What has become now my earmark for the coming of summer, on a painfully beautiful day last weekend, I photographed once again for the annual Oregon Humane Society Doggie Dash.  Though my task at hand was to focus on capturing the businesses and sponsors that come out to support this amazing event, I couldn’t NOT allow myself to document participants of both the 2-legged and 4-legged variety, who did not disappoint in keeping me well entertained and inspired by their stories.

And no small feat in this browbeaten economy, OHS surpassed their fundraising goal and brought in a total of $394,274!

As they do at OHS, so shall I sign off with…. For The Animals.

Oh…did I mention the *free* mimosas?!Pulling out all the stops for fundraising efforts.“You tell anyone you saw me in this getup, and so help me dog….”

Last weekend was upside down crazy busy.  And as much as I *loved each and every job, I’ve been upside down crazy busy with edits ever since.  The upside to edits, however, being that I get to share the results with all two of you…two being the optimists guess at the number of people reading this blog {every bloggers fear}.

My Saturday started with one of my favorite events of the year, the Oregon Humane Society Doggie Dash.  Last year they had over 4,000 participants of the two-legged kind…making it at least 8,000 total if I’m doing my dog-math correctly…and this year I believe they surpassed it, raising over $300,000 to benefit Oregon animals in need.

My next event of the day was a princess party, followed by an auction to benefit Ethiopian Orphan Relief.  The thread of course being that despite the insanity of the day and corresponding mountain of edits, I was surrounded by people making other people {and pets} very happy.

And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

this next guy reminded me of Sgt. Floyd Pepper from Electric Mayhem…and how can you NOT smile back….

When the Oregon Humane Society asked if I’d like to photograph their annual Doggie Dash, I didn’t hesitate for a second.  Yes, I photograph people.  And in my humble, non-scientific opinion, dogs don’t fall far from that tree.

With 4,000 “dashers”, they raised over $273,000.  That’s enough money “to vaccinate all 10,000 pets OHS adopted last year, to feed every animal in the shelter for a year, to buy medical supplies for 1,250 spay/neuter surgeries, AND to keep two OHS animal cruelty investigators in the field for a full year!”

And to celebrate their success, I cracked a few ribs that evening during a soccer game in a most fantastic run-in with my own goalie.  A fine day indeed.