Recently we were contacted by one of our favorite and most frequent clients, Courtney. She wanted us to do another portrait for her of her newest family member, Shadow, a handsome chocolate Lab that Courtney had recently rescued. Since this was the fifth portrait of a Labrador Retriever we had done for Courtney’s family, I finally decided to ask… so what’s the story with your family’s love for Labs?
Here’s the story in Courtney’s own words:
Our Lab obsession started about 13 years ago when my sister was living on Fripp Island, SC with my parents and going to college. She had a friend who had a few Labs and decided she wanted one. She got Skylar, a female chocolate Lab, as a puppy and that was it for us. She was just the perfect dog who did great tricks, fetched the paper and was a great companion. My sister eventually moved to Charlotte, NC and Skylar stayed with my parents who would never give her up again.
I eventually moved to Charlotte too and together Megan & I got Sutton, a female chocolate Lab, as a 6 week old puppy. She was beautiful, but the opposite of Sky, in other words quite a handful as a puppy. Then I was then transfered to New York City for my job and Sutton, the Diva, stayed behind with Megan.
After a year without a dog in NYC I decided it was time to get one so I adopted Dakota, a 10 year old, female yellow Lab, from a Long Island Labrador Retriever Rescue. She was a great dog from the start and that made it even harder to believe that a family gave her up after 10 years because they were moving to Florida and couldn’t take her. Dakota became the first Pop Art dog in our family!
My sister then was offered a black male Lab puppy. She told me she was just going to “look at him” but who looks at a puppy without coming home with them? Her justification was that we didn’t have any black Labs or males in the family. Hence, Frankie joined the family. He is the most loving, funny and fearless dog around with his big block head and droopy eyes. Megan decided that Frankie and Sutton both needed to be featured in their own Pop Art portraits. And I got my dad a gift certificate so he could have his girl, Skylar’s portrait done too, but he chose a Traditional Style.
Eventually I moved back to Charlotte and adopted Shadow from a place called Georgia Lab Rescue. He’s a six year old chocolate and had been through a lot but you could tell he was a good dog. He still suffers from terrible separation anxiety but mostly he’s just a big old lazy dog who’s name fits him completely. I’ve never met a dog who wants to be around people more and Shadow’s Pop Art portrait, the most recent addition to our collection, captures his personality perfectly.
Having five dogs in the family can certainly make get-togethers hectic, and finding vacation spots where we can take the dogs with us has been a challenge, though not impossible, and well worth it!
Unfortunately Skylar passed away earlier this year at 13. But dad has a new girl, Tilly another chocolate who is adorable and completely attached to him and will definitely be the next Pop Art Pet in our Lab-loving family!
Dakota is now 14 and she’s doing very well for her age. She sometimes barks too much and sheds like it’s her job, but I wish she could live forever! Because they can’t I am happy that we will forever have wonderful portraits of all of our beloved Labs!
I know these dogs (and Courtney and Megan and their dad) quite well. I love them all! Great writing, Courtney.
I too know this lab loving family VERY well and could read this wonderful story a hundred times. I think it’s time we “pop art” our lab Lexi! It was Courtney who identified her at the rescue and (I’m not sayin’ nutin’) pointed us in her direction. We are forever grateful!! Love ya tonemaster.