Obsessions

You'd think that since I've been off work since Wednesday afternoon I would have been blogging up a storm the last few days. Instead, I've gotten more and more behind somehow. Despite the fact that we were on vacation, we managed to stay steadily busy with basketball games, a trip to the airport, engagements with friends and a couple of volunteer days at the shelter, among other things. Some of those "other things" that kept me otherwise occupied for about 4 of those 6 days were the 3rd and 4th books in the Twilight series. I think I started the 3rd one on Tuesday, and then finished it by about 2:30 a.m. on New Year's Day. I started the 4th at about 10 a.m. that same morning, and then finished it on Friday afternoon. I was completely obsessed, just like with the first book! I swear I think I might have OCD--at least when it comes to ridiculous fiction books and jigsaw puzzles. I have no self-control at all with those things! The really sad thing is, ever since I finished the last book on Friday I've had the urge to start reading it a second time. I have to admit I loved it!

I managed to fight off my reading urges over the weekend and instead spend some time at the shelter, where I have almost gotten caught up with pictures of all the new dogs. Thankfully, on Saturday I had an assistant photographer who helped me take out all the pairs--my dear husband! Chad used to go to the shelter with me fairly frequently, but in the last several years he's instead stayed home on the weekends to do all the laundry and housecleaning and grocery shopping that most normal wives would probably be doing on their day off. It was so nice to have him there to help on Saturday, and he actually enjoyed the day as well since the weather was so unseasonably nice. I think the dogs enjoyed his company too.


Isn't that the sweetest? Little Betty the Bichon mix was obsessed with Chad almost as much as I'm obsessed with teenage vampire books!

Pawsible Dream 2008

Last weekend Chad and I attended the biggest fundraiser of the year for the Lawrence Humane Society, the 14th annual Pawsible Dream Benefit Auction. We pretty much go to the auction every year as long as we're in town, and it's always a lot of fun (although this year I missed my friends JoAnna and Brenda!). Most of the time I usually bid like a crazy person on the less expensive but still fun silent auction items, but after I won a bunch of things last year that I have yet to use, Chad made me promise to be a little more responsible about bidding--as in I could only bid on stuff that I would actually put to use. This time I only bid on 10 or so items, and I came away with only one: a black hand-knit scarf made by none other than our former mayor. She donates bunches of lovely scarves for the auction every year and this year I finally got one!

Normally we're not actually active participants in the live auction portion of the evening, but this year there was so much really cool Jayhawk memorabilia from the Orange Bowl and National Championship that we actually bid on quite a few big ticket items. One of them was this huge digital collage of basketball pictures that was like 6 feet by 4 feet. Since our basement is decorated with a KU theme, it would have been perfect for our house. We started bidding, got into a war with one other bidder, and when we had the high bid the auctioneer egged and egged the other people to keep going up--which they finally did after much prodding. Chad and I gave in, and only after that did Chad realize the collage wasn't of the 2007-2008 championship team--it was the year before! I had kind of realized that right as we started bidding, but still thought the collage would be neat. Chad, on the other hand, would have never bid that high had he known it wasn't from our winning year!! When we lost and he realized it was the wrong year he about had a heart attack knowing that we came about $50 from getting it! I think it was a definite blessing that we lost!!

I also bid on a framed cover of Sports Illustrated, with a picture of Mario's miracle shot, signed by Mario himself! I had taken Chad home and come back to bid on it without him, hoping that I could get it for a Christmas present. When the bidding went up to $175 over the listed value, I decided to bow out. I was bummed! I guess at least my bidding wars upped the total dollars for the shelter a little!

Speaking of total dollars, I don't even know how much money the event raised this year. I was at the shelter on Sunday and Tuesday, but I never even thought to ask. Strangely, the newspaper doesn't seem to have run a story on it either (besides the one before the event), which I think they usually do. The auction usually raises around $30,000, but it really felt like this year people were much more reserved in their bidding. Understandably so, since the economy is totally in the tank!

