did such a good job, I could barely see out of them.

Buttercup officially kicks off my portfolio building.

She is a whole lot shorter than my guys, I had to lay on the ground to shoot up at her, but she was worth all of it. She was a little confused by what I was doing. After all, she knows me as the crazy lady with the giant hairy dog. Buttercup took the whole adventure is stride and after a few quick photos, she returned to her digging grounds in search of all that is good.

Thanks Doc. You made my day.

Timber

Day 122, 2012 Well on the way to recovery, at least from the abdominal surgery, I wanted to be sure to catch a photo of Timber’s scar. It looks so good one week later and I suspect that when his tummy hair grows back, we’ll never even know it was there.

His neck on the other had where the feeding tube is will be another story. He’ll probably have a pretty nasty scar there, I can only hope his long neck hairs do their job.

I can’t believe how much better he seemed today. The doc added an appetite stimulant aka happy pill to his cocktail and already it has made a huge difference. He had an appetite today… for kibble and chicken livers.

Flocko

Day 121, 2012 I’ve been held hostage all week by lousy weather and a sick borzoi. The clouds finally parted today and the sun once again lit up the valley.

I was desperate to get out but the borzoi had yet one more procedure today and we were leery to wander to far from home. There is a field by the high school about 1/2 block from our home. Not the most ideal setting by any stretch of the imagination, but desperate times lead to desperate measures and it felt really good to get out for awhile with the camera.

Tucker

Day 120, 2012 It’s been a long time since I have watched a Disney movie with my now grown daughters. But of all the movies we watched, the one line I remember is when puppy Copper meets his new friend Tod from The Fox and the Hound and says “I’m Copper, I’m a hound dog.”

Today Karen and I had our volunteer orientation at the Marion County Dog Shelter. We are volunteering to take pictures of the shelter dogs. There has been a national movement to get professional photographers into the shelters to take great photos of the animals waiting to be adopted.

Adoption is perhaps one of my biggest passions, so in addition to taking photos for the Oregon Greyhound Adoption, I am going to take photos at the Marion County Dog Shelter. We’re really looking forward to this.

I didn’t know if we would have time today to take photographs, but I did take a few photos of Tucker, a coon hound waiting for a family to call him their own.

He was a cutie for sure. He really had an interest in everything that was going on around him and he was so sweet. He was well-mannered on his leash and just couldn’t get enough of those ear scritches.

Mickey

Day 119, 2012 I love greyhound ears and eyes. They are always so expressive.

Their ears are also practical. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been somewhere and needed to know their date of birth and age. Since they are retired racers, they have tattoos in each ear. One ear identifies the litter they are from, the other ear has their birth month and year. So if you ever lift a greyhound’s ears and it has a series of green numbers, you know you are talking to a retired racing greyhound.