Life opens doors for you all the time. You have to be awake; your eyes open, to see the opportunities. I don’t know what my ultimate destination is, but each door is leading me and I’m on my way- step by step!
Last weekend while shopping for groceries I chanced upon a nice lady running an adoption event in front of the market. I had been looking for the right group to volunteer with, but was waiting to hear back from places that had too many volunteers. I introduced myself and told the volunteer that I’m a pet photographer and I want to help! Beagles and Buddies in El Monte is a no kill dog sanctuary that just happened to be looking for someone to help photograph the dogs. The dogs that still hadn’t had a picture taken for the website had almost no chance to be adopted since many people look online before going to the shelters.
I stopped by the dog sanctuary in the middle of the week to check out the facility and introduce myself. It’s not fancy, not particularly well funded, not as comfortable as other shelters/SPCA/rescues I’ve volunteered for, but I saw that as all the more reason why I was needed. The dogs were treated with care. I walked thru the grounds and half way thru had to stop because I was crying. Most dogs were crying out because they wanted and missed human touch. They wanted me to pet them. Two couples were visiting to adopt from a gang of Corgis recently rescued from a backyard Corgi collector.
Here’s a video of my walk thru– it’s what you’d see and hear walking thru one side before I had to stop and compose myself before anyone saw me. I added pictures and a great song about Charity. http://vimeo.com/26660771
The beagles and all their buddies (ranging from terriers to german shepherds, pit bulls to poodles) were behind bars for no fault of their own. They’ve committed no crime. They were either rescued from inhumane living conditions, or given up because their owners couldn’t or didn’t want to care for them anymore. When I actively fostered dogs, I saw that good or bad dog behavior is often a result of good or bad parenting from the human owners. This was what made me so sad. These animals are sweet and loving by nature– we bred them this way. Someone either irresponsibly breed their dog, did not spay/neuter, or think twice before taking a puppy home.
I’ve been reading “How to Behave So Your Dog Behaves” by Sophia Yin, D.V.M. which goes into the science behing the reason that successful pet parents don’t have to scream at their pets. It’s about how to chance the behavior of your dog by changing our own underlying behavior. I only wish that more people realized what it takes to care for another living thing before they take it on.
This weekend my cousin and I went to spend a few hours at Beagles and Buddies. I took some pictures for their website, in hopes that the pictures will let people know that there are sweet doggies of all kinds looking for you. I posted the best takes from my photo shoot on my Flickr stream. Here are a few of the furry friends looking for forever homes. Please consider adopting.
