My earliest memories include our family dog, a black German Shepherd Dog named King. I've heard family stories about his mother, Princess, who was so afraid of thunderstorms that she once jumped through the living room window during a storm. She crossed the Rainbow Bridge before I was born so I've only seen her in pictures.
But King, I remember very well. I remember sitting with King in the bulked entrance of our home waiting for the milk mail to arrive. When he did, he tousled my hair and said "Hello". As he touched my head, King gently put his mouth on his forearm and applied light pressure. A nervous voice calling out "Mrs. Allard" still rings in my ears as if it were yesterday.
One day my brother wandered away from our house in a rural area of southern New Hampshire. King never left his side. When my parent's found him an hour or so later, they found King along with him, both jusst a few hundred yards from our home.
We moved from New Hampshire to the Florida Keys when I was 5 years old and King came with us. I guess he must have been fairly old at the time because I remember not long after the move, he started whining when laying down and getting up. It was heartbreaking to hear him cry.
At some point my parents decided that there were more bad days than good and when I came home from school, I was told that they made the decision to relieve his suffering. At 6 or 7 years old at the time, I didn't understand any of it, I just knew that I didn't have my dog anymore. That was my first experience with the love and loss of giving your heart to a dog. I know my mother has pictures of King, but because I was so young at the time, I do not. Note to self the next time I see my mother...
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I Come From a Family of Animal Lovers
My mother then decided she wanted a small dog and Snoopy the Miniature Schnauzer joined our family. We named her Snoopy because her nose was always snooping on the ground. Snoopy moved with us from the Keys to central Florida and then again when we returned to New Hampshire in the late 70's.
Snoopy was cute and sweet, but she was always my mother's dog. Besides, when we lived in Malabar on Florida's central east coast, I got my first pony, so my interests lay elsewhere; I lived in the barn. His name was Starlight and was a POA (Pony of Americas) and I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. I joined the 4H and it was all horses, all the time for me.
I Was (Still Am), a Horse-Crazy Girl
When we left Malabar for New Hampshire, we left our small farm with Starlight, our cows, pigs, goats and more behind as well. Not literally, but you know what I mean. One moment I had a pony and the next, not. I was devastated.
I begged my parents for a horse when we finally moved into our log house in the woods of New Hampshire. The reply was always "NH isn't Florida, you can't ride year-round up here like you did down there. It snows. It will be cold.". I persisted in what turned out to be a year-long campaign.
Because we built the log house ourselves, it was a work in progress. When we moved in, the kitchen consisted of sheets of plywood on 2-by-4 stands. As the story goes, my mother delayed the delivery of cabinets and countertops anther year so we could build a barn and I could get a horse.
We had 38 acres and the barn was inside a +/- 5-acre wooded enclosure. Shortly after my Palomino Chamois arrived, so did a menagerie of animals in need of a home. We had goats, a Sicilian miniature burro, a donkey, an ancient pony nobody wanted that ended up impregnating the donkey (so maybe not that ancient after all) and a hinny was born in the barn, ducks, chickens and more.
When I got serious about showing my horse, I got a beautiful chestnut gelding American Quarter Horse named Ima City Slicker. He had 4 white socks and I if I could have brought him to Prom, I would have.
I made good on my promises and lived in our NH barn for the next 10 years. Four seasons a year, year in and year out. The barn was my happy place. I didn't do much after school extra curricular activities, time spent with my horse was way better than anything school could offer.
It was right about the time that we started collecting animals that my family went through a Doberman Pinscher phase, the first one to arrive was named Pax and he would become my first heart dog. Pax would spend every afternoon in the barn with me, would howl inside the house if I left on a trail ride without him and slept on my bed every single night.
Pax was later joined by Sissy and Gretchen to round out our trio of Dobermans. While I haven't had one since then, they still remain a favorite breed of mine.
The Original Girlies
Abby and Emma were MY first dogs. Not dogs that belonged to the family, but dogs that I had on my own. They were yellow lab mixes, Abby being a tawny fawn color and Emma a white blonde.
I taught Abby lots of tricks (she was so smart) and Emma had the sweetest personality. They loved going out on the sailboat on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire as you can see from the smiles on their faces.
Nicknamed Abigail Van Buren and Emmy Lou Harris, they were always by one another's side and I loved them to bits. They were my original "girlies".
Dog in a Cat Suit
In my early thirties I started to move around the country a lot and traveling for work. I was without a dog for a few years and it didn't feel right. I knew my lifestyle wasn't commensurate with owning a dog, but when it looked like upstate New York would be my home for a while, I got a cat. But I wanted a cat that would be like a dog.
I had always wanted an orange cat so I went to the shelter to adopt one. I met the three they had and none of them were a good fit. They were too finicky, persnickety, too cat-like. I was shown to another room where there were cats in individual cages lining the side walls. From the end of the room I saw a little gray paw stick out of the cage and wave me over. I kid you not. It was the cat version of "Come over here".
I went to the cage which was at my chest level and the volunteer opened it for me. I petted the cat and picked him up (one of my litmus tests, I wanted a cat that would cuddle) and he settled into my arms like a baby and looked up at me while I scratched his belly. He then rubbed his head under my chin, marking me as his own. I had just met my new cat and I named him Indy.
Indy was the best cat. Ever. Full stop (and we've had some really great cats). He was the perfect companion for a young, single woman and had a wonderful personality. He was a big guy, tipping the scales at 16 lbs so my then boyfriend, now husband, nicknamed him "Big Daddy".
