Pop Art Pet Unleashed

Did you know that Animal Rescues and Shelters have become a very popular vacation destination among animal lovers in America? A few years ago we took a trip to Best Friends, the amazing animal shelter in Kanab, Utah; then last year on vacation we went to Pasado’s Safe Haven in Washington, which was truly heartwarming. Apparently, according to the story below from Yahoo we were being trend-setters! :

For most people the word “vacation” conjures images of relaxing in a tropical paradise, but for some animal lovers, their precious time off isn’t spent sipping margaritas. Fueled by a desire to make a difference, they’re using all, or part, of their vacation time to help improve the lives of homeless pets here and abroad.
One of those people is Crystal Hall, an administrative assistant who lives in Calgary, Alberta.

Hall’s last five vacations were spent at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah, where she happily works eight-hour days filling food bowls, washing litter boxes and grooming cats.

“I think I have a bit of a cat addiction,” she says with a laugh. “I just love them and can’t get enough of them. It just makes me happy to see them happy.”

Labor of love

Hall isn’t alone. Each year, almost 5,000 volunteers make the journey to Best Friends, the nation’s largest no-kill shelter caring for abused and abandoned animals.

Located in the heart of the Golden Circle of national parks, the refuge is a short drive to the Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce Canyon and Lake Powell.

Some people help for a few hours; others stay few days, said Barbara Williamson, a spokesperson for Best Friends.

“Some even end up moving here permanently so they can contribute their labor of love to the sanctuary on a regular basis,” she said.

Offering volunteer vacations wasn’t a formal idea when the sanctuary was founded two decades ago. Over time, though, enough people began showing up that a full-time staff was needed to handle the requests.

In the beginning, rustic cabins on the 33,000 acre ranch - built when the area served as a movie location in the 1950s - provided accommodations for folks who didn’t mind “camping indoors.”

Today, modernized cottages and a few RV spots provide clean, convenient places to stay for a nominal fee. Deem yourself lucky, though, to land a coveted reservation. The vast majority of visitors must stay in the nearby town.

Global effort

For an overseas adventure, World Vets - a nonprofit organization that provides medical aid to areas with limited or no access to veterinary care - might be the right feel-good trip for you.

Small groups of licensed veterinarians and technicians, as well as animal enthusiasts, fly to far-off destinations to work mainly on spay-neuter projects. Upcoming trips this year include Costa Rica, India, Mexico and Panama.

No prior experience is necessary. Volunteers are trained on location for tasks ranging from giving injections and applying flea treatment to capturing cats and dogs for surgery.

Even though you’re donating your time, the trip isn’t free. On average, expect to pay $600 (plus airfare) for hotel, local transportation and other related expenses.

World Vets director Cathy King, DVM, said most trips are designed as ongoing projects for maximum impact to both the community and animals.

“We don’t just go one time and do a project and leave,” she said. “We want to go and have a pretty significant impact through sustainability.”

In November, for example, a team is traveling to the tiny village of Tena, Ecuador, where mass poisonings control the burgeoning population of stray dogs and cats.

In exchange for stopping the practice, World Vets members are launching a community-wide, spay-neuter program that includes surgical training for local veterinarians, public education and sterilizing as many animals as possible.

On these trips, though, expect to work more than play. Volunteers toil daily for 10 hours during excursions. And usually only a day or two is allotted for sight-seeing.

Still, that hasn’t stopped animal lovers from signing up.

“Because we’re working closely with the local people in these communities, it really gives you a different perspective of the country than you would get as a tourist,” says King. “For many people it’s the experience of a lifetime.”

..Unless of course, the horse has been captured in a beautiful custom portrait! Then the horse becomes a one of a kind, work of art created from your photos. Did you know we also do portraits of horses? We have only had the pleasure of working with a few equines but they do make excellent subjects.

Dreamer got the whimsical, Warhol Style treatment.

Orion looks awesome,  also in Pop Art, but in this single-panel layout.

While Justin looks just amazing in one of our Traditional Style portraits.

All these custom pet portraits were created by our artists using some fantastic photos of these picturesque animals.

We love working with horses and hope to do more in the future. In the meantime, of course, we enjoy our work with dogs & cats - our bread & butter so to speak!

For his book, The Intelligence of Dogs, psychologist Stanley Coren examined 141 breeds and discussed their performance traits with U.S. and Canadian dog obedience judges. He used “understanding of new commands” and “obey first command” as criteria in judging the responsiveness of dogs to commands.

