Happy 7th Izzy!!!

Cookies, a walk and ear rubs. If I had to guess, this is what Izzy would say are her favorite things. So with her birthday coming up, I asked myself what do I think she would like to do to celebrate her special day. Sure, we can walk someplace new. Get different (and bigger!) treats. And we’ve been doing just that all week long. We even took her to a different town to explore a park we’ve never been to before. She had a great time, if for no other reason, there were a ton of squirrels to chase!

I often wonder if dogs could talk what they would say. I’d especially like to hear what the dogs who live with photographers have to say about their lives. In addition to doing something fun to celebrate Izzy’s birthday, every year I also come up with some photo idea to commemorate her special day. Last year we had an ice cream party and I photographed a series of her licking the cold treat. Another year, I had a garden party complete with balloons, gifts and pupcakes.  Sometimes I think pet photographers like myself come up with ideas just so we can photograph it! With the slew of treats and attention, I’m not sure our pooches mind though!

For Izzy’s 7th birthday I toyed with ideas like a cake smash and a pool party. But in the end I decided to do something that would include me being in the photos. While I photograph Izzy often, I don’t really have many photos of her and me. And as she gets older, knowing the history of cancer with golden retrievers, I get nervous that we won’t have much more time together.  So I set up my backdrop, put my camera on a tripod and took some selfies of us. However, there was a problem I had to figure out how to work around. I’ve had an eye infection for almost a week. Probably allergy related. My husband says I look like a sad sack of potatoes, like I’ve been crying for days. My eye doesn’t hurt, but I know wearing eye makeup isn’t a smart thing to do right now. So I bought a fun swirl lollipop and built a theme around it.

This is our selfie! Happy 7th birthday Izzy!!!