03-26-09

Another nice day weather wise in Ohio. It's starting to look like we might have a spring. Too often it seems to go from winter one day to summer the next and we miss the entire spring season. I had some of the dogs out. Bingo has been our foster dog for the past 2 years. You'd think a small dog like him wouldn't be a problem to find a home for. Wrong. Bingo is a bit of a scardy cat and when he gets scared he poops. Somehow that seems to turn people off. He loves being outside and running. He always tries to get someone to chase him. Today he found a stuffed toy and was running back and forth trying to get someone to play.

03-24-09

Another almost warm day here in NW Ohio. I took the dogs out to potty late this afternoon and took a few pictures. Rory is our Chesapeake mix. Looks like he's put on a few pounds over the winter and needs to get out some more. Wally is his back to normal after his hair cut. And Bitzer is a new guy. He's still gets a little anxious being out with everyone and is a little unsure about things. But every once in a while his inner puppy comes through and he takes a quick run around the yard.

03-22-09

When I took the dogs out at noon I took along my camera. For some reason no one wanted to stay out by Wally, our Planned Pethood foster dog, and Chicklet our maltese mix. I converted Wally's picture to black and white. We'll see if that helps get him adopted.

03-21-09

Another Saturday and another Planned Pethood adoption event. I don't have the stats yet, but it looks like a lot of dogs were adopted or are pending adoptions. And I got a lot of great pictures of the dogs that were there. And as usual there was the group that were whining about why I don't take whole body pictures. Why can't they understand that no one has ever said that they fell in love with the dogs body, they fall in love with the eyes, and when you only have a small thumbnail to draw someone in, it has to be a close up.

03-18-09

I belong to the Port Clinton Photo Club and try to attend meetings once a month. Last night Doreen showed how to make a photo box to take pictures of glassware. I didn't have my dSLR along, but I did have my Canon Powershot and tried taking some pictures with it. I did a little photoshoping on the picture and took out the line between the floor and the back. I took a picture of the set up too.

03-17-09

It was the first nice day of the year here. Temperature was in the high 60ºs today. I stopped at Wildwood metro park and took a walk on one of the trails. Everything is still monotones, nothing has greened out yet. I took these through the trees and photoshop the heck out of them.

03-16-09

Finally off of work after working 7 night straight. I did sleep a bit in the afternoon and when I got up I went out with the dogs and took a few pictures. This one of Rory, who's gained a few pounds over the winter I especially liked.

03-10-09

Another night of rain in NW Ohio. I took this shot out of the window while waiting for a red light on my way to work.

03-09-09

I took some pictures of the flowers from my aunt's party. My mother, who has never taken much interest in my photography was actually impressed with these. She wants me to make her some prints to hang above her living room couch. I thought they'd make pretty photo throws or purses for Mother's day presents.

03-08-09

My cousin Sue was in charge of the cake for the party. Sue ordered the cake from Mary Poppins Cake Factory in Woodville, OH. It was 5 tiers with 3 different types of cake, an Italian white cake with rum filling, a dark chocolate, and a carrot cake. Yum. So much for Weight Watchers yesterday. I had to try one of each. And as an added bonus they make adorable little cupcakes that looked like little potted flowers.

03-07-09

Today was my Aunt Nancy's 75th birthday. We had been planning a surprise party for her for the past couple of months. On this past Tuesday she was hospitalized with congestive heart failure. We had a 5 tired birthday cake ordered for her, invitations sent, people planning on coming in from out of state. All week the party had been on and off again and again. On Friday they decided to discharge her, but felt that she needed to be rehabed at the local nursing home. Fortunately a friend of mine was the social worker doing the discharge and got it written in that she should be given an LOA from the nursing home so that she could come to the party. My aunt's son picked her up and told her that he was taking her out to my sister's house for cake and ice cream. When he turned right instead of left she knew something was up, but had no idea how extensive it was until she walked in. That's my aunt in the black and green. My mom, her last surviving sibling is in the blue on her right. And my cousin's husband is following behind.

