If these look like the eyes of a wolf, they are. Well, sort of. Boomer is a Malamute/wolf hybrid. He was adopted from NorSled rescue, along with his housemates Bentley and Rocky.

I’ve met wolf hybrids before and have to say, they’ve never been what I’d call warm and fuzzy. More like aloof, steely. A little bit wild-feeling. Not in a bad way, but in a way that doesn’t exactly make getting up-close-and-personal seem like a good idea. Especially with a giant camera lens.

Boomer, however, was really welcoming. He’s a talker, so we chatted back and forth as I took his picture. He seemed to enjoy the variety of sounds only an experienced dog photographer is willing to make. Out loud, in public.

Thanks Boomer for giving me such a warm, non-wolfy welcome :)

Another reealllly rainy weekend wrecked havoc on the usual outdoor adoption events, so the usual Adoptable Monday has been replaced by little miss Joon.

Joon is the other half of a Frenchie named Benny, who I also met and is also extremely cute. The two were named after an old Johnny Depp movie called Benny & Joon and that’s pretty much all I know.  To be honest, I was too busy oogleing over Joon’s cuteness to ask questions. I think her face says it all anyway :)

I met Philly while standing in line at Target, of all places. Sometimes it pays to lug around 10 pounds of camera equipment and this was one of those times. Philly’s mom wasn’t surprised when I asked permission for a photo op. She said people ask to take pictures of Philly all the time. No surprise there :)

If you were of movie-watching age in the mid 1980′s, Philly probably reminds you of a certain movie character named Gizmo that was *really* cute… unless it got wet, was exposed to sunlight, or ate after midnight. Like just about every other kid who saw the movie Gremlins, I remember wanting a Gizmo of my own. Who knew I just could have asked my parents for a Shih Tzu like Philly?!?

Rocky and Bentley are two of three family dogs (the third is an equally gorgeous Malamute/Wolf cross named Boomer -  you’ll meet him next week). All were adopted from Norsled, a rescue group that focuses its efforts on Nordic breeds like huskies.

I share my home with two constant, heavy shedders so I was very curious what the fur situation is like in a house full of such long, beautiful coats. I was surprised to learn that Huskies blow their coats in twice yearly blizzards, but are otherwise fairly average in the shedding department. If you’d like to know more about Nordic breeds, the Norsled website has a really good overview of their origins, temperament and different personalities.

Clyde is one of those dogs who just oozes cool. He’s shaped like a Rottweiler (complete with nubby tail) with the coloring of light brown sugar.

Before becoming big brother to two little boys, Clyde lived on the streets. He was born homeless and spent the first year or so of his life that way. When Clyde’s new family met him at the Berkeley Humane Society, he was a little timid and a lot skinny, but after 6 months of good living he’s doing awesome. Clyde is now so friendly that he kept fogging up my lens. Not many dogs will get *that* close to my camera :)

Whisper was nose deep in a gopher hole when I met her. According to her human, gopher hunting is one of Whisper’s favorite sports (and she’s quite good at it).

She came up for air a few times -  just long enough for me to see an earthworm (but no gopher) writhing around in the hole. Both me and Whisper’s human were pretty happy about that.

Meet Sinbad, a ridiculously affectionate and equally adorable 12 week-old pug in search of the perfect home. I met him yesterday at a PugPROS mobile adoption booth and completely fell in love.

Sinbad’s story does not start out happy. He was found in a dumpster with a severely damaged eye. The person who found him contacted the police, who contacted a shelter, who contacted PugPROS rescue. PugPROS gave Sinbad all the care he needed, but his injured eye could not be saved.

Sinbad doesn’t seem to miss eye -  he’s as happy and friendly as a pug should be. The only thing he’s really missing is a loving human to call his own.

* * *

For information about Sinbad and other adoptable pugs, visit www.pugpros.org.

Before I return to the regularly scheduled Daily Frolics, I thought I’d introduce the spotted feet from yesterday’s post: Dutch, the camera-shy half of my dynamic duo.

My sweet, doe-eyed Dutchman is a pet photographer’s worst nightmare. He hates cameras as much as his little pug brother loves them – and because cameras have a hard time capturing black and white in the same picture, cameras hate him right back. Dutch is the official face of Frolic for both of these reasons.

He’s single pawed-ly taught me everything there is to know about photographing shy dogs and forced me to get really good at technically challenging exposure problems. Thanks to Dutch, camera-shy dogs don’t have to fear the big black eye of my Nikon… and I know how to photograph a black dog and a white dog in the same body.

We’re baaaack!

I took a little time away from the Daily Frolic to enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday, get caught up on a few ‘regular’ Frolic projects and spend some quality time with a new piece of Nikon gear and my own dogs.

My guys Dutch and Pug are ridiculously loved, but were starting to feel neglected because of all the recent Frolic activity. Dutch hates cameras and is more than happy to have me point my Nikon at other dogs, but Puglet is a different story. He, like all good pugs, thinks the world revolves around him.

So… much to Dutch’s relief and Pug’s horror, the Daily Frolic is back. Monday thru Friday, rain or shine :)

There are a few breeds that my inner photographer has a tendency to fall in love with, and English Bulldogs are one of them. Could be the smush-face, the crazy teeth, the drool -  not sure. But Mickey had all of those things (plus a huge personality) going for him.

And when his human said “If we had a skateboard, he’d ride it”, I fell in love with Mickey just a little bit more.