Whirl-O-Rama Kismet!!!

Once upon a time (last May), on a bright sunny spring day, Kismet the puppy was let loose on Havanese breeder Alida Wasmuth's (Salida del Sol Havanese) Langley property. Keeping still was a rarity, and I had to race after him, changing my ISO and exposures between momentary sweet stillness and race-car manouvers through the tall, sunlit grasses.

Romp-O-Rama Dog in flight!

Is that a dog, or a race car?

Kismet is destined for the show ring, and has already flown across the country twice! He is Havanese perfection. The red and white colouring is very rare and I have been told is the most valuable. Breeders spend years working towards a red and white litter and will fly dogs from other continents in order to achieve this end. Kismet is one precious little pooch. 

Interestingly, despite his deep integration into human civilization as a show-dog and an animal that is the product of centuries of breeding, Kismet is one of the wildest dogs I have ever photographed. The farther a dog gets from their origin as wolf doesn’t necessarily mean they are not going to be a free-spirit. His pure, alive puppy bliss is unfettered by none, one with the grasses, the trees, and the wind that whirled his fur into the unending velocity of the Wilderness. 

Here is a sequence that I call "Whirl-O-Rama Kismet"!

What a funny Guy! When these pictures were taken, he lived in Chilliwack BC with Peggie McRobbie of Cinnabar Havanese. Now, he lives in Wakefield Quebec with Beth Obrecht of Rockhurst Havanese. Next week, Kismet makes his debut at the US national Havanese Speciality. There will be 300 Havanese in attendance. Go Kismet! Not only does the young Kismet whirl, he really gets a-round!

Dogs of Oceanside May 2012

I have photographed A LOT of doggies lately ... hence the gap between entries. Lets begin with The Dogs of Oceanside. This is a project that will be continued from September 8th - 16th in connection to the Parksville/ Qualicum SPCA's 'Paws for a Cause'. 10% of the shooting fee goes to the local SPCA (as it did in May). Karen Moe Photography is going to make a book called "Dogs of Oceanside." We make a book every year for "Dogs of Vancouver," so why not expand to other dog-crazy communities? Karen Moe Photography is expanding!

I didn't know there was an Oceanside in our beautiful BC. I have been visiting Qualicum Beach for years, staying with my good friends and generous hosts Joe Rosenblatt and his wife Faye. (See the previous post which is an interview with Joe, aka: the Dogfather).

On one of my visits, my Dogfather (Joe) said in his gruff, matter-of-fact, fatherly way, "You should photograph the Dogs of Qualicum Beach. People are crazy for their dogs here ... the town is run by dogs. Even the mayor is a dog!" I didn't know whether to take him literally of figuratively. And, if the latter, it may be an insult to dogs!

I generally heed my Dogfather's advice so, I embarked upon my project 'Dogs of Qualicum Beach'.

Well, this Blog Entry isn't called that, you may be thinking, what about this Oceanside place? OK. People over there on the mid-East side of Vancouver Island were so excited about the project that I started getting calls from Parksville (a bit to the south of Qualicum). It was then that I discovered Qualicum and Parksville are no longer entirely separate entities; they have been united into the amalgam of Oceanside. Times they are a-changin' ...

So, the first dogs in my Dogs of Oceanside series are Mitzy and Benny. They are two rescues and are very sweet sensitive dogs. Mitzy has no eyes. I had never photographed a blind dog before and it was a special experience. Of course, she is very sensitive to sound and I had to be very quiet when photographing her as, if I did some of my wacky barks or meows to get dogs to look and tilt their heads in that cute way, she would look around, trying to discern what that foreign sound was!  I had to be quiet; she only responded to the familiar voices of her human companions, Gerry and Ken.

I love this one! It is one of my favourite dog pictures. I think it captures the essence of her sweetness and delicacy.

This is one of the portraits Gerry and Ken selected for their Dogs of Oceanside special package. Here is Mitzy, in their colourful garden.

