I recently started working with a new Dallas - Fort Worth rescue group, Road Trip 4 Paws (RT4P). They lost their go-to photographer when she retired and moved out of state, leaving them in a bit of a lurch. I'm always happy to help rescues and shelters when needed so I said sure, send your fosters to my Carrollton studio.
Below are images from my third adoption photo shoot for them and I chose this color paper - which I can never remember the exact name of - which I call my "pumpkin spice" paper because it seemed fitting for fall.
Knowing that you rescue animals is all I really need to know to help you, but it was interesting to interview the founder, Kelly Bond, as research to write this post. I was finally able to answer my first burning question, "Why is the rescue called Road Trip 4 Paws?" (keep reading for the answer).
Kelly works for American Airlines as a flight attendant and despite being away from home for a few days at a time, figured out a way to make cat fostering for various north Texas rescues work for fifteen years.
After considering what she liked, and disliked, about those rescues, she decided to create her own group putting to use her experiences and learnings from each. It started with one friend to join her as a foster, and then another joined and from these humble beginnings of three fosters homes in 2015, Road Trip 4 Paws has grown to almost 80, regularly saving over 300 animals every year.
Haling from Alabama, Kelly has been a life long animal lover saying "There isn't a picture in the family photo album without a dog or cat on my lap". This love of animals comes from her father and she admits that there have been a few fosters who ended up calling her parent's house home.
Kelly's Love For Animals Goes Way Back
Road Trip 4 Paws is Born
When she considered starting her own rescue she boiled it down to; "What's my mission? And how can I achieve it?" It was that point on the horizon that led her to think outside the box and focus on transporting animals from sparsely populated rural areas to more densely inhabited ones, thereby increasing the chances for adoption.
She contacted groups all over the country and ended up partnering with two Colorado rescue groups; Fort Collins Cat Rescue and All Aboard Dog Rescue (now Bounce Animal Rescue).
The first three years were spent driving back and forth from Texas to Colorado, sometimes with as many as 50-70 animals in a single transport and Kelly behind the wheel. Road Trip 4 Paws would pull many animals from Humane Society of Young County, a well-respected shelter in the Texas rescue community, as well as Dallas Animal Services and other, smaller shelters in east Texas. If Kelly was on the road, co-director Jennifer Lay would step up to the plate. In 2016 and 2017, they transported over 1,000 animals to Colorado (that's each year)!
Unfortunately change is inevitable and when one of the Colorado rescue groups split, the number of dogs they could intake went down as well. It was no longer feasible to transport only 10-12 animals that distance. But there's a silver lining, by this point, Road Trip 4 Paws had become well known in the Dallas - Fort Worth metroplex and local adoptions had been steadily increasing. In 2019 they stopped their cross-state transports, but the name stuck.
(Road Trip 4 Paws story continues below)
Using Pet Photography To Help Homeless Animals
Kelly has always prioritized having great pictures of their adoptable pets, she knows how important it is to grab someone's attention who has been scrolling the Internet or Facebook looking for their next furry best friend.
One of her favorite things to say is "Think about this like a dating profile picture, it needs to be good!".
A great photo that conveys personality and clearly shows the pet's markings and size can help an animal get adopted in less time, thereby freeing up that foster home to take in another another animal.
Popeye
This sweet little guy found himself at the San Benito municipal animal shelter in southern Texas where volunteer Jacqueline Pope thought he would do better - and get the medical help he needed to address his eye problems - with a rescue group.
In stepped the Bare Bus Rescue Transport. Every Monday Bare Bus transports shelter animals from sparsely populated areas in the southern part of our state to rescue partners in the DFW metroplex.
Within 24 hours of Popeye's pictures hitting the internet, he had 4 adoption applications and is now living his best life in tony enclave of Highland Park. It's happy endings like this that makes working with rescues so worthwhile.
Mama Izzie And Her Grey's Anatomy Puppies
Izzie is another southern girl who made the trek north to the Dallas area with her puppies. Whether she actually belonged to the owners of the house under which she gave birth to her puppies, or she was a stray who thought it a safe place to do so, is unknown.
She was noticed by a Good Samaritan neighbor who brought the situation to the attention of the home owner who said he didn't care what she did with Izzie and the pups, so the shelter reached out to Ginny Reyes, a key player in the San Benito area rescue community. Ginny reached out Kelly and it was arranged for Izzie and the pups to make the trip to Dallas on the Bare Bus Rescue Transport, allowing them to skip any time in a shelter (which is not place for very young pups).
They just came available for adoption and their pictures are breaking the internet, garnering multiple applications for adoption along the way.
Kelly described Ginny as the woman who "touches" almost 90% of the dogs that Road Trip 4 Paws receives from the San Benito area. Ginny know everybody and she uses those contacts to transport, transfer and place homeless animals.