When given a command five or fewer times, the following breeds performed the requested behavior 95% of the time or better:

• Border Collie
• Poodle
• German Shepherd
• Golden Retriever
• Doberman Pinscher

Although the breeds below have many fine qualities to recommend them, trainability and a desire to please is low on the list. These dogs may take 80 to 100 trials to learn a new command and then obey the command 25% of the time or less:

• Borzoi
• Chow Chow
• Bulldog
• Basenji
• Afghan Hound

Source: USA Weekend

Of all the Christmas presents we created for our clients this season, the biggest by far was a Pop Art people portrait. [Did you know we did people too? Check out our other site, popartgo.com.]

Jason sent an adorable photo of his wife & daughter, and wanted the portrait to be a really, REALLY, big surprise for the whole family!

Here’s the portrait, before we stretched it (check out the dollar bill for scale)..

And after we stretched it, just ready to ship..

Wow! The finished dimensions were 36″x42″, which was gi-nourmous, and from what we heard it was a really BIG holiday hit!

We hope all our Christmas portraits made for wonderful gifts this year and wish to thank all our clients who included us in their celebration; we hope we had just a small part of making them happy and bright!

Happy Holidays!

Two of our current, Christmas clients are a couple of beautiful English Cocker Spaniels. Biondina, which means blondie in Italian, and Bruna, which means brunette. This is the layout we started with for their custom Pop Art Style dog portrait.

We couldn’t help but think they look like they could be in a shampoo commercial with all that shiny hair so we started calling them our supermodel clients.

We asked their mom what they were like, if they had the attitude that comes with the hair and the good looks, she said:
“They have quite different personalities. Biondina is more passive and very sensitive. She is the sweeter of the two. She is ball-obsessed and loves men!! Although Bruna is smaller, she is the dominant one. She is clearly the boss and once she decides something is hers, she will not let Biondina anywhere near it (bones in particular). She is rather small for a cocker but has the deepest growl and bark. You’d think she was a German Shepherd. Bruna is more spunky. She doesn’t walk, she bounces. Bruna prefers to cuddle with me, whereas Biondina is obsessed with my husband.”

So maybe Blondes do have more fun while Brunettes are all business! By the way, Bruna & Biondina are English Cocker Spaniels in the truest sense - they live in London! (Did you know we accept international orders?)

Here is one of Bruna & Biondina’s completed proofs.

Oh, and we are also working on some Christmas cards for these gorgeous girls!

They are a very festive pair!

Did you know there are only 50 shopping days until Christmas? It is almost impossible to believe it’s that time of year again already… Time to start thinking about the holidays and finding the perfect gift for everybody on your list. Well Pop Art Pet is here to help with your pet-obsessed friends and family members.

We’ve already posted our holiday ordering deadlines, and are happy that this year we have some extra elves on board so we could make those dates later than usual. You have until December 2nd to place your portrait order and guarantee delivery in time for Christmas.

If you’re unsure what portrait style would best suit your friend’s pet, or you have no way to get a photo for us to work with, consider a Pop Art Pet Gift Certificate. You can choose any size or any dollar amount you like, and our gift certificate packs include a gift card, magnet, and other goodies. Or, if you’re shopping last minute, we can send out an e-gift certificate as late as December 23rd - not that we condone procrastination!

We also have all kinds of accessories, apparel, and even home decor that pet-lovers will adore in our gift shops. From aprons to clocks to boxer shorts, with all your favorite breeds - check it out!

Don’t let the holidays sneak up on you - start shopping now!

PS: Stay tuned for Holiday Specials!

Did you know that during the Holidays we offer customer service via a Live Chat feature on our site? So now, with the Holidays once again approaching like a runaway freight train, we have reinstated the Live Chat feature on our site! This allows you to get answers to your questions about our custom pet portraits on the spot.

We’ll be available for this instant online q&a randomly throughout the day and evening during the season to keep up with your inquiries. Just look for this button on our Contact page (you may see it pop up other places as well), click it and chat!

When we’re not available, you’ll see this image..

which just means you can use our Contact Form to submit your questions and we’ll get back to you a.s.a.p. (usually within 24 hours). Of course you can also find lots of useful information about our process and prices, etc. on our Frequently Asked Questions page.