Benny is Mitzy's side-kick. He is a Bichon Frise and is also a rescue. I got some lovely shots of him in the front garden.

The magnolias trees were in bloom when I was there, so I got this lovely shot of Benny amongst the magnolia petals.

This one I call "Benny at Versailles." Yes, I do get a thrill from composition and design in my images!
OK, one more of Benny that I can't resist posting:

I adore this one! Look at the symmetry! Look! God I love symmetry. Not always of course, but in my Dog Art Photography, I strive for perfection.

The next Dogs in my Oceanside Shoots are Bravo and Regent, two most charismatic and snortely pugs! They live in a beautiful home high on a cliff that looks over the Georgia Straight. Here is one of Regent on their deck.

Is it possible for a pug to have even more personality? Regent you and your crooked tongue rock my aesthetic world. And the mauve deck, and those funny feet poking out. What a perfect guy! Regent is also extremely affectionate and spent a lot of time rubbing his head along my legs as I sat on the ground photographing he and his 'bro, Bravo. Here is Bravo on the couch. Notice that he is accompanied by a pug cushion?

And as the Magnolias were out and had fallen on Irene and Robert's front steps, I had to take advantage of such random Beauty. Here is Regent again "Regent & the Magnolia Petals." I will be making this piece 20" x 30" and mounting on Dibond for my studio.

And, finally, here are Regent and Bravo together on their front stairs, two stone Chinese Pug statues on either side. When people love pugs, they really LOVE their pugs.

Those are the first four Dogs of Oceanside. More to follow!

An Interview with the Dogfather

Poet and Painter Joe Rosenblatt (aka “The Dogfather”) was born in Toronto in 1933. Over the years, Rosenblatt has written more than 20 books of poetry, several autobiographical works and his poems have appeared in over thirty anthologies of Canadian poetry over his forty-year career as a poet. His poetry books have received major awards, such as the Governor General's award for poetry in 1976 and the BC Book Prize in 1986. His art works are represented by the Qualicum Frameworks Gallery in Qualicum Beach, Artfitterz Frame shop and gallery in Nanaimo and the Rouge Gallery in Saskatoon. His drawings and paintings are in numerous private and public collections in Canada.

"Happy Colours" 2008
Joe Rosenblatt

In 2000, I photographed every dog I saw for a week roaming the streets of Havana. This was the origin of my emotional, spiritual and aesthetic relationship with dogs that has since resulted in my Fine Art Dog Portrait business.


In 2002, my “Perros: Dogs of Havana” photographs were exhibited at the Havana Gallery on Commercial Drive in Vancouver. When Joe saw the photographs he was inspired to write sonnets about them. Soon after, poet Catherine Owen joined Joe in his sonneteering and, in 2008, the book of photographs and sonnets simpley entitled “DOG” was published by Mansfield Press in Toronto. It was during this collaboration, that the Dogfather was born. And Catherine and I soon became his Dogdaughters, she “Angelina” and myself “Francine.”

Cover "Dog" Joe Rosenblatt, Catherine Owen, Karen Moe

Mansfield Press, 2008

I realized the other day that I must interview the Dogfather for my Dog Blog and retrieve some of our experiences during our collaboration on DOG and also ask him to throw us a few bones on his life and philosophy as the Dogfather.

This interview between Karen Moe (me) and Joe Rosenblatt (the Dogfather) was conducted over e-mail between April 5 and April 15, 2012.

KM: Why are you the Dogfather?

JR: I am the Dogfather because of our collaboration, myself as dog sonneteer, you as dog photographer, and Catherine Owen, dog sonnateer on the Dog book, a Mansfield Press title (Toronto).

Catherine and I were inspired by your Havana photographs of dogs in inner city Havana. It spirited us to write sonnets to your canine images. Now as I was the oldest bard I thought it fitting to call myself the Dogfather which is a take on the Godfather in that fabulous movie.

KM: You wrote sonnets about my Dogs of Havana in our book DOG. What was it about these photographs that inspired you?

