well, okay, the scruffnuts in this blog entry aren’t odd … but rather, this is just an odd assortment of scruffnuts we’ve shared on the scruffy dog facebook page … along with a few shots of resident scruffy merrick. and yes, he is odd.
here’s the goober at his stylin’ best … donning his new Angry Birds hat. (well, honestly, it’s not his but rather my partner’s … but i couldn’t resist). this shot was taken for the ‘hat challenge’ for the 52 Weeks for Dogs group on flickr. i founded the group four years ago and it’s still one of the places to be on flickr.
Deb and i shared numerous emails about the loss, about moving on, about honoring Zoe’s memory by finding room in her heart for another. Deb fostered this special boy Marty, and i have to admit, from the moment she wrote me about her new foster and sent me a photo, i kinda figured Marty was going to be her dog.
but like most happy endings, the start wasn’t great. Marty was found on the side of the road in winter. it appeared he had been strangled and left for dead, and this has affected his head control and ability to control his limbs. it is even suspected that his eye sight may also be compromised. but of course, Marty has no idea he’s a special needs boy!
and Diesel is a wonderful example of his breed … in fact, he exceeded anything i would have expected from a wheaten, being a terrier breed. he is such a poser and a consummate model, whether it’s showing off his ‘high five’ …
and here we have the many expressions of Brody. i adore this little scruffnut, but in spite of my pleading, he has already been promised to someone else if anything were to happen to his mom. 
here we have the handsome Ben, adopted from the Kitchener-Waterloo Humane Society.
i hope you enjoyed this variety-pack of scruffnuts … just a few of the fabulous faces from our fantastic summer and fall. if you want to see these images ‘hot off the press’ and keep up with the up-to-the-minute goings-on around here at scruffy dog headquarters, consider following the SDP facebook page. there’s always a lot going on!
tracy roth - To be honest I was a fan and considered getting my cat pics done with you. That changed last year when I was told you don’t find cats easy to photograph and instead of the calendar being 6 dogs, 6 cats it wasn’t. So I’m afraid I got her pictures elsewhere.
RESPONSE FROM SDP: Thanks for visiting the SDP blog, Tracy, in spite of no longer being a fan. It’s unfortunate that the shelter is passing on this gross misinformation regarding my ability or desire to photograph cats, but it is most definitely false and/or taken completely out of context. For the shelter’s calendar, where I must fit in 12 of these free sessions into a week so that there is time for editing, prepping and calendar design, I am able to allow only 15 mins per session. With most cats, 15 mins isn’t enough time to warm them up to the big cameras much less a stranger in their home … they hide under beds, behind couches, etc. and require more time to warm up to the concept of a session. I actually feel more than skilled when it comes to photographing cats, and admittedly, I spend more time with the calendar cats than the 15 mins I’m supposed to if it’s a difficult cat, because I want them included in the calendar.
But for actual client sessions, I’ve always taken however much time is required and have always produced more than enough images and variety in images to create the premium SDP albums and a wide variety of prints for those SDP clients.
Please know that the pets in the calendar are not determined by me, but rather by the number of votes received in their facebook contest. I have absolutely no control (and never have) over which pets or which kinds of pets make it into the calendar. This year it was four cats, a rabbit and a guinea pig and six dogs. I only shoot what the shelter gives me and I don’t control the voting or know how they go about calculating the votes.
Even when we have the initial meeting with the calendar ‘models’, I make sure they know that cats can be difficult when shooting them in such a narrow window of 15 mins because they aren’t typically easily bribed like dogs, and that if their cat hides under the bed the entire time, I may have to move on. However, I have actually never given up on a single calendar pet. In fact, in the first year’s calendar I spent over an hour at a calendar pet’s owner’s house coaxing their cat from under the bed just so that they could be included in the calendar.
Please check your source on this misinformation, Tracy, and thank you again for visiting.
Holly Garner-Jackson - Variety is the spice of life and illona your work is hot!