Bonnie and Clyde’s First Christmas (The Woodhounds)
Bonnie and Clyde’s First Christmas
Last Updated: December 25, 2023
New Additions
Bonnie and Clyde are our new Golden Retriever puppies. We call them the “Woodhounds”. If you follow us, you will be seeing them lots in the future. We had been wanting to get another dog after the death of Jack, which was a little over a year ago. We missed having a second dog and Manny (our deaf and partially blind dog) needed a companion. Manny’s lack of hearing makes him uneasy when he’s alone. We thought it would be beneficial for him to have a “brother or sister” to cuddle.
Picking the Pups
Chuck had a Golden years ago and really enjoyed the breed. After searching for quite some time, he finally found a breeder. When we went to check out the puppies, we had intentions of picking just one dog. One female dog and one male dog did not have future homes yet. The rest of the puppies had been placed. This created a problem…Chuck’s intentions were to get the girl pup and I wanted the boy.
We examined the puppies and independently made decisions. Oddly, I had changed my mind to the girl pup and Chuck had decided the boy needed to come to our homestead. (We now had another problem).
The lady who owned the mother dog could tell we were struggling and suggested us to take both. It took exactly one millisecond to make the decision. “Yes. We’ll take both!”
However, I then realized that I only took along enough deposit money for one puppy. How was I to know we were going to take two pups? Once again our wonderful and gracious breeder said she would hold both dogs on one deposit. Plus, the pups were too young to be separated from their mother and needed to remain for another month anyway. Suddenly Chuck and I were puppy parents to two beautiful Goldens.
We chit chatted the entire way home from our meeting with our new fur babies. We talked about how our puppies would be trained; how they would behave; where they would sleep; what we were going to feed them; and a myriad of puppy topics. Of course, they were going to be the best puppies on the planet…we were their parents!
Puppies Come to the Homestead
Four weeks later we picked up our new bundles of joy which ARE the best puppies on the planet. Sorry to all you other puppy parents. (I’m kidding, of course!). I’m not going to lie. Two seniors with two puppies? Really, what were we thinking? We are up every 3 to 4 hours to let them outside (no sleep for us). We are constantly cleaning up whatever was gotten into at the moment. When you think you have one under control, the other one has slipped away to find something else to get into.
We installed a super sized fenced area for them to run. We bought pee pads, bowls, leashes, harnesses, leads, treats, and three different puppy foods (we wanted to have options). We watched countless hours of puppy training on YouTube and read books.
Myself loving photography, ordered five backdrops, three floor drops, another set of lights, gels, and filters. These puppies were going to be my photography models.
Eight Days Later
After eight days of puppies and no sleep and chewed up hands (puppies teeth on everything…even me), I had the BRILLIANT idea to photograph the puppies. My photo would be titled “Puppies First Christmas”. In my mind it will be a fabulous photo. I would put up the wood plank backdrop and the fuzzy white floor drop. I would place a stuffed dog that I use to position lights and the camera settings where the real dogs would be. The backlighting would be in red and green. Two constant lights would be used to “feather light” the dogs from either side, and a giant ring light would be in front to give their eyes that great catch light look. All I had to do was replace the stuffed animal with the puppies.
Yeh….all I had to do. (Huh….)
If you’ve ever dealt with puppies, they are like light switches. They are either “on” or “off”. If they are “off” they are asleep. If they are “on” they are a whirlwind of non-stop motion. They are never still. They are sniffing, pouncing, digging, barking, pulling, wagging, running, or rolling. What they are not is STILL!!! And, I would need STILL to take my photo.
So, I enlisted Chuck to help with my fabulous picture claiming the “they’re your puppies, too” clause. Chuck just rolled his eyes, but played along.
“Just place the puppies in the exact same spot as where I put the toy dog”, I told him. I am, after all, the photographer, so my job is to push the trigger.
The Photo Shoot
Chuck placed Clyde into his spot. As Chuck turned around to get Bonnie, Clyde grabbed the toy dog and began shaking and growling at it. I abandon the camera to retrieve the toy and Clyde took off with the toy dog in mouth. Sometime during the “battle”, the green backlight went down.
At this point, Chuck has Bonnie. I catch Clyde who required great persuasion to release the stuffed animal. After all, Clyde felt like he nailed this stuffed animal with his stealthy pounce so it was now his. “Mean Mommy” was taking his prize. I placed Clyde where he needed to be and Chuck placed Bonnie alongside.
“Just hold them there for a second until I get the camera. Then, I’ll give you the signal to get out of the shot and I’ll hit the trigger. We’ll be done in a jiffy.” I claimed. (Famous last words).
As I turn to grab the camera, Bonnie gets upset and jumps. To avoid her lunge, Chuck bumps into the red backlight. I have no pictures and now my red backlight is angled wrong.
Having enough of the chaos, Chuck states “We’re doing each one by themselves”. I reluctantly agree.
We start with Bonnie. Posing a puppy is like trying to sculpt butter on an exceptionally hot day. You might get the look you want, but you have exactly a fraction of a second to get a picture. Clyde was no different.
After a hundred shots and replacing puppies a hundred times, we decided to just use what I captured and that’s it. Everyone’s patience was wearing thin. So, while not award winning pictures, I present to you “Bonnie’s First Christmas” and “Clyde’s First Christmas”.
These little bundles of joy will always be award winning to us. -Bren
Season’s Greetings
Merry Christmas everyone. May your holidays be wonderful!
-Chuck and Bren, Bonnie and Clyde (and Manny, too!)
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