Another helpful section on the site is the Photo Tips page, which gives you some great advice and pointers on selecting or taking an ideal photo for your dog portrait or cat portrait. Including some great detailed tips on taking a fantastic digital photo of your pet, which is useful even if you aren’t planning to order a pet portrait from us this season.

On our Order Your Portrait page you can actually learn pretty much everything you need to know about your options, such as styles to choose from, and stretching, and there’s a link to a price list.

Of course the most fun part of placing your order with us for a custom portrait created from your pet’s photos is checking out our extensive Example Galleries. You can check out collections of our completed animal artwork to get a better idea of what we can do for your picture-perfect pet.

Did you know that the ASPCA encourages dog lovers to celebrate October as national “Adopt-a-Shelter Dog Month”? While the organization strives to raise awareness of the plight of shelter animals year-round, in October they place special emphasis on urging potential pet parents to consider choosing from the millions of adoptable, endangered, companion animals in shelters across the country.

On their website they are sponsoring a photo contest, a special store to raise funds, and you’ll love to read the Success Story of the Week, all to raise awareness.

Something you should be aware of, according to Ed Sayres, President & CEO of the ASPCA, approximately 5 out of 10 of the animals in shelters in the US are euthanized simply because there is no one to adopt them.

So adopt a dog and save a life!

Buddy began life in Florida. He met Jessica when he was only three years old. She worked with the little half-arab pony for a year and when his owners decided to sell him, she bought him to finish his training. Jessica trained Buddy as a hunter. He attended several local schooling shows with Jessica where a young girl would ride him in walk-trot classes and Jessica would ride him in a Baby Greens class. Life was good and Buddy was progressing well. At 5 years of age, Buddy then moved to Tennessee to go to college with Jessica where he participated on the school’s equestrian team for a time.

Buddy has been a relatively healthy and happy pony his whole life with the exception of the occassion “accident prone” injury. When he moved to Tennessee, the climate change made him slow to shed out his winter coat. However, after four years of living in Tennessee and still having problems shedding out in the fourth year, Jessica decided to find out what was going on and ordered some blood work to be done. When the test results came back, it was with bad news. Buddy was diagnosed with Cushings Disease at the young age of nine. If it weren’t for the slow shedding, no one would have guessed there was anything wrong with him at all.

At the age of nine, Buddy also learned a new talent. One day Jessica was going through all the art supplies she had and decided that Buddy should learn how to paint. Armed with a pen that clicked to open and close and some treats, Jessica started to teach Buddy to hold things in his mouth. She used a crop at first and Buddy would twirl the crop around in the air for her. He learned quick that he got a treat when he did that. She then got out a paint

brush and canvas and let him “paint” with an empty brush on the canvas to see what he would do. Buddy immediately began to make brush strokes on the canvas. After this “experiement,” Jessica decided it was time to try real paint and Buddy produced his first painting. He enjoyed the painting and would work himself into it. His technique consists of throwing the brush on the ground, which picks up gravel and dirt, and then painting with it. His paintings are often a “mixed media” as a result. He decides when he is done painting by simply not painting any longer. People began asking to purchase his paintings on a frenzy.

Once Buddy was diagnosed with Cushings, however, his paintings became a source to help fund treatment and for his condition. A percentage of the profits of his paintings is also donated to research for Equine Cushings.

Please visit ThePaintingPony.com to learn more about Buddy and about Equine Cushings, and to view and purchase available portraits.

Buddy also hosts The Painting Pony online Gift Shop - check it out, you’ll find some very unique gifts!

By the way, did you know that we also offer custom horse portraits? Click these images for a larger view, and please keep us in mind if you have a horse enthusiast on your shopping list for the holidays!

Did you know you could make a stylish sweater for your dog from nothing but one of your comfy socks (argyle is highly recommended)? It’s so simple anyone can do it:

Step 1 - Cut sock as indicated below.

Step 2 - Place sweater and bonus hat on small* dog.

Step 3 - Give dog lots of love and affirmation so he won’t hate you!

*This pattern is designed with a Yorkie, Chihuahua, Dachshund, or similar small breed in mind. Please do not try this for your German Shepherd, Rottweiler, etc., that would just be silly and possibly painful! What about cats you ask?? You’re on your own on that one!

Source: this has been around the internet a lot, including on one of our favorite sites, CuteOverload.com