Happy Halloween

I would like to dedicate this post to my former "baby", Maggie. Maggie is our golden retriever that Josh and I have had since we got married. She was our first baby :) When Josh and I first got married, someone gave us some very good advice. Before you have kids, buy a plant first. If after a year the plant is still alive, get a dog. If after a few years the dog is still alive then you can successfully raise children. LOL! Josh and I actually followed that advice and I'm proud to say the plant and the dog are both still alive. Good parenting skills already!

Josh and I bought an ivy and dubbed it our "love ivy" (we stole that line from the movie "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.") Our "love ivy" lived and in fact, is still alive, so we made the jump to an animal. Maggie was born March 30, 2002, and in late April 2002 she came to live with us. She was such a cute puppy! She spent the first 2 years of her life as an inside dog before "we" (really I) had to come to the realization that having a 65 lb. shedding golden retriever in the house was not ideal. She became an outside dog then and has been ever since. It was an adjustment for her and for me, but we both have managed.

Since I didn't have a human child, she quickly became my dog child. We took walks together, played together, and she became the subject for all of my photographs. I loved taking pictures of her and she didn't seem to mind either. Unfortunately, I think her days as my photography subject are about to end for the most part. Last night, Halloween night, I decided to do a photo session with Maggie. She cooperated well as always. She didn't go trick-or-treating but I thought she needed a doggie costume to celebrate the night. I found this cute, inexpensive jester collar for her and put it on her. She willingly obliged (only because I was holding a treat in my hand behind the camera) and our photo session began. Here are pictures of Maggie the jester. What a cute jester she is! I really can't wait until I can photograph Eli and Maggie together. What a cute Norman Rockwell"ish" picture that will be...a boy and his dog. I can see it now!

Maggie, the Jester