JR: What inspired me about the Havana dogs was they were survivors and they were proud survivors. They had a thing called nobility and it showed in the photographs. They were worthy of being written about in sonnet form.

"Carne" Dogs of Havana (2002) 

Karen Moe

"Pounce" Dogs of Havana (2002)

Karen Moe

KM: Is there anything about the sonnet form that befits survival and nobility?

JR: I like the sonnet form because it is a closed form, no straying away with those concluding lines of the sonnet answering a big Mutt like myself's dilemma. 

KM: Yes, the sextet (the last stanza) is a response to the octet (the first stanza). There is the comfort of an answer to an existential dilemma.

"Happy Perro" Dogs of Havana (2002)

Karen Moe

KM: What is the connection between the Godfather and the Dogfather?

JR: The Dogfather, me, Mutt is a patriarchal figure like Brando playing the Godfather. Ya see, Mutt being the transformative patriarchal mutt to his Dogdaughters is a Godfather of sort but unlike Brando he doesn't have cotton batten in his mouth to play the godfather.

KM: Like Brando, you are 'playing' the patriarch. Are you a tongue in cheek (or cotton batten in cheek) patriarch?

JR: Partially eaten Montreal smoked sandwich stuck in my cheek patriarchal transformative dogfather. It muffles my bark, but I like it that way!

KM: What do you mean by ‘transformative’. Is it an ironic characteristic of your Dogfather with a ‘muffled bark’? And is there anything mafioso about yourself as the Dogfather in connection to the film?

JR: I am being transformed into sagacious old godfather mutt with no criminal intent or record. I say humans developed from Border collies not apes that Darwin would have us think and you can quote me on that, Border collies are smart herding dogs. 

The transformative is the dog spirit morphing me into a human dog, muffled bark, yeah, that’s me. I say move over Marlon Brando, here comes the Dogfather!

KM: You often feature cats in your paintings. Have you ever featured a Dog? If not, why? What is the difference between dogs and cats, to you?

JR: No, I haven't featured dogs in my visual art because there are at least 400 types of breeds in the dog world and it just happens that cats have crept into my life for decades, are featured in my drawings and paintings and in my poems. No offence, dogs, and I adore them, don't make the fit in my psyche.

"Hip Cats" (2008)
Joe Rosenblatt

"Hip Cats 5" (2008)
Joe Rosenblatt

KM: What do dogs symbolize to you?

JR: Dogs symbolize loyalty and have more enobled features than humanity. They serve people, protect people and keep people company, whereas cats tend to rely less on people except for feeding time and seem more aloof than dogs and certainly more mysterious. Cats bring home rodents as gifts to their owners while dogs wait for gifts from their owners.

KM: You have 3 orange cat friends. If you had a dog what kind would you have?

JR: If I had a dog I would have a Border Collie, a smart dog because I love the herding instinct and love a pushy dog who would make a big hit pushing party goers around as they drink my high octane martinis!

Transformatively speaking I would make a wonderful Border Collie. 

KM: You have talked about being photographed as a dog. How do you envision that photograph? Would it be a kind of 'self' portrait? An alter-ego?

JR: I want to be photographed as noble mutt. It would have to do with my ego. Maybe I could get into a huge St. Bernard dog costume with a little brandy barrel chained to my neck?

KM: What do you think about dogs in leather jackets? What do you think about dogs in pink, frilly dresses?

JR: I loathe the idea of animals dressed in leather jackets or wearing dresses. Why hide the beauty of the dog in such frivolous ways? Isn't their fur coat natural clothes? The Creator didn't intend for dogs to go around wearing clothes. This is an abomination as far as I am concerned.        

KM: I agree … but not as severely. If a client wants me to photograph their dog in doggy clothing, of course I will. But I always tell them that I like to represent the dog as dog as best I can.

In my Dog Art Photography, I focus as much as possible on the Beauty and nobility of the Dog as a Dog and as an individual creature outside of the human. This style and approach to Dog Photography developed through the genesis of my Dog Photography being in Cuba where dogs are detached from humans and are, in a sense, 'pure' dogs. 