Indy moved from New York to Texas with me and when he became diabetic later in life, he would come running into the kitchen when called for his twice daily insulin shots. I never heard him hiss, he never swatted, and when I took in a stray cat shortly after moving to Texas, he welcomed him like a long-lost brother. Like I said, he was the dog that I wanted, he was just packaged differently.
The Texas Girlies
After 2 years dating in NY, I moved to Texas and we continued our relationship long distance for almost another 2 years before my husband moved to Texas. We knew the first thing we wanted to do was get a dog together. As a matter of fact, we couldn't wait until he got here. On his last visit to Texas before he planned to drive down with his car and all his belongings in a couple of weeks, we met Penny at an adoption event while on an errand to buy cat litter. We left the store with cat litter and a dog.
She and her brother had been found on the side of a highway outside Houston and a Good Samaritan stopped and managed to get them both into his car. He drove home to Dallas with them both, provided veterinary care and then worked with a local branch of the Humane Society to get them adopted.
I don't know what it was about Penny that drew us to her, but we both knew that she was meant to be our dog. I don't recall what her rescue name was, but after much deliberation, we decided on "Penny". She was my husband's heart dog and the dog against which every future dog will be measured. She wasn't easy and had a very small circle of human and dog friends, but she loved us fiercely. We lost her just before her 13th birthday and she's the namesake for Penny Whistle Photography.
The little dog laying to the left of Penny below was like a miniature version of her in her coloring. The moment we saw her on a segment of the local news about animals for adoption, we knew we had to adopt her. She was a beagle and Dachshund mix with a kink in her tail from a previous, untreated break and was so homely that she was adorably cute. We called and adopted her on the spot. It took us 3 days to name her, but called her Peanut in the interim because she was such a little peanut version of Penny. We eventually realized that Peanut was in fact her name and the Texas girlies came to be.
Our Current Girlies
We lost Peanut before we lost Penny, and her passing left a big hole in the snuggle department. Peanut was a snuggle bunny supreme. She would spoon into my husband's chest when we went to bed and when I woke up in the morning, they would still be in the exact same position.
Penny was never a snuggler and neither was Dingo. This needed to be addressed right away. Now, there's never a guarantee as to what you'll get when you rescue, but I do believe that in many cases you get the dog that you need. We needed a snuggle bunny and Ginger needed a very patient, understanding and somewhat stubborn home. It was a match made in heaven. When we rescue an animal, it's forever.
She's horribly reactive and similar to Penny, has a very small circle of dog and human friends, but inside the house she's an angel and has been great with all the foster dogs we've had over the years. She turned 14 years old this August and we feel blessed that she's still in great health and is as spunky as ever.
I became a dog trainer to try to figure this little blondie out and help her live a more relaxed life. She's my heart dog, my ride or die girl, loves the car and was my first photography model.
She and Gracie, the brown-eyed girl laying to her left, are inseparable. They often spoon one another while sleeping and are both always in the same room that I'm in. Gracie was rescued from the EU list at Dallas Animal Services. She's not the brightest bulb on the marquee, but what she may lack in intelligence, she makes up for with her sweet nature. She loves every single living being she's ever met. Gracie just turned 12 in August so we cherish every day we have with our current girlies. I don't do it on purpose, but I seem to keep ending up with bonded pairs of female dogs.
My Favorite Picture of Me
This picture says it all. The smile on my face, my arms full of dogs, it makes me happy just looking at it. This picture is me, honestly me. Everyone needs a photograph of themselves like this. Not one where you're picking yourself apart, but one that makes you feel joy that you experienced that moment and have that kind of love in your life.
The loves I'm holding here are Rooney (left), my current partner in all things disc, hiking and agility. Rooney was the first puppy I'd had in many, many years - and - he's the first I got after becoming a Certified Professional Dog Trainer. It makes a difference! The early work I put in on socialization and training is paying dividends now that he's about to turn three years on October 1st. He's such a well-rounded, athletic guy that I'm thoroughly enjoying trying different things with.
Dingo is on my right, we lost him to lymphoma in June of 2021. Everyone who knew Dingo just sort of ended up calling him "Sweet Dingo" because he was a friendly, gentle soul. And he was handsome. Very handsome! I still miss him every day. His chair in the sunroom has been taken over by our cat Jiffy, but we still call it "Dingo's chair" and his food bowl is still in its stand in the corner of the kitchen, we can't bear to remove it yet.
I've had girl dogs and boy dogs, purebreds and rescues, and I can honestly say that I don't really have any favorites. I've had snuggly girl and boy dogs both. I've had easy dogs and some challenges. Smarty pants and some that score a little lower on the IQ test, but I've loved them all. I cannot image my life without a dog in it. They might get a little smaller the older I get it, but there will be (at least) one!
All Around the Pet Photography Blog Circle
Everyone's sharing their love for dogs this week in the pet photographer's blog circle so lets head on over to Jan Bezzo of Shadow Dog Photography shares why she loves helping adoptable dogs and then continue clicking on the link at the bottom of each post for an around the world tour of love. When you land right back here, you will have completed the circle.
Tracy Allard of Penny Whistle Photography is a Certified Professional Photographer with the organization Professional Photographers of America; a designation held by fewer than 2,000 photographers nationwide and a hallmark of consistency, technical skill, artistry and professionalism. Tracy's current pack consists of her rescue dogs Ginger and Gracie and cat, Jiffy (aka Jiffy the Cat) and her Border Collie, Rooney.
Penny Whistle specializes in both on-location and studio photography providing pet, equine, family, couples & engagement and high school senior portraits as well as corporate headshots and commercial photography services in her studio located in historic downtown Carrollton as well as on location in Coppell, Grapevine, Southlake, Flower Mound and surrounding communities in Dallas – Fort Worth, Texas.