Dog Walking and Robbers

I never thought when I got into this business and I'd write a blog about dog walking and robbers but I am. This was my afternoon starting around 1pm. I drove through the neighborhood next to mine after leaving one job and on my way to the next house. I drove by a house with 4 police cars parked around it. The house had a privacy fence and I immediately assumed someone tried to break in. The police helicopter was flying over too. I had just let two dogs out in the backyard of a house about 1/4 mile from this house. I went onto my next job which was several miles away all the while wondering if I should go home and just check on things. Everything was fine at my house thank God but there was a lot of excitement and drama in my neighborhood around 2:15pm when I got home. Several police cars were in my neighborhood.

Apparently the 2 suspects that had tried to break into the house around 1pm took off running and came into my neighborhood. We have a lot (criminals hear this: stay out of my neighbhorhood. We have A LOT) of people who work from home in my neighborhood. One of the men in my neighborhood saw a guy running through his next door neighbor's backyard. He texted that neighbor and asked if he had anyone doing work in his backyard. The response was no so they called the police.

I don't have all of the details of how both guys were caught but one was found in the crawl space of another neighbor's house. Apparently that is a common place for them to hide.

Everyone be safe and be diligent. Keep your eyes open for unusual activity around you - suspicious people, suspicious cars, etc. Because my neighbor was diligent, these two criminals have been caught.

I would prefer to never write another post entitled dog walking and robbers.

Happy 6th Anniversary to See Spot Run!!

Yesterday I celebrated my 6th anniversary of walking dogs. My first dog walk at See Spot Run was with a golden retriever named Mojo 6 years ago yesterday. I can't believe it was 6 years ago. Time has flown by and I'm still loving every day that I get to do what I love for a living and I'm so thankful. Unfortunately because of my busy schedule over this holiday weekend, Don and I were not able to enjoy Easter Sunday sunrise service. I am home now Sunday morning and I have my piano (that has a player on it), playing on the spiritual music station. This isn't a station I listen to often but I am enjoying it on this Easter morning. I hope everyone else is having a wonderful, celebratory Easter morning. Happy 6th Anniversary to See Spot Run and Happy Easter to all!

Is this Maddie or Cotton?

An action photo that isn't blurry... yay!!

pretty Ursa

Here are a few pictures from the pets I've been seeing over the weekend. I had my camera along with me yesterday afternoon so some of the dogs and cats I'm seeing I don't have pictures of b/c it was too dark outside when I saw them or I didn't have my flash with me to take inside photos.

Rocky, Maddie and Cotton - I stopped and picked up new cat food yesterday afternoon although I've not seen any diarrhea in the cat box at all. I switched them still to the new food as of last night though.

Sparky - I wish it would've been light enough outside for me to get some pictures of her!! Unfortunately it was always too dark when I was there. She is doing great and I even got kisses from her this morning. Loved it!!

Special K and Harley - They've both been eating well and Special K is always up for playing after a little breakfast. She chases that light around and goes sliding across the wood floors, makes me laugh every time! Harley just sits back and watches as if to say "kids.... grow up!!" :)

Chloe - Chloe has greeted me every visit. I've been giving her a little bit of wet food every visit so I know she hasn't wanted to sleep though that! She loves it and she's been loving the attention too.

Bella - I was a little later this morning (it was around 7am when I got there) and I still had to wake Bella up. I believe she is like my yellow lab Willow who prefers to sleep in (unlike our choc lab Moose who likes to wake up at 5-5:30am... even on Sunday!) Bella has been eating well and enjoying her outside time.

Ursa and Luna - I left Luna in the front part of the house overnight and this morning since it was so chilly out this morning. I fed them both and both gobbled down their breakfast. They definitely get the clean plate award!

Happy Birthday Moose

Happy Birthday Moose!! His actual birthday was yesterday so I took a few pics of him then but the weather is so beautiful again today, I grabbed my camera and took Moose outside for another photo session today too. Days like today make me long for a nice fenced yard. I'd love to let him roam around so I could really get some decent shots of him. As you can tell from his expression most of the time, he becomes bored very easily when I'm trying to do his portrait. I would like to get some full body shots of him but the leash I have is only so long (about 25 feet maybe) and him being out of reach is not a good thing so I learned today. Our neighbors behind us were out with their dog and their yard isn't fenced either. Moose saw the dog and wanted to go say hi so he took off. I got a hold of the end of the leash with one hand (my camera was in the other hand.) He was dragging me through the yard so I had to put the camera down and grab the leash with 2 hands. I finally got him to stop after he'd made it all the way to their driveway. Crazy dog!! My lower back will be feeling this little escapade of his for a few days I'm sure!

These are the shots I got of him today. I really want to improve my photography skills so I am trying to practice a lot!

Moose's 8th bday

I love Moose's collar

dog birthdays

Happy Birthday Moose

Pet sitting in great Charlotte NC weather

I've been doing a lot of pet sitting lately and the weather has been so great, I've had my camera along. I really wish I could work one on one with another photographer familiar with pet photography (hint hint Deb if you ever read this!! :) ) I also could stand to take a class on Photoshop. My Photoshop skills are very limited although youtube is a great resource for helping me figure it out. I've been pet sitting with Fozzy lately and I've struggled to get a decent picture of her. Her canine brothers Ollie and Sunny provide ample opportunities for photos (see previous posts) but for some reason I've not been able to get a good one of her. She prefers to be inside vs outside so I guess that is the main reason. When I've been taking pics of the dogs, we've been outside mostly. Below is one of the better (perhaps the best) photos of her I've taken.

dog sitting

A couple of weekends ago, I was pet sitting for Rollo. I thought I'd posted this picture before but apparently I hadn't. One of my photography goals is to try and capture clear (non-blurry) action shots. When I look at this picture, immediately Taylor Shift's song "shake it off, shake it off" starts going through my head!

pet sitting

Very recently I was pet sitting for Lola, Howie and Otis. Otis is the old guy of the group and while he was still somewhat spry, his family wanted to bring in a companion for Lola. Enter Howie. He is all puppy. Here are a few things Howie did that made me laugh: practically tipping over when he hikes his leg to pee and racing around the den chasing a cat toy. The way he runs through the grass is pretty funny too. He hops. He was very entertaining!

pet sitting

pet sitting

Spring is in the air

Spring is in the air and it's just around the corner. I've had the camera with me over the past several days. I've been trying to capture action photos. Sunny and Ollie are great test subjects for this and their backyard is great for them to run around in too. My best shot so far is the one of Sunny below. I got one of Ollie that would be perfect if it wasn't blurry. Sunny

pet sitter

pet photography