Nala

Nala is a six year old German Shepherd/Lab/Border Collie X. Yup, she’s got a little bit of everything in her, including an intense will to survive. You see, only a few months ago she was diagnosed with cancer right before Christmas. It was a really stressful ordeal for her parents. She was diagnosed with a mast cell tumour and it was a shock to both of them as they thought it was just a cyst. They had to cut out a large piece of tissue to ensure that they got all of the mast cells. It obviously was a much bigger procedure than what they had expected. Then the wait began to see whether the biopsy results showed if the tumour was low grade or if it was more aggressive and had spread. It was the longest week ever.

Luckily the results came back that the tumour was low grade and the surgery was successful! It has been a bit of a recovery process for her as the surgical wound was so big but now she is cancer free!

Bringing Nala in to the studio to get her portrait taken was a way to celebrate her and how strong she is.

Xena and Jaxson

And then there’s the dogs that make you laugh and cry a little.

Meet Xena and Jaxson. Xena is an 8 year old Staffordshire Pitbull and Jaxson is a 6 year old Pitbull/Rottweiller/Hound. Jaxson is the black and white dog and he likes to completely think outside the box when it comes to sitting. You’ll see. They hadn’t been in the studio for more than 2 minutes and Xena was already cuddled up next to me on the couch.

Here’s a few from their session…

Elli

Meet Elli. She brought her favourite stuffy to the session which meant more to her than any dog treat (first time ever have I had a dog bring their own stuffed hippo). At least I think it was a hippo. It made her smile, quite literally the whole time. Happy to be there, happy to be out with her people, happy to be sitting waiting for her stuffy to be given back to her as payment for being a good listener. Elli is a 6 yr old Aussie Shepherd/Border Collie X who listened so well she made me look good.

Our biggest challenge was trying to get her to not smile. LOL.

Here's a few from her session...

Sadie May

Meet Sadie May. My first pup to be photographed for this year's Heartfelt Fundraiser. She was pumped for her session! Although I had to wait for her to not be soooo pumped so I could capture her sitting still, hehe. Good luck, right?! She was a rockstar though. Sadie is a 7 month old Lab that is currently in training to become a service dog at Cedar Hills Dog Academy. Thank you so much Jackie for bringing her in!
Here's a few from her session... (sigh).