One day Olivia and I ventured into work like any other day…
My hands were overwhelmed with the routine leash, yerba-mate latte, purse, laptop, key combination, and our entrance to the studio was grand as ever; I fumbled with the lock while trying to balance my lava-filled Tulley’s cup between my chin and whatever it was resting on… PRAYING that Olivia didn’t spot the Shi Tzu downstairs that she continually has a desperate need to bark at with the conviction of any creature whose life is clearly on the line.

*sigh* But this time no toy dog downstairs, no boiling liquid all over myself or the floor or *dog forbid* the LAPTOP… We made it inside (all the while I am thinking, like I do every morning, “Why don’t I just make two trips?”)

Anyhow, so we’re inside, safe and sound, bark and spill-free.

On this particular day the seamless paper backdrop that I stretch out and tape down was set-up for a client I had arriving later. Olivia, who is familiar with this sight, as well as the smells that usually surround it, bee-lined for the temporary white stage and began inhaling at ground level on, around, behind and beside it.

When I walked towards my office I looked back, noticing she had stopped sniffing and was standing smack-dab in the middle of the paper, staring at me. I ignored her gaze and assumed she would be at my side in no time for her epic “circle-circle-collapse” routine on her bed near my desk.

Ten minutes passes… No Olivia.

So I peek back around the corner, and there she is. Not sitting, not laying… But standing, right where I had left her, in the middle of the seamless.

Clearly this was a not-so-subtle hint.

So what’s a pet photographer to do but concede to the demands of her spoiled models right?

So I grabbed my camera, turned on that warm soft-box and got to work… Olivia was especially spunky and I finally captured (with a camera other than my phone in a location other than my living room floor) the position we like to call the “Dinosaur-Bunny-Rabbit” — the on the back with back legs spread and front legs curled, ears up and floppy-cheeks upset by gravity. It doesn’t get better than this.

And then of course we got the obligatory pink nose shots and sleeping “dead dog” shots – and she stood and she layed and she rolled and begged… And literally just soaked up the warm warm light and mama’s keen attention.

At the very end of our time that morning, both our heads were laying on the floor, she looked right at me and handed me her paw… Then turned her head and promptly fell asleep.

I haven’t ever loved her as much as I did in that moment… more than words, or photos, or blogs can express. It’s days like that one that make me wonder how I ever got so lucky.