I find it hard to believe that everyone doesn't love animals. They are cute and fuzzy and almost always do things to make you laugh when you need it most. How many times in a day do you go to your email and find about 15 forwards with the words "cute kitten" or "silly puppies" attached to the title? Its just a fact that people love animals! To be more specific, dogs are the number one pet in america, which to me makes sense. They are lovable, squishy and always know when you need them most. There IS a reason why they are called "mans best friend". Think of the last time your dog let you down. Probably never. Sure there is the occasional garbage raid or tinkle patch when you get home, but i believe these acts are just small reminders that even though we can be quite bias to our specific pets, not everyone/everything is perfect.
My little girl for example: she sleeps with me every night, cuddles right up next to me and lets me sleep all over her as if she were a heated body pillow. She is always there to kiss away my tears and listen when i have to vent about my most recent bad boyfriend episode. There is never a minute in my day when i don't believe that she is the most perfect part of my life. I find it hard to believe that some day i could ever have a child i would love more than my dog. I know there are many people who could say the same. There is just something so special about your furry best friend. I have a serious obsession with my little monkey! Anyone who lets me dress them up in obnoxious outfits and photograph them doing silly things is ok in my book! Even when she decides to eat 3 LBS of chocolate and poop pastel foil for a week, i still cant get mad. I think its the eyebrows!
This being said, i think we should all take into consideration at the lack of photographic love we have for our pets. Think about it. People spend thousand of dollars on their children throughout the years taking school pictures and christmas pictures and for what? Do you ever really appreciate them after the first week you get them back? not really! I know i have plenty of old photos from Sears i wish my mother had never had taken of me. They are a horrible memory of the bad hair decisions of that decade! But how often do you see portraits of Fido hanging above the fireplace? Almost never, which i believe is a shame. I have a mad passion for photographing pets. My pet, my neighbors pets, well pretty much any animal who comes into my cameras view. I just think that if an animal photography movement was made, people would be a lot happier and i think thats reason enough to take a stab at it. Don't you?
