Thankful

Thankful to be finishing my last week as a Best Friend's Intern tomorrow.

Thankful to be starting my employment trial at Best Friend's next week, fingers crossed.

Thankful that I've finally started following my dreams and things are falling into place.

Thankful that my photography business keeps growing and expanding to new opportunities.

Thankful for all my wonderful family and friends that love and support me.

Thankful for my best friend/boyfriend who drove up here to spend Thanksgiving with me.

Thankful for my Murderface, Jasper, Sinatra, and Nymeria because I wouldn't be doing what I do if it wasn't for animals like them.

Thankful for my life.

And this schmuck.

Sensual Sunday

"This is the best I've ever looked, 

part of doing this is for my boyfriend but mostly I'm doing it for me."

The explanation my friend Amanda gave during her boudoir shoot of why she wanted these images and I absolutely loved her answer. What better reason to do a sexy shoot than for yourself? Enjoy a teaser of our session here and then go check out most of the rest over here.

Celebrate yourself, book a boudoir shoot. You won't regret it.

Me.

"Cause darling I'm a nightmare dressed as a daydream"

I Heart Faces Photo Challenge {Pets}

Most of you remember Nymeria, the border collie I rescued after being dumped at a Nevada Power Plant and took on as a personal foster to get her healthy again. You can find the whole story here and then realize why I had to choose her for this Photo Challenge.

The Before pictures were taken on my iPhone the day I picked her up and took her to the vet, the After photo... Well you can see the huge difference (in her and picture quality). She's like a new dog. She's learning to chase balls after watching my other border collie play, loves to cuddle with me, and she enjoys going on walks now that her paws have healed. We are still working on her fear of strangers (men in particular) as well as her extreme separation anxiety but luckily someones usually always home in my house so she's never alone for too long. 

Nym is still currently in my care but she is looking for a forever home. We would love to keep her but my big guy and her are having a hard time getting along if there's not enough space between them so we are def keeping the door open for someone who might be able to give her more than we can but she won't go to just anyone!

Hooves & Snouts

I'm wrapping up Internship week 2 and 3 in Horse Haven and Piggy Paradise (they are combined areas) and got the chance to give the pigs and horses their own photoshoots. The staff here are unbelievably awesome and have even been posting my work on each area's respective Facebook page! You can see my photos for the pigs here and the horses here.

I've always loved horses as most of you know, I have been riding for almost as long as I could walk. However, I have a new found respect for pigs. I've always liked pigs and have never been a huge pork eater but spending time with them on the day to day made me realize just how smart and social they are. The horses and pigs here are trained in Parelli Natural Horsemanship which focuses on positive training methods and building a positive bond between horse and rider and the pigs learn this way as well. It's something I haven't really gotten a chance to experience yet but I'm hoping to learn more about it before this week is over. 

I encourage everyone to do a little more research when it comes to pigs. There is no such thing as a teacup piggy, these small pigs are starved to keep them small and are even explained in their contracts to underfeed the animals to keep them small and these poor pigs experience many health issues because of it. Pigs also turn vicious when kept in homes if they don't have another pig friend which is why Best Friend's adopts them out in pairs. I'm not a vegetarian by any means, I've tried and failed many times, but I have so much respect for people who are and I have definitely cut down my carnivorous ways since I've been here.

If you get a chance to volunteer at the Sanctuary, make sure you spend some time with the pigs and horses. It's a really great time feeding the horses and giving pigs belly rubs. 

If you want to know more about the pigs at Best Friends, one of the other interns is running a blog specifically about them called Friends With Pigs! She also makes the cutest pig cozies as well as other animal cozies so be sure to check her out!

Dogtown

(Bruno)

So I'm currently writing this from cloudy Kanab UT where I've wrapped up my first week of my internship at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. I spent my first week in Dogtown, learning how to be a dog caregiver and what goes into training and rehabilitating the dogs in my specific section. I have yet to meet someone here that I don't like and I even ran my section, The Gardens, by myself the last morning because of a mix-up which I think happened for a reason so I could perhaps prove to myself and staff that I'm meant to do this. 

(Sinatra)

The dogs here are incredible. There's Bruno, the large gray and white Pit Bull Terrier who is incredibly smart and stubborn and instantly became one of my favorites. There's Sinatra, the Australian Shepherd with beautiful blue eyes (hence the name) whose extremely shy and avoids being petted. He has to be hand fed to help him bond with humans and prove we aren't so bad and he will come up to you and snuffle your hair if he's curious and comfortable enough. Beautiful Pearl, another Pittie, who suffers from Babesia which is a blood disease she contracted from a fighting ring in Texas but is the sweetest little gremlin I've ever met. Then there is Nita, a bouncy and lovable American Bulldog mix who thinks she's part cat. I wish I could take them all home with me.

(Pearl)

I loved every minute of being with the dogs and I'm pretty sad that I can't spend my entire internship there. However the good news is that this week will be spent in horses, my other favorite area, and I also summoned my courage and put in an application to be a Dogtown caregiver. Fingers crossed.

(Nita)

All the dogs seen here are currently for adoption. 

You can find more info/adopt here: Best Friends Adopt a Pet-Animal Sanctuary