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“Take Me Home With You…..”, 4” x 8”, husky pet portrait in acrylic on canvasboard, $90. $18 from the sale of this painting will go to the Oakland Pet Adoption Center in the buyers’ name. Available to the first buyer – all inquiries to ksantini@turtledovedesigns.com .
SOLD.

For those of you who are new to the Painting a Dog-a-Day group, here’s how Shelter & Rescue Week works. Each of the paintings completed this week are available to the first buyer, with 20% of the sales being returned to the host shelter. ALSO, if you have an animal you’ve adopted from the profiled shelter, and commission a portrait of them during the month of September, 20% of your purchase will be donated back to the shelter.

Last week I visited the Oakland Pet Adoption Center (OPAC), in Auburn Hills, Michigan. I wandered their halls, took in the sights, and tried not to get emotionally involved. With all those eyes looking back at me, it was impossible. I left with about 200 photos, and an aching heart. There were just too many hopeful faces.

At home I licked my wounds while narrowing the photos down to a dozen different animals. It’s still a toss-up as to who makes the cut this week, but each of the animals profiled will be from the OPAC.

This sweet boy had clearly honed his begging skills, working them into a fine art. He rested his chin on the edge of his crate, and pathetically locked into my gaze. What you don’t see in this painting is that at the same time he was oozing this “woe is me face,” his tail was going so hard and fast that his hind legs were manically sliding about.

He was a stray, picked up just a few days before I showed up, and in all likelihood, has been found by his family (I meant to swing by there today and see who had gone home, but wasn’t able to get away).

I took artistic license, and removed the bars from his crate, opening the view up to the tenderness in his expression. There is a beautiful glow to his blue eyes, and you really want to linger in front of this painting.

I can’t adopt all of the animals myself, but I can make a difference by supporting the shelter’s efforts. You can too - read more about the goals for the Oakland Pet Adoption Center and all the animal shelters in Oakland County at the Oakland Pet Fund website – http://www.oaklandpetfund.org/ . The Oakland Pet Fund was established with the goal of making Oakland County (Michigan) a no more homeless pets community by 2010. I’ll share more information about how they are doing this in tomorrow’s posting.

YOU’VE made Shelter & Rescue Week a great venue for supporting animal welfare – to date, we’ve raised over $800 since May of this year!! So pat yourselves on the back, and meanwhile, enjoy this guy.

Thank you, as always, for your time.
And for sharing these paintings with your friends and family.
See you tomorrow,
Kim



Kimberly Kelly Santini
http://www.turtledovedesigns.com/
distinctive pet portraits
& 4-legged paintings

http://www.paintingadogaday.com/
come. sit. stay.
enjoy the art.

Founding member of the Canine Art Guild
http://www.canineartguild.com/
the gateway to canine art on the web

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