03-06-09

I have a new camera!!!! I heard from a fellow Alpha user that he had bought an A200 at Walmart marked down to $250. Well thinking about it, what should I do? I could spend around $1000 and get the A700, or I could spend $250 and get the A200 and use the other $750 on a new lens and maybe a nice Jill-E rolling bag. I decided I was going to need a new bag if I got a 2nd body since 2 cameras with lenses attached would not fit in my Crumpler, and there is a Tamron lens I've been wanting, so the A200 sounded like the way to go. An besides it's not about the equipment, it's about the photographer. Right? So I had scoped out 6 Walmarts in the area. Only one had the A200 in stock. Thursday night when I went in they had it marked down, and since it was the last one they knocked off another 10%. Wow, what a deal. So now I'm officially a camera nerd with 2 dSLRS.

03-05-09

I suggested to Nikki, the executive director of Planned Pethood to have pet first aid classes. Dr. Kittsen McCumber is a board member of Planned Pethood, and also the owner of Animal Emergency & Critical Care in Toledo. She agreed to conduct the class. Being a medical professional I know how important it is to keep current on your medical skills, and even though I've taken the class twice before I signed up to take it. What a great class. The other times I took it they were conducted by a Red Cross volunteer, who in all honesty probably didn't have as much experience with animals as me or the vast majority of the other fosters taking the class. What a difference between someone that learned something from a book and someone who's been there and done that a few hundred times.

03-04-09

Well today I can actually stand to be outside for over 2 minutes and when I took the dogs out to potty at noon I took along my camera and got better pictures of Bitzer. He's hesitant of the camera and ducks when he hears the shutter go off (dang noisy Sonys). But he actually ran all the way to the back of our property today. He's been just barely walking off of the patio to potty and then running right back to the door to go back in. For a dog that I've been told was kept outside all of the time in with the cattle he's must be afraid of being left outside again. He really has caught onto being housebroke. And I actually heard him bark yesterday, so maybe we're making some progress with him.

03-02-09

Today one of Planned Pethood's long time fosters lost their home in a fire. Fortunately Julie was taking their grandaughter to the doctor and Kirk was at work, so none of them were in the home. But all of their pets including 3 Planned Pethood foster dogs died in the fire. I've often thought about what I'd do if I'd loose everything. It isn't so much about the stuff. The clothes, household things, food, toys can be replaced. But the other things can't be. Julie and Kirk always took in the dogs that needed a little extra help to be turned into family pets. Tiffany Rose, Bambi and Jefferson were no exceptions. Jefferson was a senior dog that was found as a stray in downtown Toledo. Bambi was a dog that was returned to Planned Pethood's care. At first no one could touch her, but Julie and Kirk worked with her and she had turned into a lovely dog. And Tiffany Rose was a stray that had a massive bladder stone that had to be removed. It was so sad to have to remove them from the website.

03-01-09

There were 15 dog confiscated in a cruelty case in a neighboring county. A friend of mine works with this pound and knowing that I love Australian cattle dogs thought that this guy would be just my type. This is Bitzer, which is Australian slang for a mongrel dog. As in a bit of this and a bit of that. The rest from what I hear were all being kept in a pen outside, but Bitzer mostly stayed out with the cattle and had little human contact. Remarkably he's difficult to photograph because he stays so close to me. He's about 25 lbs and so fluffy. He's full grown. He looks like a cross between a ACD and a bear cub, but I think he's ACD and either border collie or sheltie. Can't wait until he gets more comfortable and I can get some better shots.

02-28-09

Usually I work every other weekend, but I took this weekend off. We were suppose to be having an anniversary party in honor of Planned Pethood's 30th year. But it was changed to a later date. But I still had the weekend off, so I went to the adoption event and took pictures. I got this picture of Boomer. What a cutie. I love to take pictures of big hairy dogs. They have such personality.