"Flop" Dogs of Havana (2002)

Karen Moe

I like to reveal and document something about the essence of Dog and the essential beauty and personality of an individual Dog.  But, if a client’s dog as dog has become a pink tutu wearing Maltese, is that what the relationship between dog and human has produced in a particular cultural context? From centuries of inter-action between dog and human? Can it be seen as an evolution or transformation of dog as dog? What do you think, dear reader? 

Joe, is the essence of Dog that emanates from my Dogs of Havana photographs what inspired you to write a book of Sonnets based on them?

JR: Why did I identify with those wandering street dogs in inner Havana?  I admire their survival skills, enduring hunger and just trying to retain their canine nobility while tourists snap their cameras at them without offering them some food. You at least had the sensitivity to offer them a partly eaten sandwich. I identify with the underdog, if you will pun, and always have. One of your dog pictures, a black and white dog, ferocious looking … why, I wouldn't walk up an ally with him following a scent trail of a belt of weiners. Just kidding here!

"Beso" Dogs of Havana (2002)

Karen Moe 

KM: Through the photographing of every dog I saw for a week in Central Havana, the dogs became ‘my spirit guides’. I was having a difficult time down there, confused and alone in a very different Cuba than I imagined in my idealistic, socialist soul. Also, as is typical of First World tourists, a broken-heart added to my isolation and I wondered why I was even there. The Dogs became my guides and my ‘reason’.

"Scrappy" Dogs of Havana (2002)

Karen Moe 

In ‘Drifting’ (which is your first poem in DOG), you call to your faithful animal companion, Rex, ‘to perform a creative ablution.’ (See the end of this Dog Blog entry for the poem). Were dogs simultaneously your inspiration and your guides through this particular poetic journey?

JR: Well, Karen, dogdaughter and dogateer, that poem isn't too flattering. I called upon the spirit dog Rex to pee on my mother's grave, my reason as I may have mentioned it: she got her revenge on me from beyond the grave and left me out her will, so I called upon my alter ego Rex to wash her grave in sacred urine. Need I go on?

Regarding your Cuban canine, did they find a kindred spirit in you as well as you in them? In Third World countries dogs are a luxury; poor folk have to feed their family before they feed a street dog in inner Havana, if you get my drift?

KM: Yes, I can empathize with the fact that a difficult relationship with your mother and an extreme insult through her death is certainly an extistential struggle. And, you may be right in that the Havana dogs found some sort of kindred spirit in me; I certainly found them as my kindred spirits. My relationship with the dogs of Central Havana can be seen as another instance of how dogs and humans have helped each other in various ways (including psychologically and helping to heal the soul) for over 10,000 years.

Be they detached from the human and pared down to an essence or maintained and clipped into an ideal of a perfected breed, dogs are inevitably connected to the human, and we to them. Indeed, as French Feminist philosopher Helene Cixous outs it: “We are never so human as when we are dog.” 

JR: Here is an old mutt. Haven't you noticed the tin can tied to my tail, the sad gray eyes, the drooling mouth, the ruined knuckles on my paw, my chipped ears from dealing with baying wolves of adversity?




Drifting


I'm drifting like a piece of debris swept up by a leaf blower
Sleep well, my fermentative rage, go and rest for an hour
and dream of a childhood's waltzing butterflies,
or perchance to follow the frothing pit bull in my soul:
Why wait? Get up, my faithful companion, Rex,
I need you to perform a creative ablution: it'll be beneficial
for us both, to lave and bless a grave via a bladder's ode
to a slippered ghost, hunched over like a dead plant.
In the citreous light I see her sporting a treacled smile
as she shuffles about some dirt floor in a worm-starred abode.
Yes, my grinning friend, you and I can co-scribe a poem,
but I am out-surged by your stream of consciousness,
You write so effortlessly and your so damn elegiac!
you didn't learn the craft in some puppy mill, did you?


