IF~ Craving

This is a commissioned portrait I did for a customer of mine a while back. I always use him as my poster child to help support small animal rescue shelters, as he too was a rescue. I love the soulful look in his eyes, he is truly craving for someone to love him unconditionally and take him home.

This is Reilly, she is a princess, we purchased her from a breeder (a wonderful breeder in fact) before we knew there were better ways to go about it. It does not lessen her importance any to us that she was from a breeder, there are good ones out there, but there are many bad ones too (google "puppy mills" and see for yourself). After becoming enlightened about no kill animal shelters, animal rescue and how many dogs are hurting and craving love and new homes, we knew that we would go to a rescue shelter to choose our next puppy. Reilly has a personality full of love and understanding for her brother and cousin that came after her. We love her with all our hearts and she loves us with all of hers. I mean come on...look at that schmoopie doopie face...

This is Zeus. He came to us from a local rescue shelter nearby in October of 2008. A wonderful no kill shelter that loves, loves, loves their animals, right up until they find them new homes and after. Zeus was a puppy mill puppy. He was a breeder dog, where they use them for breeding only and kill them when they are done with them. He was in a cage for three or four years, we are not certain of his age, his feet never touched the ground and the cages were stacked on top of each other where they pooped right on to each other through one cage to the next. We adopted him for our daughter Lauren, who fell in love with him at first sight after a long search for a new best friend. He could barely walk, could not go up or down stairs, was afraid of the grass and shook uncontrollably when we held him. Although this is a lovely picture of him, he was a mess...

But not any more! This is a video of Zeus today under the care of his new mom Lauren. Look how happy he is now. What a great feeling Lauren has to have provided Zeus with the love and nurturing that has made him the hambone he is today. Zeus loves her right back, they are inseparable.

This is Enzo, he is Zeus's cousin (our newest baby) also from a rescue nearby. We adopted him in November of 2008 at 4 months and we don't know his full story, except that he came from a puppy mill and that's enough of a story for me. He was very shy and scared from the beginning but has come almost full circle. Now that the weather has warmed up, he has taken to riding the four wheeler with Reilly (with Dean driving of course) and playing chase in the yard. He loves to carry his teddy bear around in his mouth and he CRAVES attention.

This is Enzo today, he is about 10 months old and a gorgeous specimen. He doesn't care about his dashing good looks though, all he cares about is that he has a great home and a family that adores him and that he gets his snacks on request. He adores us right back.

See?


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