Mutt 'n' Strut 2008

Yesterday morning, Chad and I and the dogs participated in the 13th annual Mutt 'n' Strut benefit walk for the Lawrence Humane Society. This is has become a tradition with our family ever since I started volunteering at LHS, which will be ten years ago this summer! I started volunteering in 1998, so I guess our first walk would have been 1999, when Steeler and Celtic were not quite two years old. There's actually a Polaroid on our fridge that I think is from our first M'n'S--at least based on what I'm wearing in the picture it looks like the late 90s!

Anyway, early yesterday we loaded the three mutts into the car and headed out to the event. Unlike last year, which was so hot that Hope just about passed out, yesterday it was extremely cool--in the mid 50s. In fact, once we started walking into the wind it was quite chilly! You never really know what you're going to get with May weather in Kansas, I guess!

Chad and I were a little bit nervous about how Fresco would react to the hundreds of other dogs at the event, because he tends to get overly excited each time he sees strange dogs walk by our house or out while we're walking. We were very proud that he handled all of the excitement like a champ! He jumped up on a couple of LHS volunteers that he was clearly excited to see, but other than that he was very well behaved. We visited with his Petco trainer Colleen, and she was very impressed at how calm and well mannered he was. He never barked once the entire day, and the only time he even got the least bit excited was when there was a herd of dogs about a block in front of us that he really wanted to catch up to!

As far as Fresco's doggie social skills go, he was really better behaved than our weird girl Hope. She is just downright terrible with tiny dogs. I really think she must see them as some kind of little toy, so she immediately tries to grab them with her mouth or give them a good poke with her nose. It's totally bizarre too, because there's no rhyme or reason to which little dog she tries to eat! She was standing right next to my friend JoAnna's new Shih Tzu Chipper like a completely normal dog until Chip decided that he wanted to play. As soon as he started to bounce around a little, Hope grabbed him by the little little tuft of hair on top of his head and wouldn't let go! She practically picked him up by his hair--it was terrible! Thankfully Chip is a tough little guy and didn't really seem to be bothered by it!

Overall it was just a really enjoyable event and the dogs seemed to have a great time. We saw lots of people we knew and lots of former shelter dogs too, which always makes me so happy. I almost cried when I saw Tony, who for months was the dog at the shelter who had been there the longest, with his wonderful new family. He gave me big hugs and sloppy kisses yesterday as if to say "thanks for being my friend for all those months until I could find my awesome family!"

I uploaded more pictures from the event, but you can also check out this picture from the Journal-World--Hope and Celtic are famous! :)

Happy Endings

My friend Brenda sent me a link to a great article a couple of weeks ago and I'm just now getting around to sharing it. It's a long one, but definitely a good read that will open your eyes to the worlds of dogfighting and subsequent dog rescue. The article is specifically about a group of Pit Bulls who were rescued from Michael Vick's property last year and all of the terrific people who are giving them a second chance at a joyful, comfortable life. It's a sad, sad, sad story with a happy ending. When you have a few minutes, check out the story and the slideshow of all the wonderful dogs waiting for new homes.

One of the dogs featured in the article is Uba, the little black and white girl pictured here with her foster sibling and foster mom. She reminds me of one of the sweet Pit Bulls at the Lawrence Humane Society right now who's waiting for that perfect family to come along. His name is Tony, and he's one of 3 male Pits in the adoption area at the shelter right now. It's so hard to find suitable families for these sweet dogs, so they end up waiting at the shelter forever. Good families often don't understand the breed and just aren't interested, while other families are interested, but for all the wrong reasons. These poor little guys have such a rough time because their breed has been so maligned in the news over the past few years. Good boys like Tony and his friends Kash and Busta are paying the price because of the actions of terrible breeders and terrible owners. The good news is that people in rescue groups like BAD RAP in the San Francisco area and Mid-America Bully Breed Rescue here in our area are working hard to save these terrific dogs!

Blankets and BBQ

For those of you who live in the Lawrence area, I want to share a couple of very easy ways you can help out my favorite worthy cause--the Lawrence Humane Society.

