Your pet can rescue his/her shelter friends, too!

Karen Laine Photography wants to celebrate you and the bond you have with your amazing pet through portraits you will treasure long after you've sent your sweet fur baby over the Rainbow Bridge, while helping other pets in our community live their very best lives as well.

20 pet families will be selected to participate in a project to benefit our local pet community through shelter and rescue donations, education, funding to prevent overpopulation, training grants, and more.

Pets are truly a gift.  They give us companionship and unconditional acceptance and are capable of enriching our lives in so many ways we may not even realize.  I believe we've been given the responsibility to care for all of creation, including pets.  Will your pet help rescue his friends? 

Apply Below!

Scroll below the form to learn more about Rosie and why she wants to help rescue her friends.

On a pleasant spring day, a unique looking young dog appeared in a semi-rural neighborhood, seemingly out of nowhere. She spent the day exploring, visiting neighborhood pets for impromptu play dates, and generally making mischief.  At the end of the day, she was becoming a bit exhausted from her adventures, and looking around, realized she really didn't know where she was.  She was thirsty and hungry, and all her new friends had gone inside for dinner.  As she wandered around, sadly assessing her situation, she found a human family playing and enjoying the early evening in their front yard. She sat in their yard, watching them - a bit afraid to know if they were safe, but she knew she needed help.

The nice people welcomed her and brought her some water and food.  They even put a blanket out for her to lay on in their breezeway.  She was very tired and grateful for a place to rest.  Eventually, the nice humans went into their house for the evening.  When they got up in the morning, the vagabond pup was gone.  Hoping she was okay, and thinking maybe she had gone to find her own family, they wished her well, but left out the water and blanket just in case.  To their surprise, she returned that evening and laid down on the blanket.  The family gave her some dinner and she ate and went to bed.  The family began to try to find the owners of the dog.  They had her scanned for a chip, posted her on social media sites in various groups for missing pets, and called all the area shelters and veterinarians, trying to find her family.  This led them deeper into a journey they had begun almost exactly a year prior with another lost dog, now known as Shiner, who found a wonderful new home full of love and adventure in south Texas.

The family who cared for this lost girl, as you may have guessed, is ours. Through much exploration, seeking, and research, we believe that the sweet girl now known as Rosie, was more likely dumped than lost.  Her family, like Shiner's was nowhere to be found.  She arrived very disoriented, but not unable to track or find her way - as she came back to us every evening for food, rest, and shelter.  Because of the spring storm season, we eventually invited her onto our back porch, and then into our home.  We looked for her family for a month before deciding to vet her and assimilate her into our home, but continued to look, post, and watch for any sign that someone was looking for her.  A few months later, we had her spayed and decided she would become a permanent part of our family.

What we discovered through the experience with both Shiner (who I very much adored and would have also fostered had he been a better fit for our home), and Rosie was that Texas has a problem.  Our shelters are grossly underfunded and understaffed to meet the massive needs we currently face. Overpopulation due to lack of responsible ownership practices such as spay and neuter, an odd new regulation in some cities where no tethering whatsoever is allowed even when there is no fence available, which with lax leash laws creates a potential for dogs  to wander neighborhoods, the tendency of people to not chip their pets, the covid crisis snap back of new puppy adopters leaving their pups at home as they returned to work and eventually deciding to surrender, and the recent economic crunches among other factors has created a situation where shelters are forced to quickly evaluate the assumed adoptability of the pets that are pouring into their facilities daily, sentencing some to death. While they are trying to find other options for these pets, the cold fact is that there are not enough resources and their answer is to euthanize an unthinkable number of animals that likely could be great pets, because they simply don't have the space and resources to wait out the process of finding homes for all of them - because tomorrow, there will be a whole new rush of homeless, lost, or unclaimed pets.

No shelters or rescues in our area were available to house Rosie, and we could see clearly that by her breed and fearful demeanor, she would likely go on the euth list. So we have done the work to save her and give her the best life possible.  We've spent a considerable amount in this journey, including vet care, supplements to alleviate anxiety, and extensive group and private training classes, not to mention the time invested. It has been completely worth it.  But expensive.  More expensive than most people could or maybe would invest.

So, what's the point?  Maybe I'm a bleeding heart, but I just can't stand the heartbreak that these sweet sentient fluffballs endure.  So many on a constant and regular basis are simply dropped off along our country highway - confused, terrified, and starving, sometimes covered in fleas, ant bites, injured or suffering from skin ailments, and often near death when found. I can't walk away.  Not from Shiner.  Not from Rosie.  Not from the hundreds of faces that pop up on my social feeds from lost pet groups and rescue pages.  Look, I realize there are people who are suffering in the communities around me, too and I do my best to alleviate those pains as well, but I cannot turn away from these animals without doing something.  I don't want to just throw a few dollars at this shelter or that rescue.  I want to get the word out.  I want to educate people as to the real commitments of owning a pet and how they can prevent many of the issues that land dogs in these situations at the outset of pet ownership instead of bandaging the wound after the fact. I want to help make it easier for pet owners to do the things that will help keep overpopulation and pet surrenders or abandonment at bay.  Things like making spay / neuter, chipping, and emergency vet care more accessible; sharing information and education on basic dog training to help owners and pets live more harmoniously, and supporting shelters, rescues, and other pet related non-profits to help their dollars go further. The job is huge, but the reward is great.  Won't you join me in improving our community by helping these animals live a better life?  Help Rosie rescue her friends.