Joe Rosenblatt

KM: Always a hearty WOOF to you Dogfather and thanks always for your loyal and such a noble (and lets not furget playful) collaboration of Dogs and Sonnets! 

"Chicken Bone" Dogs of Havana (2002)

Karen Moe

The Philosophy and Science of the Swishy Bum.

A Dog Photographer is quite the job: sitting in the lovely Lantzville Pub that looks out over a moody, slate grey sea on a Monday afternoon (drinking tea! Too early for me. And I am working, believe it or not). I am busy pondering the science and philosophy of the swishy bum dog photograph. It's tough, I tell you.

I have been spending a few days in the land of the forest; and, fittingly, I have been hanging out with a forest dog. You have met her before if you have been following my Dog Blog (and, if not, check out an earlier posting "Dog-Dogs vs Doggy-Dogs"). Penny, my forest dog friend, is the former. Through and through. No doubt about it. Absolute Dog-Dog.

Dogs all started as wolves before they began to develop their doggy off-shoot. Some say 10,000 years ago; some say longer. Some dogs, however, despite their fluffy bums and floppy ears have retained a wild side, an abject, no holds barred connection to mud and goop and pungent forest floors. Is it contextual, I wonder? If an impeccable urban Lhasa Apso was let off its shiny leash and permitted to run, wild through the bush, would they go? Would they jump in a murky pool? Role in the dirt, salivate and drool? Hmmm. Do you have a luxurious Lhasa Apso? A precious Pomeranian? I Promise I will give him or her a bath after if we try!

Penny knows where every forest pool is and leaps in all of them! She then roles in the forest floor (and I am intentionally not saying 'on'; there is nothing 'on' about this rolling ritual: she is in it).

Where does the forest end and the dog begin? Or, the dog end and the forest begin? Here is an example of absolute reciprocity between being and environment. Go Penny!

And the finale, the Queen in her leafy nest, framed by ferns. Post euphoric soil bath. For a Forest Dog, it doesn't get any better than this.

However, despite Penny's overt wild side, she has an adorable fluffy bum and swishy tail. The first fluffy bum I ever photographed is Teddy. He is the complete opposite of Penny in terms of his preferred environments and favourite activities. I honestly don't think Teddy would have a wild mud bath, even if offered and encouraged to do so. According to his similarly urbanized human companion, Teddy prefers pavement to grass and dirt. Here he is in all of his teddy-bear glory, swishy tail a swish, in Park Royal Village:

One can barely imagine mud on Teddy's pristine derriere or impeding the flow of such a divine, feathery tail. In this photograph, Teddy is demonstrating the 'side-swipe trot check out my 'hood swish.'

Teddy was my first fluffy bum photograph. And, like all firsts, alas, it came very easily. Within a couple of shots, I had the perfect tail swish, fluffy bum shot. His legs are in ideal trot position, perfectly spaced, his ears are visible, one can sense that he is looking around and, therefore, imagine his face. People love this portrait and have often commented that this bum shot conveys as much or more of his personality than a frontal shot could.

The Penny bum-shot was more challenging. Intoxicated by forest smells, she runs far ahead during our walks. It is difficult to get a good fluffy bum shot when you are chasing a dog. I had to keep calling her back, relying on her inbred tame side. Then, as she sat and stared at me, wondering for what reason I had disrupted her forest time, I positioned myself in crouch position and framed the shot before I said "Off you go!" I then shot multiple frames as she gleefully took off again.

Here she comes when I called her back, blindly obedient, and I think she is wondering why she keeps coming back, this mechanical response bred into her with 10,000 years of tamer and tamer ancestors. She doesn't really want to come back, but she does, sweet loyalty over-riding any possibility of annoyance. Oh, Penny ...

And then off she goes again! This is the "And she's off, nose to ground sucking smells, galloping tail swoosh."

The mud and twigs cannot conceal such an adorable fluffy bum and swishy tail!

That is a fabulous 'side-swipe laid back trot swish'.