The first LHS need is probably one you've already heard about. This week there was an article in the Lawrence Journal-World written by one of the shelter board members, as well as an email on the topic that I'm pretty sure was forwarded all over the city (I received it from three different people). In a nutshell, the shelter used to receive 20 to 25 bags of towels and blankets from Goodwill every week. These linens are used as bedding for the animals since they have to sleep on concrete floors. The blankets and towels are changed daily and laundered if possible, but many are contaminated with viruses or destroyed by nervous dogs and teething puppies, so this means the shelter goes through a lot of towels and blankets each week. Unfortunately, Goodwill changed management and now has some arrangement to ship all their linens to somewhere in Texas, so the shelter no longer has a source for their bedding.

So if you have any old blankets, sheets, comforters or towels laying around your house waiting to be taken to Goodwill or some other thrift store, please please please save them for the shelter instead! You know I'll be going there each weekend, so if you want to leave them with me, you don't even have to make a trip to deliver them. The shelter is also in the process of setting up Planet Aid boxes that will be strictly for shelter use and will be labeled as such, so you'll be able to drop your bedding off in several other locations around town as well. I can't tell you how much the animals--especially the dogs--will appreciate this. That concrete is so cold and so uncomfortable! One of our first foster dogs, a Whippet mix named Cheyenne who didn't have much meat on her bones, slept on that concrete floor for almost a year before she came home to live with us. She had huge callouses on her knees and elbows as a result of constant rubbing of concrete on her joints. Please donate your leftover bedding so that the sweet dogs at LHS will be a little more comfortable in an unhappy situation!

The second way you can help out the shelter this week isn't quite as easy as the first. This Sunday, the shelter is having a fundraising event at Abe & Jake's. There will be food catered by Bigg's Barbecue, and entertainment provided by Les Gilliam & the Silver Lake Band, who are apparently "nationally acclaimed western swing entertainers." Let me just say that Chad is extremely unhappy (sighing and groaning next to me as I type) that I've asked him to go to this event with me. He is not a fan of either country music or swing dancing, so this event is pretty much his biggest nightmare. I'm trying to convince him that the $4o ticket (for the two of us) is going towards a good cause, and that he'll get a large meal out of the deal. He's trying to convince me that even free food wouldn't be worth sitting through this music, which will likely make him very cranky. While it's not my ideal evening out either, I'm willing to make the sacrifice to support the shelter, especially since a couple of weeks ago they'd only sold 3 tickets!!

If you're interested in coming to the event with us (or me) to eat some food and keep us (or me) company, please let me know! If not, please pass this along to anyone you know who might be interested. You can download a flier with more information here. Thanks, everyone!

Supermen and Squirrels

One of the things I meant to blog about last week was the previous weekend's work frenzy by my husband and father. In one afternoon, Chad, my dad and Dante put up all the siding on a whole section on the front of our house. I was pretty impressed by their progress!




While the boys were working hard at home, I was where I usually am on a Saturday afternoon--taking pictures of dogs at the humane society. While following my little canine friends around the yard with the camera, I captured another little critter's antics that cracked me up. I'd never seen a squirrel do this before!


In case you can't tell, he was hanging upside down with no hands. It was almost like he was very interested in what we were up to and was just trying to get a look at us. It was so cute I had to take a picture. Later in the afternoon, I caught a few more pictures of a squirrel in the same tree, and I just assumed it was the same squirrel because he seemed to be watching me again!



He was such a cute little guy, but the fact that he was almost social should have probably been cause for alarm, not taking more pictures! For all I know he was rabid and waiting to take a bite out of me! :)

Pawsible Dreams

Friday night we went to the annual Pawsible Dream auction--the biggest fundraiser for the Lawrence Humane Society each year. It's always a fun event, and I always enjoy being able to socialize with my shelter friends outside of being at the shelter! I love bidding on stuff just to increase the final purchase price, even if I know that I won't win, and even if I'm not necessarily dying to have the item in the first place. Don't get me wrong, I don't bid on stuff I find completely hideous or useless, but I certainly bid on things that I wouldn't purchase in a store! For example, one of the items I won this year was this picture frame and matching doggy (complete with cartoon picture in case you couldn't figure out it was a frame).

While I thought it was cute, when I made my bid it was still pretty early in the silent auction and the price wasn't ridiculous, so I really didn't think I'd win it at all. Chad wasn't exactly thrilled about this purchase, so I guess I might be taking it to display in one of my offices.

