Image by Newspix via Rex USA

Nicole Graham holds her horse Astro's head above the rising tide after he got stuck in the mud.


Source: MSNBC

Such a windy day today. Making it unnecessarily cold!




Poor Spencer still didn't like the leash and being dragged into any enclosed space so much. He jumped and tried to bite the leash off. He would sit tight when he was right in front of the run or the office. I had to take him back through the back door instead. It's sad to see him or any dog end up in the cage especially after seeing him so happy rolling around on the yard or running free in the play area.

At least there was one application pending for him. He will be at home soon!



My friend walked Louise the other week so I gave her a try since there were so many new faces here and I didn't which one I should pick. Louise had pretty blonde and grey hair. It's hard to meet her eyes with the bang. She was a curious one and almost got into trouble by jumping into a car trunk to get treats while there was another dog in there. PHEW~ I almost had a heart attack.



Dear Molly, you would be superb if you weren't into arguing with other dogs too much. She was fun to walk except when she headed to others or pulled me straight out of the run and sped across the lawn like a jet.




Tyler made my day. He was 7 years old and needed to wear a harness because he was quite small. I had been avoiding walking a dog needing one because I didn't know how to put it on. But Tyler had the sweetest begging eyes. So once I met his eyes I couldn't turn him down. After being in a cage with him for full 5 minutes, got him lick on my face, had him jumping around me I got it on him! (I had missed his left leg at first though.) He was very calm waiting for me to put the harness together. I think he knew what I was doing. He was very smart. He knew that tapping a seat meant sitting with me. And he loved treats very much.

And now I could walk any small dog at the shelter! Nola was already walked when I got there. I hope people will find out soon how good she is and adopt her.

Stop by FOHA and help them if you can.

* Click on the name to see more photos of them from These Dogs.

Kevin Costner on the late Whitney Houston.

"The studio fell in love with her. It was the burden that made her great and the part that caused her to stumble again."

I missed walking dogs for 3 weeks since I was in Thailand and on the deadline for my commissioned painting last week. There were so many new faces. It's kind of nice to see the shelter sending many dogs home but at the same time it's sad to witness the newly abandoned ones.

I was late to meet up my friend at her place this week and there was a training for dog walkers. So each of us walked only 2 dogs. My smart boy, Kelsey, went home 2 weeks ago. My friend's favorite, Penny, went home today with a new hair cut. Molly was still here but she had been walked so I just said hi to her and gave her some treats.





I walked a super cute newcomer, Spencer*. Spencer had the weirdest combination I had ever seen as you can witness on the photos I took. I don't know why he's here and I would like to find out. He didn't like the leash at all. He was trying to bite it off and jumping out of it from time to time. So I let him walk as much as he wanted. Poor thing. He was so scared to go back to his run that a senior volunteer had to carry him back.





Another newcomer I walked named Nola*. A so-so looking dog but super sweet. Nola must be an expert of time savings. She was trying to sniff everything on the left and the right while being walked. We walked in zig-zag pattern through the trails. That must double the distance! She also walked around my friend and me. We almost wrapped by the leash I was holding. Since the weather was so nice I decided to just sit at the lawn with her just to hang out.

Can't wait to walk them again next week!

* Click on their names to see close-up photos from These Dogs at Blogspot.

A short great blog I came across on CNN, Invest in yourself by asking the question 'what makes you special?'

This is my second commissioned work and the 43rd day of my 365 project. It's watercolor painting based on a photograph. My coworker would like to give this as a birthday gift to his fiance, who is also my coworker. It's an image of her and her dog who just died last year due to genetic disease. He was only six years old. It's very tough time for them. Diesel was at our office from time to time. He was such a sweet dog. Danielle is the one introduces me to FOHA, the animal shelter I am volunteering at the moment. So this painting is very special to me as well.

How long did it take to finish this painting ? I would say about 2 days (with a lot of sleep in between hee hee). I finished the sketch long time ago and it took me about one day to paint. But half of the time was spent to determine the color schemes, what to paint first and how to. The size is about 11"x14".

I hope you like it as much as I do.

Here is a good example on how to define a subject on a watercolor painting.

You can see from this video that the main shapes on this painting weren't defined by a brush.