Here is an 'ears perk up, just heard something I am going to chase in the forest alert upwards swish'.

Why do you photograph dog bums? (You may be wondering). Are you nuts? Is all of this dog photography pushing you into a bizarre realm of canine trivia? Well, yes, I admit, I do have dogs on the brain. However, in terms of the 10,000 year relationship between us and our dogs, when we let them off-leash, be it on city side-walk or forest path, that is what we see: fluffy bums and tails a-swish. And, temporarily freed from our collar tugs, limited extendo leashes and healing up, every dog has a fluffy bum and swishy tail with a distinct personality. Therefore, I say in my defense, index finger flourished, dog bums are a distinct part of the human relationship with dogs. We have been walking behind them for millennia.

"Ch-Ch-Chihuahuawas, Ch-Ch-Chihuahuawas"

Ya-da-da-da-dadada ...

Yes, I have been photographing Chihuahuawas of late. And every time I write the name (Chihuahuawa), I have to look it up. I may not have learned to spell 'Chihuahuawa,' but I did learn that just like individuals within racial and cultural groups, it is impossible to stereo-type the characteristics of a breed.

The first thing I learned is that not all Chihuahuawas enjoy the world of the studio. Bright lights flashing in wide-open eye-balls aren't for everyone ... especially every Chihuahuawa. They are delicate creatures, tiny, slender, wide-eyed and have the propensity to startle easily. It must be a bit scary being a Chihuahuawa at times: human feet as large as you looming over-head, always in mid-step and about to step, only able to look as high as the average human companion's shin-bone, short-haired and often shivering if they forgot their jacket (at least Canadian Chihuahuawas).

Meet Pica. A sweet little Chihuahuawa. She is the first of her breed I ever photographed and she really didn't want anything to do with the studio as soon as her little being was jolted by the sharp flash of light. She looked up at her human companion in disbelief and quickly made her way for the door. She was having nothing to do with our plan to create an adorable portrait of her sweet self and, steadfast in her determination, was not even lured back by a tiny organic cookie to remain in the frame. Very soon into the shoot, she exited stage left:



And then:



And then:



And yes: Ciau



Now, it was not all 'Ya da dadadada da da da da'

(exit stage left), dashing for the door or swooshing under the couch for our dear Pica. With the ten or so shots we managed to get, we got a few beauties! Two to follow. Way to go Pica!

But, next time, let's take your picture in a pretty park, with gentle breezes, soft sunlight and no studio lights!



And then she gave us this coy little over the shoulder twist:



A few days later, I had a shoot with two more Chihuahuawas: Shorty and Macho Man! Concerned that they would react to the studio the same as Pica, I warned their human companion about the potential Chihuahuawa horrors of the studio and, in so doing, stereo-typed the Chihuahuawa as studio-phobic. However, my hasty theory was soon to be proven, well, hasty, unfounded and just plain presumptuous.

Enter Shorty! She is made for the camera and the razzel-dazzle of the studio lights! She was instantly on stage, a true performer, loving the lilac light (and check out her 'bling'):



But, I couldn't resist memories of Pica as Shorty bounced playfully out of the frame, a very different energy to her 'exit stage right,' don't you think?



And then it was her side-kick Macho Man's turn. Unlike the sparkling Shorty, he has more of a thoughtful, perhaps even existential, personality, looking like a moody movie star in his fur collared coat (by the way, this is the first time I photographed a dog wearing more than their furry birthday suit):



Macho Man ... you fascinate with your ineffable glamour.
Where are you gazing? What's on your Chihuahuawa mind?
Where are you going in that fabulous coat after the shoot?
Some smokey lounge ... cigars? Swirling of cognac? I wasn't privy to that information. Alas ...

And Macho Man, again, gazing off into some unfathomable distance, his other-worldliness as poised as a deer. Despite hisautonomous gaze, he seems carved, like an emblem, into the flowery textures of the background, giving us an essence of a most noble Chihuahuawa.