My favorite all time LHS auction prize is this hand-painted antique window that I got a couple of years ago. I think it's so pretty!


The artist who did it submits a different one every year, and I'm always tempted to bid on another because I just think they're just beautiful. If I had a lick of artistic talent I would paint one myself--it's such a simple idea!

The only other item I won this year was something I'd been planning to purchase anyway, so I'm kind of excited about it. This friend of ours from high school has a business creating the most adorable customized stationary, which I saw for the first time at last year's auction. I got outbid last year, but this year I came out victorious!

Of course, the most important part about buying lots of fun stuff at the auction is that all of the proceeds go to help my doggy and kitty friends! Last year the event raised over $30,000!!

Pins For Pets

For all you bowlers out there, if you'd like to get some extra rolling in this week, I have the perfect opportunity for you! From July 15-22, Royal Crest Lanes here in Lawrence is hosting a special fundraiser for the Lawrence Humane Society. You can bowl 3 games any day or night this week for only $10, and half of your bowling fee will be donated back to the shelter! How great is that? In addition, the attached restaurant (Wayne & Larry's) will also donate 15% of your food and beverage sales during that same time period to the shelter, provided you bring along a special coupon which you can pick up at the shelter (I can probably snag you a copy too if you need one).

The shelter is super short on funds this year because a) they're undertaking a big expansion and b) the city just cut their funding for this fiscal year by $16,000, apparently as part of "across the board" cuts to outside agencies (the shelter is a private non-profit that gets funding by the city to serve as the one and only city pound as well). While LHS is usually short on cash, this year they are especially short, which is why they're having a few additional fundraisers such as this one.

So get out there and roll, people! Hopefully I'll see you there! :)

A Smile and A Tile

When our precious boy Steeler passed away in September, we had several people make donations in his memory to the Lawrence Humane Society. We used one of those donations to purchase a memorial tile for the lobby of the building, decorated by an aspiring artist who happens to work there. It took me several weeks to get a picture of Steeler selected and then several more weeks for me to remember to take the picture to the shelter, so a few months after his death, my friend Yaslyn got started painting his tile. A couple of months later, she showed me the final product before it had been fired, which I thought was absolutely amazing. It took several more weeks for the woman who ran the kiln to get it finished, but when someone from the shelter went to pick it up, they were horrified to find that the lady had burned it! Yaslyn felt terrible, and insisted that she wanted to do another one to put on the wall. I felt terrible, because I know how many hours she put into it and can't imagine having the talent to create such a perfect likeness! The good news is, since Yaslyn is painting a new tile, she gave us the old one to keep. You can see what an amazing job she did!

Help for Doggies

Speaking of raising money, the second largest fundraiser for the organization closest to my heart--the Lawrence Humane Society--is this weekend! Saturday is the 12th Annual Mutt 'n' Strut, which is a very fun charity walk with tons and tons of dogs. Participants raise or pledge at least $30 for each dog entered, and there are usually hundreds of dogs who join in the fun! It's really a very funny sight to see a huge mass of dogs walking down the street together.

We participated in this walk with Steeler and Celtic for at least 7 or 8 years, and then last year we had all three dogs entered, so it's very much a family event for us. The dogs seem to enjoy it, except that every year the boys would have a huge cow when they saw a human dressed in a McGruff the Crime Dog suit. I could never figure it out--there would be hundreds of dogs of every shape and size standing around, none of whom seemed to be bothered by this costume. Then suddenly our dogs would let out this ear-piercing bay, startling every person and dog in a two block radius. It was so bizarre. People would laugh hysterically because it was so comical, but I have to say it was a little embarrassing. Although some people thought our dogs were just big chickens, I try to tell myself that they're just smarter than the average dog who doesn't know that it's not normal for a grown person to be running around in a dog suit!

I'm sure we'll have fun Saturday morning, but I'm a little bit sad because it will be the first year we will be there without Steeler. We have so many family pictures from past Mutt 'n' Strut's that include both boys, it's hard not to feel like something is missing. Thankfully, Hope will be there to support her brother! :)

For more information about Mutt 'N' Strut, you can check out the online flyer here! Also, if you're so inclined, I'm still accepting pledges! ;)

Parading Pooches

My fellow Lawrence Humane Society volunteers and I helped make history last weekend as we participated in the largest ever St. Patrick's Day parade in Lawrence. My friends Brenda and JoAnna and I walked three shelter dogs behind the LHS float through the throngs of cheering onlookers. The crowd was crazy huge and there were over 100 groups, organizations and businesses with floats or entries into the parade.

