Mouton The Greyhound
You met Mouton before — with his house brother Deuce the Great Dane — in I Wanna Hold Your Hand.
We’re working on the Greyhound images we shot all summer for the 2010 Greyhound Pets of America – Louisiana Chapter (GPA-LA) calendar. Though I shot hundreds and hundreds of images, about 160 of them were serious contenders for this year’s calendar. Submissions were made today; decisions will be made very soon, and next week looks like layout camp to me.
Mouton was last year’s contender, but this year we had so many more contestants. While viewing the submitted proofs today, I was reminded of all the special dogs and their people who came in this year. I’ve said this before, but the people who adopt Greyts are as special as their dogs. From the sweet and giving couple who have two, one with a feeding tube, that they dote on, to the woman who has a house full, but manages to foster some too. I couldn’t forget the woman who gets all the unadoptable ones and she turns her spacious home over to them to come in and out through an open door to the back yard…because they want to.
Though this project is supposed to be a fundraiser for the GPA, I feel so guilty because these people have given us so much by setting such a profound example to the rest of us. I was laughing this afternoon about how Greyhound families are different from other breeds. Many of those who only have one pamper them almost as if they were fragile…which they’re not. But the gentle nature of the dog seems to inspire some extra gentleness in the people.
I’ll be glad to get to the end of this year’s project, but I’ll lament the end of them coming by twos, threes and more into the studio to be their goofy selves. Is it too early to look forward to 2011?
I had never been around Greyhounds in person until the Grand Opening party at your new studio last Sunday and I was moved to tears hearing how they live the first year and a half of their lives in cages except when they’re taken out to race. And how they are then given 8 races to prove that they have the speed necessary to make them a “contender.” And how if they don’t make the cut, instead of killing them like they used to do, now almost 80% of Greyhounds get rescued by groups like the GPA. I always knew that racing horses and Greyhounds was wrong and hearing more of the details on how wrong it is was really life-changing.
I am so grateful for the work you do each year on this calendar to raise money for the GPA. My only knowledge of the physical presence of Greyhounds was through your photos and now that I’ve met several in person, I appreciate even more how your shots reflect their grandness, gentleness and “dogness.”
Thank you for the wonderful Grand Opening party. Your studio is beautiful and I know that many great photos will come from there.