Meet Spanky… he is a Pit Bull/ Boston Terrior mix.  Beautiful….

Spanky is handsome, intelligent and very fortunate.  He was rescued and is now loved and taken care of by a wonderful family.  His trainer and owner, Dana, is really amazing with him.  She is actually in the process of starting a dog training business.  After watching her with Spanky, I am confident that she is going to do really great!  Spanky was so well behaved and performed an array of tricks that continued to amaze me.

During the session, we did a variety of portraits with Dana’s mom, Arlene; Dana and, of course, Spanky.  First, Arlene & Dana::

Clearly, you can see that my job was made very easy this day!

And some more of Spanky…  admit it, you love him too…. 

Here is Dana working on a few tricks with Spanky…

And, last but not least….. my very favorite trick that Spanky does…..  he recovers tissues when Dana sneezes!  Yes, I am serious!  It is really amazing to see…

This was such a fun session!!  Thanks so much to all three of you!  : )  Dana, all the best with your business!!

]]> http://melissahassey.com/2010/04/puppy-love/feed/ 0 http://melissahassey.com/2010/01/beautiful-january-sun/ http://melissahassey.com/2010/01/beautiful-january-sun/#comments Wed, 27 Jan 2010 02:43:52 +0000 melissa http://melissahassey.com/?p=2121 So…. I definitely have been feeling the winter “blahs” and can hardly wait for the spring…. let alone summer.  I prefer to be baking hot than frigid cold.  In fact, not only do I prefer the heat, I downright love it.  Granted, I don’t so much love the humidity…. but who does?  I definitely feel more inspired during the warmer months and have been aching to get out and do some nature photography.

Anyway, this morning after I made breakfast and was headed upstairs to my office to get down to business, I noticed the beautiful light streaming through our doorway.  I instantly felt inspired and knew I needed to capture the light/ moment.  It is these beautiful moments that get me through the winter, i suppose.

So…. I took a few photographs but then realized it would be more interesting with Santucci (our cat… named after my favorite pizza parlor.  mmmmmmm).  So, I guided him here and there…. which isn’t always easy.  At one point, I actually picked him up, placed him in the light and sat him down like I would a dog.  To my complete surprise, he stayed there long enough for me to get back to the camera and lie on our kitchen floor.  I then tempted him with his favorite toy….. a hairband.  He couldn’t resist!  Here are the results::

For now, we have our cat, Santucci (named after my favorite pizza parlor)!  Secretly, I think he loves this.    I took the time to set up his bed (which he loves!) in front of our tiny Christmas tree.  He eventually laid in it and I continued to add decorations on top of him until it was just too much.  Eventually he got spooked by something, jumped up quickly and broke 4 ornaments into tiny pieces.  Oh well!  Still worth it!  Here are some Toochy Christmas photos…..

Look, that’s me in the reflection!

I love this one because he actually looks like a statue or one of the figurines…

This is for all of you dog lovers out there….  especially chocolate lab lovers!