I didn't want to carry my camera with me, so unfortunately I didn't get any pictures. The Lawrence Journal-World didn't really get very good pictures either, since there isn't a single picture in the photo gallery that shows an actual float in its entirety! What's up with that? I actually thought the Humane Society float was one of the better ones they've had in the last few years--I wish I had a picture to share! They are currently raising money for an expansion, so the float was a small half-finished building decorated much like the shelter, with the staff riding along dressed like construction workers. Although the shelter didn't win, they did receive an honorable mention from the judges.

The dogs who walked along with the float were all very well behaved, aside from Astris pulling Brenda almost the entire way. I walked Charlie, a wonderfully behaved and very handsome yellow lab mix who was a complete angel! He walked nicely on the leash and would sit and shake whenever tempted with a treat. He had small children reaching out to pet him the entire parade and didn't seem to mind a bit. There were hundreds of other dogs downtown and he didn't bark at a single one. He was such a good boy, even though he had to wear a pink "Adopt Me" bandanna because we couldn't find any other color. Hopefully our downtown trip gave Charlie, Astris and their friend Cookie some much needed exposure and some much enjoyed time away from the shelter!

Searching For Good

The other day I learned about a special search engine called GoodSearch. This website donates 50% of its revenue to charities designated by its users. My friend Amy who works at the Lawrence Humane Society signed the shelter up as one of the recipient charities, so she asked me to add a link to the site on the shelter's Petfinder page. It's simple because you use GoodSearch exactly as you would any other search engine. The money they donate to your cause comes from their advertisers, so the charities and users don't pay a dime. After finding your favorite charity, you can even click on the "amount raised" button to see how much money has been raised for them through this website. The search engine is powered by Yahoo!, so the results are really good too. It's a very simple way to support your favorite cause!

Happy Endings

I'm pretty sure I tell more dog stories than more people care to listen to, but when homeless dogs have happy endings, I just can't resist. I'm guessing most people just tune me out when I babble about the importance of adopting from shelters, so maybe sharing success stories will be more effective!

My first story is about my dear doggie friend Baron. I first met Baron last April, soon after he first arrived at the Lawrence Humane Society. He was a super happy and friendly boy who was also a terrific retriever. He never met a dog or a person he didn't love, and although he was slightly rambunctious, he quickly became a favorite of the volunteers. When no potential families had come along by November, Baron and I spent a day together at the Douglas County Animal Fair, where I took him to meet potential adopters. Our day together solidified Baron's place as my favorite dog at the shelter, but it still didn't solidify any adoption applications.

Then, earlier this month, a woman in Grand Junction, Colorado, saw Baron's picture on Petfinder.com. Even though she'd never met him, she submitted her application, telling the staff that she could just tell by his pictures that he was a great dog. Last week, a volunteer drove Baron to Colby, where his new family was waiting to meet him! Since I spend my weekends taking pictures of the LHS dogs for Petfinder (for the plethora of readers just tuning in to my blog), I have to admit I probably get overly excited when those efforts pay off.

My other happy story involves my friend Danae from KUEA. Several weeks ago, Danae called wanting input on how to find a good breeder. She had done lots of research on dog breeds and had decided that she wanted a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppy. While I'm certainly not an expert in the area of purchasing purebreds, I tried to share with her what I know about responsible breeders and some ways she might get in touch with one. However, since I generally don't encourage people to buy purebreds in the first place, I also made sure to remind her about how she could search for specific breeds on Petfinder. Although I knew our shelter wouldn't have what she wanted, I thought there was a chance that another Spaniel-ish puppy on Petfinder might catch her eye.

To make a long story short(er), Danae e-mailed me the other day to share some exciting news: not only had she and her husband found their Cavalier puppy, but they'd found it through Petfinder at a rescue just a few miles away in Independence, Missouri! I couldn't have been more excited! They found exactly what they wanted, and they saved a life as well! You can read about Danae's beautiful new puppy on her blog.

