Why bother...

... being anything EXCEPT a dog? There must be some unwritten law of nature which predicts that if you live with dogs, they WILL expect you to get out of bed at an ungodly hour. If you don't, then playing 3-a-side bed rugby is bound to get you up.

I've just figured out why it feels like I have weird indigestion. Weird only because when I located my indigestion area, it felt BRUISED. Only then did I remember how my day started – with a Jack Russell using my chest as a spring board to referee the Labs as they tackled each other. On the bed. Where I was still sleeping. In the dark. At 5.30am. Dark because it's mid-winter!

This is Jackie now, doing what Jackie does best: sleeping. Throughout the day, while her human walks around, bleary-eyed, stumbling over sleeping dog bodies.

Time spent in the company of canines...

Is always time well spent.

I was asked by a portrait client to take some photos of her new puppy Emma and while I was at it, to give her some advice on integrating the newbie with long-time resident Bambi. Even though Emma had been in residence for 3 months, Bambi still didn't look like she was happy with the snappy li'l space invader.

Emma is incredibly busy, which can be expected for someone so small and so young. Being a miniature Dachshund, her tiny size makes her a hazard, she gets under your feet when you try walking anywhere and it appears that she is driving poor Bambi nuts. Her typical puppy behaviour includes biting with razor sharp teeth, jumping up incessantly and running around at top speed until I wanted to take her batteries out!

I spent about ten minutes TTouching her little wriggly body. She experienced mouth work for the first time and we fashioned a body wrap for her out of a Build-A-Bear T-shirt. She gave a couple of yawns and then settled between my knees on my lap, giving me a chance to finish my tea and show her mom how to do the simple TTouches. During the photo shoot she climbed into my lap and refused to go to her mom when called. It's always interesting to see how a body responds to this gentle work. She was more relaxed and much calmer after only a short time!

This is the favourite part of a day, when I gett to photograph one of my favourite subjects, do a bit of healing and connect with like-minded animal lovers!

Get the tissues

Anyone who followed the tragic events of Hurricane Katrina will never forget what they saw... Being subscribed to many newsletters and blogs – I read with mounting hysteria – of the unfolding animal welfare crises. I wondered how I would have coped, had I been stuck on the roof of my house with my three dogs. I wouldn't have gotten into any rescue craft without them, thats for sure! But that is what happened to so many people, already traumatised by the loss and devastation which surrounded them, when help arrived, they had to make the heart-breaking decision to leave without their animals. I couldn't bear the thought of that.

I choose not to read heroic animal tales, I can't bear the tragedy, even if there is a happy ending. In light of that, though, there are two books I can't wait to get hold of... Pawprints of Katrina includes nearly 200 heroic rescues, heartwarming reunions, and stories of selfless efforts of strangers brought together by a disaster to save animals at the Best Friends Animal Society triage center because their owners were unable to. You can watch the video clip here.

The other interesting book I discovered, was in the August issue of Animaltalk. Leaving Jack is a novel by South African author Gareth Crocker. It tells the story of a dog handler in Vietnam, who, at the end of the war, is faced with the realisation that he must leave Vietnam - without his dog!

"... a controversial new novel, entitled Leaving Jack, published in hardcover (Robert Hale Publishers: May, 2008) offers a fictional account of what a soldier endures after learning that the dog which served his platoon with such distinction in Vietnam, has been classified as 'surplus military equipment' by the US Government at the end of the conflict, and is ordered to be left behind.

Although Leaving Jack is a work of fiction, it is based on actual events at the end of the Vietnam War and was written to highlight the little-known plight of the Vietnam War Dogs."

Tear-jerker-stuff, but interesting how the impact of the human-animal bond has become a popular topic. These stories allow us to show our vulnerability and provide opportunities to explore compassion in ways that society has previously pooh-poohed.

Even better then, that Leaving Jack is penned by a man, who wrote this story in the company of his three dogs.