Creative for Hire

Please meet Gaius.  He is a rescue puppy that Lake County Animal Services (LCAS) took into their care.  I brought Gaius into my home to care for him as a foster puppy after his leg got broken.

And then it came time for him to find his forever home.  And we couldn’t let him go, he belonged to us.

So now Gaius lives at our house and has started writing a blog to help other rescues.  If you’d like to know more about Gaius’s adventures, you can follow his blog HERE.

If you would also like to help LCAS in their mission to rescue animals, please feel free to go to their website and let them know.  At present, they save the lives of several hundred dogs, and some kitties, every year.  It’s a big job, and with your help they can save more.

If you are looking for the love of your life, then this is a great time to adopt!

What else is possible for our friends that need us to protect them?

My 53rd birthday is on Monday and I’d like to take advantage of that to ask a favor of all my friends, their friends and anyone else that has a heart for animals, PLEASE donate Fifty-Three cents to Lake County Animal Services.

As most of you know (if you know me), I foster for this rescue and they are always hand-to-mouth trying to balance the huge need to rescue with the huge number of animals that need rescued before they are put down through animal control.  LCAS, all volunteers, takes animals from the shelter, spays, neuters, trains and prepares the animals for forever homes– and then holds weekly adoption events in lesser impacted cities for the animals.

And this week the RED LINE is looming scarily. They rescued a litter of 10 puppies that are being neutered and spayed this week along with 10 other dogs (one of which is sweet Miss Stella that is currently in my care).   The bill for this? Over $3,000.00. They need at least half of that to be donated ASAP.

There is always a demand for money, and it is so sad that lives are at the mercy of money. But they are. So if you could donate Fifty-Three Cents to Lake County Animal Services, I’d really appreciate it and consider it the best gift ever because you will be saving the lives of the animals and, as we know, we don’t rescue them, they rescue us.

Little Gaius, who is currently recovering from a broken leg and surgery for that, is also at my house.  His surgery is still waiting to be paid in full.  He is recovering well- almost too well.  He will bring a lot of joy to his forever family.

(Image is of Henna, a puppy that Lake County Animal Services rescued that had major heart surgery)

Thank you, in advance.

A couple of weekends ago I spent a few days in Monterey, CA with nothing to do by wander with my camera and I’m sharing what I saw-

Chloe is our latest foster puppy and definitely the most memorable so far.

One of the perks of getting a new puppy is that you get to name her.  Chloe was a bit hard to name because her personality is so big that one name wouldn’t quite cover it all.

First of all, she doesn’t bark (or didn’t until this week), she chirps.  Next is that she loves humans- all humans.  All she wants is to follow humans around or lay by them if they are sitting, unless she wants to play with you (which feels more like fighting with her sharp little teeth).  She will take other animals as a second choice and her best friend at my house is a cat, Tesla, that thinks he’s a dog and is a bit aloof.  Chloe has made friends with him and they are wrestle buddies.  Chloe’s other friend at my house is a long haired Chihauhau/Terrier mix, Gertie, and they play tag and wrestle.

Chloe gets the “monkey” middle name because she climbs like a monkey.  The first day in our home she climbed the fence that was to contain her, we put her in a bigger fence where the bars were spread a bit further apart- and she climbed that. Today she climbed my jeans just like a cat.  And she has no fear.  Nothing, no one, no fear.

The princess in her name comes because she is a princess.  Everything has to be her way and just right.  She is intelligent enough to figure out how to get things to happen her way- and cute enough to pull it off.  This has been a busy time since she arrived because she’s managed to wrap five adults around her paws and make them dance to her tune.

So, Miss Chloe Monkey Princess, you can sleep at the foot of the bed for the last time tonight because I don’t want to hear you chirp and wail our last night together, you just don’t like the thought of being in a kennel and humans not being in touching reach.

And tomorrow you’ll go to be a dog.  We’ll be praying you find a forever home with a human that wants a smart, creative, determined, stubborn and very loving little monkey princess.  We’ll pray that your new home will appreciate both your monkey talents and princess traits.  And we’ll miss you.

UPDATE: Chloe Monkey Princess found a home with a 15 year old girl that totally appreciates her need for being a princess.  Last time I saw her she was sporting a beautiful pink collar and wrapped in a pink blanket.  From her throne in her Momma’s arms she threw me the “look at where I am now, pheasant” look and strode out of my life.  LOL.   Perfect home for you, Miss Chloe.

