Supervising - 21/52

This is what Iris looks like when she's trying to see over my shoulder to supervise everything that's going on in the condo complex (leash edited out...)  She's not actually looking at the camera, and she's definitely not happy that I'm blocking her view!

Supervising - 21/52

Also, she's started ignoring me when I say her name.  That might be my fault.  I talk to her all the time and use her name a lot when I don't actually care if she's paying attention or not.  Maybe it's time to train a new word that means "look at me."

Vintage Pup - 20/52

My poor red dog is really not happy with all of the heat we've been getting.  Neither are the crested geckos for that matter.  We've got the AC on low and ice packs on tanks for the geckos (they're reptiles that don't make sense...  they like it fairly cool), which means we need heat lamps for the beaded dragon and the ball python.

Poor Iris says "What about me?"  Climate control for the herps and not the Aussie?  I think she'd prefer the AC on high.  If you look close, you can see the drool on her chin.

Vintage Dog - 20/52

I love the look of old black and white photos.  Since I don't have a darkroom, this one was done in Photoshop.

The Clock - 19/52

I debated about whether or not to include this photo, but it didn't seem right to skip over this aspect of life with Iris.

The Clock - 19/52

Every eight hours, I pick up the pill bottles.  That's the clock that our lives run on.

Iris comes running every time she hears me pick up the bottles.  I hide her pills inside a little bit of peanut butter.  Or canned food.  Either way, she comes running whenever she hears anyone in the house pick up any bottle of pills.  We joke that she has a drug seeking problem.  Although I'm pretty sure she just can't understand why humans don't hide their pills in peanut butter.

Life's Details - 18/52

Having a dog really does change all the details in your life. The first thing I do in the morning is take Iris out. Then she gets her pills and I make her breakfast. All this before I do anything resembling taking care of myself. Vacation? Planned around whether I can bring the dog. Day trips? Iris is included. Grocery shopping generally includes buying more meat than you would ever expect a vegetarian to purchase. Even the furniture in the house is arranged to better accommodate crates and dog beds. Yup, dogs really do change all the details. But I wouldn't have it any other way.

Details - 18/52

I knew I wanted to do a photo with Iris' paw and my hand, so I ended up taking about 40 shots, all somewhat different variations.  Iris was really not impressed with sitting through that many photos.  After all that, of course I ended up using the second photo I shot (don't tell Iris!)  Someday I'll learn to trust myself.

Spring Birthdays - 17/52

Spring - 17/52

I suppose I might as well come clean.  I completely forgot about the red dog's Birthday this year.  It's probably good that she didn't remember either.  Regardless of whether or not either of us remembered, she did turn 8 years old on May 6th!  I can't believe she's 8 already.  Or that I've had her for almost 4 years.  It doesn't seem nearly that long.  I also don't want to admit that she's not as young as she used to be, but I will say that she's really matured into a wonderful dog.

The last couple weeks have been really busy for me (my excuse for forgetting), but next week I need to do some location scouting.  So Iris will get to come with me to scope out some more parks in the area.  A walk in the park sounds like a pretty good way to celebrate.

Happy Birthday beautiful red dog!!!  And here's to many more!

Close Up - 16/52

Yeah, I'm playing catch up on my photo blogging.  Rather than force you took through a million photos of the red dog, here's a few of the red dog disguised as a grey dog.

Close Up - 16/52

Yup, that's my girl.  Always has to know exactly what I'm doing.

Birch Trees - 15/52

Birch Trees - 15/52

Here's a shoot I did a few weeks ago but haven't had the chance to share yet.  I did post the final image (above) on my photo blog, but I really wanted to share some of the outtakes here.  Because there were A LOT of outtakes!  (Outtakes brought to you with minimal editing...)

I took Iris over to a new park to get some landscape-type photos, and I immediately fell in love with this cluster of birch trees.  Iris did not.  I think it was probably a combination of being in a new place, it being VERY windy out, and my forgetting to bring the usual bribe (supermodels don't work for free, you know!) added to the fact that I only had a 6ft leash so I kept having to tie her up to get far enough back (my roommate later asked me why I didn't bring the 30ft long line.  Which is a very good question.  And maybe something I should remember next time).  I ended up with a dog would refused to look at the camera.  I pretty much had to wait until she just happened to look at the camera for a split second.

Yup, she's still not looking at me.  Actually, she thinks the whole thing is pretty funny.

(click on above photo for slightly larger view)

Ok.  It is kind of funny.

It might be starting to get less funny and more boring.  Definitely boring now.

I did (finally) manage to get the shots I was looking for.  Without much help from the red dog.  Next time I'll remember the bribe.  Until then, she's not looking.