FurBabies Hideaway

Its June.  Last week we broke all kinds of records all over BC for heat.  Today I had plans to hang out with Auntie Michelle … outdoors of course.  So naturally, it’s been raining since before I woke up.  Harumph.

Good thing I took photos yesterday I guess

This is for all y’all that think little FaeFae is so sweet.  *This* is the Fae I know and shake my fist at regularly.

Fae, sit next to your sister and pose for a cute photo.

“I don’t wanna.  She makes me look fat and I hate her.”

That’s cuz you are fat, Fae.

Fae looks like someone dropped a cocktail weenie on the carpet – sausage-like and hairy.  You know, if a bespoiled cocktail weenie could be emo.  And to be fair, Addy makes pencils look fat.

Fae was much happier once I busted out the ball and focused ALL OF MY ATTENTION ON HER.  That’s the way the chubby little princess prefers to live her life.

And I have to admit, she is *really superduper adorable* when she gets the zoomies.

My narrow little Addypants is also pretty darned adorable, especially now that she appears to be housetrained! (Lousy / cold /wet weather will remain the ultimate test of her new super hero abilities, of course).  The other day she actually *asked* to go outside and pee.  I near about fainted from the shock.  It would appear that the anti-pee-pee-pants I humiliated her with have served their purpose, and shamed her into holding her bladder in the “house.”

Saying “house” is a habit I can’t break.  Like “frisbee” for disc and “Kleenex” for facial tissue and “Flamboyance(c)” for giant fluffy dog tail.  And to be honest, most of the time it doesn’t feel much different from living in the small house I spent 8 years at.  Except for a few things, like …

It moves.  Not, like, it goes on vacations, but rather it lacks a foundation so it bounces and jiggles.  My desk is located in the big slide out and every time I move in my chair or a dog walks past, we sway and wiggle around.  I’m pretty used to it now, but I’m curious to know how flexible this place is going to be when the Big Winds come (cuz I’m smack in a wind corridor that whistles down through the pass, so all winter long it’s going to blow straight at my house.  I mean rv.)

Living in this thing involves an unhealthy amount of attention paid to liquids.  It of course has holding tanks, for the galley (kitchen – why is it called a galley?  I’m not on a fucking boat!) waste water and the grey water from the shower and such.  The tanks fill up reasonably quickly and require emptying, because if you don’t empty them, they will back up into your rv, which is all around bad news.  There are sensors in the tanks and you can check their levels on a little panel in the kitchen and I feel like I’m checking it every 20 seconds, I swear.  And, distastefully, the “other” tank, cuz …. ewww.  And as it costs me $125 every time that needs to be emptied, I encourage my guests to go use the portapotties by the agility building instead ;-)  haha, just kidding.  Maybe.  And of course the propane tanks levels, which I have to go outside to check.

There’s nowhere to put SHOES.  These rv building people think of pretty much everything, I have to admit … but I guess they think people going on vacation are going to be barefoot, because there is simply nowhere to put your shoes when you take them off.  So my shoes end up getting kicked all around the place by wrestling dogs.

All in all, other than the bedroom, which remains irritatingly small, with 100% NOWHERE to put my laundry basket, it’s not so different from living in one of the many bachelor apartments I’ve rented over the years.  Dexter and TWooie would disagree though, because they don’t like each other and feel that more rooms would be better.  Ironically, they both want to hang out on the bed in their down time, and I spend a lot of time yelling “Shut UP” at them as they growl and make snappy ugly face at each other from opposite sides of the bed.

Not that either of them hear me.  We all know that Dexter is as deaf as two doornails, and I suspected the WooTWoo were becoming hard of hearing in their old age (hard to tell though, because neither of them have ever been what you’d call “super obedient”) and yesterday it became quite clear just how much hearing they’ve lost.  I set them up for this photo, told them “stay” and then got into position to shoot.  Once I’d gotten the sitting portrait I told them “break” so I could get a photo of them running toward me.  Then I told them “okay.”  Then I told them “guys, come on!” and they both just sat there staring at me because they couldn’t hear me.  And I was only about 20 feet away   Why my special little guys gotta get old?  I had to actually walk up to them and tell them “break” from about 5 feet away before they’d move.

These two … are ridiculous.  As usual. And I swear Winter’s head isn’t as big as it looks.  I mean how could it be, he’s got almost nothing in there with respect to brains!

But it never fails; his melon always looks genetically modified in photos.

Here’s an obligatory photo of Peetie because she lives here so I have to photograph her.

Just kidding, she’s actually a lot less irritating than she used to be and is somewhat lovable now.  Mostly.  She still has some irritating habits, like biting her siblings at dinner preparation time, and I still hate practicing agility with her because she still spends all her time staring at my hands and crashing through obstacles rather than looking where she’s going, but otherwise she’s chilled out considerably.

These photos are all posed because we are still not fenced.  There’s still a pile of crap (dirt, logs etc) smack in the middle of where the yard will go that needs to be moved with tractor before I can put the fencing up.  I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to letting the dogs run around all together rather than two at a time.  On Regionals weekend, since I wasn’t entered, I knew the agility building would be dead empty all weekend, so I left the door open and let the dogs come and go in their xpenned area … and espied my cat Cyrus strolling around up by the front of the parking lot!!  He always comes home, but that’s not a habit I can let him get into because not everydog who uses the agility building is cat friendly.  So no more leaving the door open!

I will say though that having to set up my shots makes me take them more carefully; I can be quite lazy when photographing my own dogs, but I’ve been “working” our backdrop and I’m pretty pleased with the results.  Especially when the subject is my extra handsome special guy

On a whim, I even busted out one of my strobes the other evening and took this awesome sunset image.  It was totally a last minute decision, so I just used a bare strobe with a reflector rather and didn’t dig out the softbox or anything.  The sun sets in the *opposite* direction of the beautiful pastoral vista I look at (of course) but sometimes it throws back a gorgeous pink reflection on the clouds in the “good” direction … not that night (also of course).  So I made do with shooting in the actual direction of the sunset, and despite the gravel parking lot, I am super happy with how it turned out!  Look at that sky!!

I’m saving up for portable strobes, because mine are for studio and have to be plugged in, but portable ones could go ANYWHERE and then I shoot ANYWHERE and I am so damned excited about the possibilities!!

I just love photographing dogs so much, I wish it’s all I ever had to do to make a living.  I have had some pretty awesome sessions this month and all it does is make me wish I had more (I do have more, but I mean MORE MORE.  All the time more).

I mean … come on.  Puppies.  First day home puppies.  Floopsy faced squishy boxer puppies … in lavender.  Come ON.

And how about a Frenchie in a FREAKIN’ BOWTIE??  How many people’s jobs involve formally-attired flat faced doggos??

And I made this flower crown for this frenchie, because she couldn’t be outdone by her handsome date.  Folks, I bought a glue gun.  THERE IS NO STOPPING ME NOW!!

I also took advantage of living next to an agility building to take some uncluttered agility shots with the beautiful green and blue backdrop available right outside the door.  I’m hoping to offer individual sessions for people looking for specific shots on specific equipment without all the trial crap in the background, because I’m so pleased with how it worked out.

I also got a remote trigger so I could try some nifty angles.

So I’ve been keeping busy, indulging my creative side.  I am already planning my Christmas sessions because I have some really good ideas for what I want to offer this year, and I want to be well prepared

And the sun has come out, so we’re going to head out and take advantage of the un-rain!  Happy weekend everyone