Many people don't understand that even adopting a very adoptable dog from a no-kill shelter or rescue saves a life. While that puppy might not be in danger of euthanasia, when he or she is adopted, space is created at that shelter or rescue for a new dog--one who might very well have been in danger of being put down. When compared to purchasing from a breeder, adopting from a shelter saves lives!

Okay, I'll get off my soapbox for now, but I won't stay off it forever. The 3-4 million dogs that were euthanized in our country last year wouldn't want me to.

Our Dear Gingerbread Dog

Today is a sad day in the Luce household. We lost a dear four-legged member of our extended family when my mom's elderly Beagle Ginger passed away early this afternoon. We don't know exactly how old Ginger was or what exactly her life consisted of prior to 2004, but we do know we will miss this beloved member of our family tremendously.

In the summer of 2004, Ginger became a resident of the Lawrence Humane Society. The family who turned her in had found her as a stray the year before, but felt like they could no longer keep her because she had food aggression issues, and they had small children. While they couldn't be sure about her age, they guessed she was somewhere around 8 years old when she arrived. The shelter staff thought she was closer to 10. We estimated she was closer to 12. Because of her advancing age, cataracts and partial hearing loss, Ginger wasn't exactly the most adoptable dog. She spent 9 months at the shelter waiting for her perfect family, but when none arrived, Chad and I decided to take her home as our 6th foster dog.

When we first brought Ginger home, we were worried that she was on her last leg. She was so lethargic and wanted only to sleep or lay out in the yard all day. We had the vet check her over to see if she was ill, but he assured us that she was fine--just old. We began to worry that we had inadvertently adopted a third dog, since we couldn't see how anyone would be interested in a companion so ancient and inactive. After a few days, Ginger came out of her brief depression and began to make herself at home. She got along with the boys well (except when it came to food issues), never had any accidents, and was content to lay out in a sunny yard all afternoon. She was slow as molasses on our evening walks and sometimes had to be carried, but after a couple of weeks of regular walking she was able to make it the entire 1 1/2 miles. She was by far the lowest maintenance foster dog we'd ever had.

My mom and Cliff had talked for several years about adopting a dog, but commuting and other travels made dog ownership impossible for them. Then, just around the time we brought Ginger home, Cliff made a job change that would allow him to be home most of the day. The timing was perfect, and Ginger was perfect too. They loved Beagles, and they definitely wanted a lower energy dog. I took Ginger over for a "home visit" with Mom and Cliff in Topeka, and they decided they would come to Lawrence the next day to fill out the paperwork. I informed them that usually it worked best with our foster dogs if their adoptive families picked them up from our house, because then they felt like they were getting to go somewhere special as opposed to being left behind at a new and strange place. As I told Mom and Cliff they could come pick Ginger up the next day, I opened the front door to leave, and Ginger just stood there and stared at me. I called her several times to come get in the car, but she just stood there, unwilling to walk out their front door. It was very obvious that Ginger knew she was home. I drove back to Lawrence alone, feeling wonderful that we'd found the perfect home for her.

Within weeks, Ginger and Cliff were so bonded you'd have thought they'd been together her entire life. She followed him everywhere he went--partially because he tended to feed her a lot--and they were constant companions. Mom diligently walked her and they bought her all the treats and toys a dog could want. Ginger couldn't have been happier, and she brought tremendous joy to Mom and Cliff's life as well. Although her health started declining just a few months after her adoption, her determination and love for life never seemed to change.

Ginger was a loyal companion throughout Mom's cancer treatment, and she picked a new favorite sleeping spot near my mom's bed to keep her company. I know Mom was thankful that there was always someone at home who was ready and willing to spend at day at rest. Ginger could nap with the best of them (see picture :).

A few months ago, when Mom was finally finished with chemo and starting to feel normal again, Ginger suddenly began having difficulty standing and walking. Mom and Cliff lovingly carried her in and out and upstairs and downstairs, and painstakingly cleaned up her messes as she became less able to control her bladder. They never complained about the burden, but always continued to thank us for bringing her into their lives. They were the most wonderful family she could have hoped for, and I have no doubt that the last year and 9 or so months were the best of her life.