And we conclude our Chi-Chi-Chihuahuawa story with Shorty.She seemed sad to be off stage as we focused on the mysteries of Macho Man. But, back in front of the camera, the love affair resumed like it had never lapsed and she didn't miss a shot, her sweet face and doe-like eyes gleaming right through us and revealing yet another, very different, breed of Chihuahuawa.



That's all for now folks! Join the only Dog Blog in Vancouver for more frolics and fun in the philosophical land of Karen Moe's (that's me) Dog Art.

Our First Afternoon Tea!

We had our first Afternoon Tea on Sunday January 29th and what a lovely affair! I have a gorgeous collection of family heirloom tea cups that tea-comers can choose from, classic tea sandwiches and even debued the Karen Moe Photography Dog Bone Shaped Sugar cookies!

We launched our first "Year in the Life of Karen Moe Photography" Dog Art book which contains portraits and stories about some of the wonderful dogs I had the honour to photograph in 2011. Janet Sadel and I sung an acappella song (written by Janet) called Little Dog Blues, and I couldn't resist performing a favourite Dog Ditty of mine (yes, I admit it) "How Much is that Dog in the Window". Everyone woofed along during the rokus chorus and I always customize the lyrics for the verses for every special event.

This time, I had to compose lyrics about Oscar and Kain, this year's Dog Muses of the Year who are featured in the Year in the Life of Karen Moe Photography Dog Art Book. Oscar was present at the party but, alas, Kain was not. We will feature a Dog Muse every year in our Dog Art book. Come by our studio and check it out! I am very proud of it. Here is the part about dear Kain.


Kain

Kain is one cool dude. He is am American bulldog and nothing gets him miffed. He cruises through life from one sensation to the next never getting overly excited or overly vexed. His occasional woof is authoritative in both its timbre and its infrequency: When Kain woofs, it means something.

People are often scared of Kain cuz he is big and has sagging lips and gums that could look as though he has just torn a part a deer; but he is one of the friendliest and most chill dogs I have ever met. Even when I forced him over and over to sit and stay in front of graffiti under a bridge (where it smelled like urine), in front of Hydrangea bushes and on a park bench, he obeyed. After awhile, I think I saw him roll his eyes, but his “I’d rather be sniffing everything nose” never got out of joint.





Here is the part about sweet Oscar!

Oscar

Oscar is an adorable (did I need to point that out?!) 8-month old Havanese. He loves to be photographed and doesn’t even require the incentive of treats. He lives in Yaletown with 2 cats (oh, and 1 human). He likes to chase the cats around the living room making a super-cute grunting noise, I doubt the cats find it so super-cute though.

I have seen Oscar in his fabulous winter coat with a fur collar that he wears in the Vancouver winter. On less blustery days, Oscar likes to go for runs along the Yaletown Seawall, but not without his favourite toy, and everyone smiles as he trots by. Oh Oscar .....



My dear Molly was also present at the tea. It was so great having dogs there and I hope to have more of our dog-friends come to our next Afternoon Tea in May! Here is the part about Molly in the book along with one of her portraits (by the way, this piece of Dog Art is hanging at the Yaletown Pet Hospital at Expo Blvd and Smithe in Vancouver)

Molly
Molly is a purebred Havanese who was once destined for breeding but, having an imperfect knee joint, became a family dog. She is 8 years old and extremely affectionate and playful. Like most purebreds, Molly is not coddled or obsessively clipped; indeed, she can often be seen being dragged around by a four-year-old in most uncomfortable and unflattering positions.

When Molly came for the shoot, she was quite surprised and taken with all of the attention. As a family dog in a household with 3 children it was as though she was thinking, shyly ‘Me, me? This is all about me?” And when she realized it was, the show-dog let loose and we all had a fabulous time!




Here are some of the highlights of our First Tea! Don't miss the next one in May! First: The Tea Table:




And the wonderful tea party guests! That's me in the middle proudly displaying the Year in the Life of Karen Moe Photography Dog Art book!



Bye for now and hope to see you at our next Afternoon Tea!

Karen.