On Christmas Eve four years ago I adopted Japhy from Midlands Humane Society in Council Bluffs, Iowa. If you’ve not read that post, you can read it here.
Since then it’s been quite an adventure. From Distemper to Covid, to working with his reactivity issues while living a full life of traveling, hiking and backpacking, I have learned so much from this boy. While all of my dogs played an important role in my decision to become a certified dog trainer, Japhy is the one who convinced me I had so much more to learn. He keeps me humble as a dog trainer and human being, and inspires me to continue working with the more “difficult” dogs that are so often overlooked.
Japhy came into my life just a few weeks after I’d lost Mani, my previous APBT-Boxer mix, to Lymphoma. He gave me a new sense of purpose in so many ways.
Shortly after I adopted him, it became obvious that he excelled at sitting for the camera. One of the things we did during the pandemic was walk around our local university campus and make photos of him standing by every piece of art we could find. I called the series “Art With Japhy.” I also began a tradition of making costumed Halloween and Christmas portraits of him, and Hazel, too, once we added her to the pack in 2020. Both dogs love the attention, but Japhy will quite literally sit himself perfectly in front of a photo backdrop as soon as I put it up. He’s a little “extra” when it comes to portrait sessions. 😂
In honor of my special boy’s 4th Gotcha Day, I’d like to share a few of our Christmas portraits of years past, starting with the very first one (not professionally done by any means) of Japhy sitting under my parents’ Christmas tree the night I brought him home with me from the shelter on Christmas Eve in 2019.
2019
2020
2021
2022
I’ll share this year’s portrait tomorrow. :) Stay tuned, and have a wonderful Christmas Eve, friends.
A distemper survivor, that's truly remarkable. That boy is lucky to have you. Thanks for sharing <3