Okay, so sometimes when you become a professional photographer like I am (because, again, once someone asked if they could frame a photo from my blog and I said ‘yes’ and they did, and I became a professional)… anyway, sometimes when you are a professional photographer, you get to go on assignment.

‘On Assignment’ means that you get a call from somebody and they need photography. So then you say that you are capable of providing photography. And they ask you to come and do the photography.

That is an assignment.

And when people know you are capable of going ‘On Assignment’ (OA in the biz), then you can become well-known for doing such a thing and being well-known is also described as ‘famous’.

And famous photographers like me and Annie Leibovitz (who is so famous that her name autocorrects, which is what will happen to mine in no time, so I’m not even worried if – like – next week, you type in ‘Lisa Dongle’ or ‘Lisa Dwingle’ because it will autocorrect because I am becoming so famous right now that I think I might be trending on the Twitter (hopefully not as Lisa Dongle or Dwingle).

Where was I?

Oh ya.

Famous is where I was.

And am.

And yesterday I was OA on a beautiful farm in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire, where my friend lives.

Oh, ya. And she breeds German ShepHerd Dogs.

I capitalize the ‘H’ for two reasons. The first is that my friend has major heart trauma when people forget that ‘H’. So the capital ‘H’ in my own spelling of it is sort of a public service announcement for prospective German ShepHerd Dog ownership (at least from my friend). The second reason you already know. I love to pronounce those unexpected ‘h’s. 

I know.

wHierd.

Anyway, my assignment yesterday was ruff.

Oh ya. Punny.

It was ‘ruff’ in that I had to pack up my camera equipment on an absolute perfect day and head up to the Lakes Region, pull into a beautiful farm, with mountains all around me, and wait for the models to show up.

But I didn’t mind because these model diva’s (and ‘duvas’ (the ‘dude’ form of diva)) are looking for homes, adoption style, and I was there to take their pics so the world can see them and fall in love.

I should say here, for anyone who has never worked with a great breeder, that there are some really good ones who take back any of ‘their’ dogs that can no longer be kept.  At the very least, they help you re-home them. My friend has taken back every single dog that she has ever bred, whose owners can no longer keep them. She also works to help place German ShepHerds in need by posting about them, even when she has older dogs to re-home or place.  Add to all this that my friend is extremely knowledgeable about health and many things medical, and works hard to give many puppies – ones that vets and many breeders would advice be put to sleep – a chance. This has cost her thousands and thousands of dollars through the years. Sadly, over the past few years, with this economy, the taking back of dogs has far exceeded the re-adoption rate of those she has taken back, or wanted to place as older dogs.

Enter me, a famous photographer, hired to take shots for my friend’s Facebook page and website.

What a day!

I had to ask to take pics of the puny puppies, because I was really supposed to be taking the adoptables (but who could resist a puny puppy?)…

Then I got to take pics of the big goofs…

And then, by accident, I fell in love.

His name is Valor, but I call him “Hoppy”.

He is up top too, in the featured photo on this post.

Valor was born with three legs and a bit of a shortened tail.

When my friend brought him to the vet, she was advised to put him to sleep. But my friend said he had come out strong and screaming up a storm. He had fought so hard and was big and healthy other than his missing leg and silly tail. All his medical tests proved this out.

So she gave him a chance. And now he is five months old and he totally stole my heart…

So after snuggling valorous Valor and becoming completely smitten, because Valor’s challenge will be that he is all German ShepHerd, not that he has three legs, I of course texted the Nearly Perfect Husband the following…

So, aside from misspelling ‘you’re’, I had reason to be disgruntled.

Because I was not saying “He only has 3 legs’ as in, ‘you must allow me to take home this dog because he has a disability’.

No.

I was saying it to point out that he only has three legs, in that a dog like this is way easier to take care of then one that has four legs. Valor has 25% less legs to worry about.

Easy peasy!

So then he sent this. Videographic proof of Marshal’s inability to be… you know… normal:

The Nearly Perfect Husband thinks he has made his point.

Rookie.

That’s just the first shot across the bow.

And also, he is more right than he even knows.  Three is enough.

Three legs that is…

I’m diggin’ in for the long haul.

Thanks for readin’.

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