Dogs and their sheds

August 1st, 2008

‘Elvis’ and ‘Nico’ are the Pleasure family’s Belgian Tervurens. They’re enjoying the warmth from the overhead heater, as they lounge in their blue pavilion in a San Francisco backyard

Driving behind a Volvo on the Ventura Highway the other morning, a bumper sticker caught my eye: “I love dogs and I vote.”

Not exactly sure what that means, but it started me thinking about the character of a dog owner. And about a funny comment my friend Lin Su made at our Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways book launch party here in Los Angeles.

“I think you had a requirement that everyone included in the book must have a dog in their life!” she maintained. Wow, what a thought. Bill and I didn’t exactly write a canine clause into the scouting notes, but perhaps subconsciously, we were drawn to animal lovers.

There is a sympathetic relationship between people who raise and care for their plants and people who raise and care for their pets. Beloved and cherished, our dogs are often the most patient and forgiving family member in our lives. Our “Zanny” (pictured, left) is certainly the cream of the crop – a rescue Lab, blond and cheerful – found wandering the streets of Yakima, Wash., at six-months of age….brought to an animal shelter in Snoqualmie. My husband Bruce discovered her photo on petfinder.com in 2002 – and she has lived with our family ever since. What a sweet companion and thoroughly accepting of any love she receives, often giving more than we ask of her.

Here is a little photo gallery of the shed-savvy dogs we met. Bill gets the prize for capturing such appealing portraits of these awesome animals. Sadly, since photographing locations in 2006 and 2007, two of these beloved dogs have died. And in May, we lost our special friend, Mary Martin, as well. All photos by William Wright.

 Lani Freymiller, with “Daisy”; Lin Su with “the Boss” ; and the late Mary Martin, with “Wallace”

Patrick Anderson in his wonderful Fallbrook, Calif. landscape, with “Mavis” (left) and “Zelda,” who passed away last year.

John Bernatz (left, with “Cooper”) and Joseph Marek, with “Pablo,” who passed away last year.

 Rob and Michelle Wyles, our friends in Eastern Washington, with “Chester”

Not everyone is a dog-owner. And we discovered a few other “pets” on our Shed Odyssey. Just for fun, I’ll share them here:

The Bolton Family’s ginger cat, who took up residence on Carol Hicks Bolton’s luxurious, vintage-inspred armchair. 

Since everything in Texas is bigger, it’s no surprise that Sylvia and Steven Williams have LONGHORN CATTLE as “pets.” Who needs a dog when you can have one of these babies? “Boots” and “Duke” were curious to know what Bill was up to…and one of them even posed with Sylvia and Steven during their photo shoot!

This entry was posted on Friday, August 1st, 2008 at 8:28 pm and is filed under Creativity, Gardening, General, Playfulness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.