The day after Christmas, Ginger began fighting an intestinal virus of some sort that just wasn't responding to treatment. Then yesterday, she began having frequent seizure-like episodes, and Mom and Cliff knew that it was time to let her go. I know her nephew Steeler was there to welcome her to the other side of the Rainbow Bridge.

We miss you, little Gingerbread.

Ginger (bottom right) and her pack, March 2006. From left to right: her nephew Celtic, friend Tater (begging in center), nephew Steeler (top), and niece Hope.

Dog Pictures of the Week

I made it to the shelter this weekend, and there were lots of cute new dogs just waiting for their photographic debut. I just had to share a few of my favorite pictures from the day:








Diva, a little minature Dachshund from a puppy mill that would not stop crying until you picked her up.


















Charlie, a terrier mix who looked like a Gremlin from the movie when his ears stuck out.

















Maggie Jean, a Cocker Spaniel from a puppy mill whose bouncing made it very difficult to get a decent picture!

















The last picture isn't one that I actually posted to Petfinder, but it made me laugh so hard I just had to share. Let me just preface this by explaining that in the world of dog photography, I see any moment that a dog is not in motion as an opportunity to capture his or her image. For some of the more active dogs, this time of stillness might include the moment at which they stop to go potty. Sometimes, I can get a good picture of their face and then crop out their body, so that it's not so obvious they were relieving themselves. On Sunday, this was most certainly not the case. Look carefully at my picture of Belle, the English Pointer.





Oops.

Cash Dash

I know the title is rather deceiving, since this post really has nothing to do with money or running quickly. I just wanted to talk about my little dog friend Dash, who was recently renamed Cash. As anyone who knows me knows, I spend some of my free time every weekend at the Lawrence Humane Society, taking pictures of adoptable dogs and posting them onto an awesome website called Petfinder. It's a huge database of over 200,000 homeless animals from 10,000 different shelters throughout the U.S. and Canada. You can search by breed, size, gender and age to find the perfect pet for your family! It's really a great resource!

So anyway, I spend around 3-4 hours at the shelter every weekend taking pictures, and then another 2-3 hours at home saving those pictures to my computer and uploading them with descriptions of each dog (there is an awesome volunteer who does the cat pictures, so I don't have to worry about them anymore). It feels like the most productive thing I can do to help dogs get adopted, although the staff doesn't ever make a point of telling me how many adoptions have occurred as a result. Every once in a while though, I'll hear through the grapevine of my volunteer friends that an adopter has traveled from Minnesota or Texas or Colorado or Iowa to adopt a dog they saw on Petfinder, which is always very encouraging and reassures me that my efforts are worthwhile. On occasion, I'll hear potential adopters at the shelter mention seeing a dog on the website, and it's always good to know that people are actually checking out the dogs (and cats) online before they come visit.

So last week, Chad and I were eating with a couple of my shelter friends, Amy and JoAnna. Amy was talking about how this guy came in from out of town to adopt Dash, whom he had never even met in person, but had seen on the website. Since Dash is an active young dog (the picture above is one I'd taken of him that was on Petfinder), we were all a little concerned that this person didn't know what he was getting himself into. These kinds of situations, where the adopter doesn't take any time to get to know the dog's personality, often end in the dog being returned a few days later because the adopter is overwhelmed with their new friend's energy level and/or personality quirks. Regardless, Amy said the guy seemed to like Dash a lot, so he signed the adoption papers and away they went to his new home.

So this week, Amy e-mailed me with an update and picture from Dash's adopter:

"Dash had his name changed to Cash, but all is going well so far...He's a wonderful dog who refuses to leave me out of sight, and loves attention. I've tried giving him a bed in the laundry room, but he cries out until i let him sleep on my bed. His first night here I awoke the next morning to a dog attempting to spoon with me, thankfully he's given that up and stayed to the end of the bed...Cash loves the frisbee, and plays well even at night, but that tennis ball stick is top priorty. I look forward to having him around for years to come..."

It just brings tears to my eyes! Happy endings like this one are what keep me going back to the shelter week after week! :)