She provides veterinary care prior to transport. Every effort is made to keep the animals safe, healthy and to give them the best chance at finding a permanent home. Living in north Texas, I'm very familiar with many local rescue groups, shelters and the "movers and shakers" in our area, but researching this post really opened my eyes to how much is being done in other parts of the state as well.
Road Trip 4 Paws Is Committed To Cat Rescue
Kelly stated that "Cats don't get adopted at the same pace that dogs do, and because many household cats are finicky about who they're willing to share their house with, cat fosters can be hard to find".
She goes on to inform that "With a $150 adoption fee for a cat, we lose money on almost every single one. Cats pulled from municipal shelters often have upper respiratory infections, or gastrointestinal infections requiring medical treatment. Ringworm is another common ailment and because of the need to quarantine, can take a foster home "off the market" for weeks until the animal can safely be made available for adoption".
Despite the downside, RT4P has always, and will always according to Kelly, rescue cats along with dogs. This is great news because there is a dearth of cat rescues here in north Texas. Kelly likes to say "We may get the glory for what we do when an animal gets adopted, but it's the foster homes that make the whole thing work". Fosters give their time, love and home (and sometimes their own personal finances), without payment, to help save homeless animals.
This is why fundraising is so important for rescue groups, they're integral to the overall rescue ecosystem. A municipal shelter in a rural area may not have the budget to treat minor medical problems for a perfectly adoptable pet. Just think about your last trip to the vet for your pet, now multiply that by 20 or 30. Donations are a lifeline to rescue groups like Road Trip 4 Paws and others.
Ron
Ron and his sibling Harry below - at least we think they're related, they came into the rescue together - were lucky enough to be taken in by Murphys Safe Haven where they got the initial vet care they needed before heading north to Dallas in the hopes of finding their forever homes.
Murphys Safe Haven is pretty special, it was created and is managed by Audrey, a teenager who has dedicated her love, time and home to rescuing kittens that likely would not have a chance without her. By the age of 13, she had already saved almost 550 kittens.
The name Murphys Safe Haven is in dedication of one of her foster kittens that passed, Murphy. He was a little black kitten that her family rescued with his brother Wolfie back in 2017. Murphy never grew because he had dwarfism and they became deeply attached to him because of his special needs. The family had planned to adopt to adopt him, but he tragically passed away before they got the chance to finalize his adoption. He is the kitten that started it all and has been Audrey's motivation to keep on going.
Baloo and Mowgli
Baloo (the gray kitten) and Mowgli (the Siamese mix) were transported from the Laredo municipal shelter after being surrendered. They were quite sick and needed a quiet home and medical treatment to recover and become the playful boys you see in the images below.
Every three to four weeks Laredo sends a transport to Dallas, with a pit stop at Austin Pets Alive along the way, with animals to be taken in by local rescue groups, Road Trip 4 Paws among them. It's part of a state-wide effort of shelters and rescue groups, working together, to help animals get adopted.
I can report that these two have a VERY happy ending in that they too were adopted shortly after their adoption photos hit the Internet. Best of all? They were adopted together!
Koko
As with so many rescues, Koko' story is an incredible one. The resiliency of animals never ceases to amaze me. Koko was found at an elementary school, the school security guard removed the dog from school property, but she returned a couple of hours later. At this point, one of the teachers - an animal lover with 4 rescue dogs herself - and the school principal brought Koko into the school bathroom (after class had let out of the day) and gave her a much needed bath, removing numerous ticks in the process.
The teacher took her home and started a campaign to find her owner - surely a dog this sweet and socialized belonged to someone. Nobody ever came forward. As her house was already full with 4 dogs, the teacher reached out to a volunteer at the Donna shelter and that person connected her with Road Trip 4 Paws.
So many people stepped in, cared, and helped this pup find her way to safety with a rescue that would ensure successful placement with a loving family.
Harry
Harry is Ron's brother, and he too has been a recipient of the love and care that Murphys Safe Haven has been providing to homeless kittens and cats in southern Texas.
You should definitely check out Murphys Safe Haven Facebook Page, she's doing amazing work and partners with rescues all over the state to save more animals.
Harry is a cuddle bug, very social and didn't want to leave his foster mama's lap, so I just rolled with it to ensure he stayed comfortable during his adoption photo shoot.
All Around The Pet Photography Blog Circle
It's about giving shelter, and giving back, this week in the pet photographer blog circle - something pretty much every single pet photographer does because first and foremost we're animal lovers. Let's head on over to Atlanta pet photographer Courtney Bryson shares how fostering rescue dogs can change your life while saving lives and then continue clicking on the link at the bottom of each page until you land right back here and then 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 gives much of her time to a number of local Dallas - Fort Worth rescue groups and municipal shelters, you can read more about her volunteer work here.
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.