There is nothing to brighten your day more that babies, and in my case, puppies!

Our local dog rescue , Lake County Animal Services, has some very sweet dogs that need homes, and though I’ve stretched the limits of our fur family as far as I can, it is fun to know that I can “borrow” some of that sweetness for a few days.
Here are the two that are visiting now.  One is a boy, one is a girl.  I’ll let you guess from the pictures which is which (because the girl posed, the boy wouldn’t).

The little boy melts my heart by coming up and asking to be held and then sharing puppy kisses.  The little girl is more independent and she was up in my lap when nap time came, two sleeping puppies are an excellent excuse to take a nap myself.

It just didn’t get better than this. Do you have a room in your house and heart for a new family member?  Check out Lake County Animal Services Facebook Page and Lake County Animal Services website, just in time for to share your Holiday.

Social media is overwhelming with the hundreds of different platforms and the learning curves that go along with signing up on them. Add to that the struggle of remembering where your profiles are, then stopping by with some regularity to interact – - it is enough to make you decide not to participate at all.

I’ve really been elbows deep into XeeMe.com for the last few days and here’s my opinion. I think, at the very least, it is a great way to gather up all your social media profiles in one place. Think of it as an address book for the different “you’s”. You can store your profiles, including the password (if you choose to) so that everything is very easy to access. It is a great tool for the social media novice.

Now that I have an established presence on XeeMe.com, I am finding it just as useful to find and connect. When someone posts their XeeMe link, I can easily go to their page, see all their profiles and then choose to engage or not. If I choose to engage, I just click over to their Twitter, Facebook or other profiles and “BOOM” I’m connected. The Magic continues when that person connects back.

I know I’ve just barely scratched the surface of the potential of the XeeMe.com site. I look forward to learning more about what it can do and how Xeeme.com will support me in interacting with all my social media sites.

Come over an XeeMe at http://XeeMe.com/didavis. I look forward to connecting with you.

Today I met the most beautiful chocolate lab I’ve ever seen.  Her beauty not withstanding, Henna is just a very sweet and loving little girl.

Henna was part of a litter of puppies rescued by the Lake County Animal Services .  When she was being spayed by a local vet, they found that she had a heart murmur.   With a donation of an MRI, the full extent of her heart condition became apparent and she was diagnosed with a problem that is shared by humans and dogs, when she was born her heart didn’t change from a fetus heart that is fed by an umbilical card to a heart that worked independently once she was born.

Now it is clear that unless Henna receives surgery she may not see her first birthday.  The Lake County Animal Services are coming to the community to ask for help to pay for her surgery and allow her a full and healthy life.  They have set up a crowd funding site to allow everyone to contribute what they can toward Henna’s health care.  If 1500 people donate $1 each, Henna’s surgery will be paid for, and if 300 chip in $5 it will also be paid for- a very easy and painless way to make a difference.  Check out their site on Chip-In and donate what you can, please.

I also want to take this opportunity to say something that the amazing folks that run the Lake County Animal Services won’t say, they really can use some help for all the animals they save.   Though the crowd funding is strictly for Henna and will be used for her care, there are other furry souls that could also use some support.  Please consider visiting the Lake County Animal Services website and sending in a donation toward all the other furry folks in their care.  Rescuing is a passion and a service from the heart, let’s make that service just a bit easier and make it possible for them to save a few more furry souls by making a contribution to this great service to our community.

In addition, if you are considering family portraits for Christmas or high school senior portraits, Diane Davis Photography will make a donation of $25 per session for every session completed in the month of September.  For more information on commissioning a session with Diane Davis Photography, visit us , call us at 707-262-5891 or email info@DianeDavisPhotography.com.

Here’s our complete session with Henna-

I’ve preached to all my clients and anyone else that would listen to me how important it is to keep your content on your website and just link to Facebook because eventually, Facebook would be replaced so all your content there would be lost. This week, it looks like my prediction may come true. Christine McLeod has collected these videos and share them with you.  What do you think?

My friend, Marcie, and I went to the beach to celebrate the Summer Solstice.   After the long winter, it seemed the perfect way to celebrate.  After an very fun day of laughter, dreaming, creating and trading bars sessions we headed home with the top down on the car- and even celebrating that our skin saw way too much sun.