4 Legged Critters

in Family by admin — July 2, 2010 at 21:50 | 0 comments

“Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.”

– Roger Caras

When it comes to the family pets and photography – I say “The more the merrier!”

As a family of 4 who just put down our 2nd pet today and our 1st was 2 months almost to the day – thoughts that have been scrambling through my mind lately have been along the line “we should have done a family portrait”.

When Abby our princess Cocker-Spaniel became ill over the weekend in May, there wasn’t enough time to muster up a family photograph. She became ill within hours and moving her was not possible. I did instantly think of a few local photographers who have a love for dogs as we do that would come over within minutes to help us out… but the idea of knowing why we were taking this photo made this extremely hard on our family when we were still having problems with letting her go in the first place. So knowing we were within hours of losing her, I asked our daughter Jennifer to pose with Abby and it just became too hard for either one of us to follow through. We made Abby comfortable and we took some shots, but Jennifer was in tears and for days after-wards I kept wishing that we had done this much earlier when the dogs were healthy.

After Abby left us, we talked about doing a family portrait again but with Shadow, our loving Labrador. I nixed this idea within minutes because I didn’t think it was fair because Abby wasn’t with us. And for those who have pets, you know you just can’t do this. So once again, another family opportunity with the pet that wags their tail when we walk in the door, barks to protect us from the pizza man and loves to chase a ball and make us laugh – gone.

What made this hard on us – was we knew Shadow was going to leave us soon. She had actually been sick for a much longer time then Abby and so were preparing for Shadow to go and was blind sided by Abby’s sudden death. So when we knew this week that we couldn’t let her suffer anymore, I had our son Dustin go out with me and take some pictures with her one last time.

We were able to get some quick shots in, Shadow the over-eager dog wanting to get her bark in… and when going through photos of Abby, the first time in months – I’m glad I was able to get the photos we needed for memories, but sad that we never had our family portrait with them… Shadow had been with us for 9 years, Abby for 5, they were our family.

So when it comes to your next family portrait – don’t forget the family pet. Remember… they are family and you may never know when the next great opportunity will be to have them be a part of the family photo. Just let me know you want them to tag along and I’ll accommodate and pick pet friendly places for our location. All family pet session’s with Susan B. – will have 10% of print orders sales donated to the Dumb Friends League located in Denver.

Your Life Photographer –
Susan B.

Sable and Molly – we miss you Sable.
Abby’s photo – taken by Jennifer B.
Shadow’s photo – Susan B.