Sunday, February 14, 2010

Day 61 - Valentine's Day

Probably the most romantic thing about Valentine's Day was that it was absolutely normal. Janet took Dot up to the annual Krewe of Barkus parade in McKinney. Dash didn't go this year, because he doesn't travel well in the car. Last year we took both dogs to the parade and Dash had a seizure the next day. We'll never know if the car trip actually caused the seizure, or if it was just a weird coincidence. Unfortunately, he's still taking Phenobarbital a year later. Dash seemed happy enough to stay at home, snoozing on the bed while I went up and walked the rescue Dalmatians at K-9 University. When I returned from the kennel, I must have shoveled 600 pounds of snow off the roof in an attempt to stop the leak, and then went looking for a laundromat with a large enough commercial washing machine to clean the 20 foot square pink muslin backdrop I used in yesterdays photo shoot at Unleashed.

One of the hazards of pet photography is that your subjects often poop and pee on the set. The set actually held up pretty well, considering the number of dogs we photographed yesterday. Nevertheless, there were a few accidents. You learn pretty quickly that when a dog pees on your photo backdrop, you've got to get it really clean. Otherwise, the next time you use it, all the dogs will pee on it.

After I got the huge muslin backdrop cleaned and dried, I picked up some roses and cupcakes on the way home and then tried to tidy up the house a bit by taking some of the props that we used yesterday back to the storage warehouse. Janet and Dot returned from the parade later in the afternoon and when the chores were finally finished, we drank a bottle of Champagne that was left over from one of Janet's office parties, ate the cupcakes and were ready to call it a day by 10 PM. I think our dogs were ready to call it a day by 7:30 PM.

Dalmatian of the Day

    Watch of the Day