Meat and Sophie's 7th Birthday Party in Youngstown, Ohio
Seven years ago on this day, Meat and Sophie were born. I remember going to see them and the rest of their litter and just being so in love with every single wrinkle on their bodies. A few weeks after they were born, Lou sent me to pick out which pup we were going to adopt. I immediately fell in love with Soph and Lou was obsessed with Meat. I distinctly remember sending him tons of pictures of them and then deciding that we would take Meat because he really wanted him. Then Lou said, well let’s adopt them both, and my heart exploded. Ironically, it turns out that they were best friends in their litter - always cuddling and being close together. It’s like they knew, or we knew, or maybe we were all just meant to be a family together.
Regardless, I think taking them both was one of the best decisions we’ve made. They are complete yin and yang. Whatever one lacks, the other picks up in spades. They have totally opposite personalities but for some reason, it just works. I’ve never seen a more bonded pair of dogs. They also have so much love in their hearts to give. Meat is completely a mama’s boy while Soph is definitely a daddy’s girl, though I think they love us equally. Sophie is the social one (like her mama) while Meat is the designated ham of the family (much like his father). They are both protectors, professional snugglers and absolutely hilarious. It’s never a dull day in our household, that’s for sure!
Today was a different kind of birthday party for them. If you’ve been following my work for a while, you know that we do big, over the top shoots for many things throughout the year, with their birthday being one of them. Lately, I’ve been spending so much time planning out every other aspect of my life that I was just mentally tapped out when it came to another big, outrageous shoot. With all of the goal planning I’ve been doing over the past couple of weeks, I realized that one goal for my personal and professional life this year is to extend myself more grace and know that not everything has to be perfectly planned. It was hard to let go of perfection, because I want everything to be the best that I can create. But the thing is, these photos still say so much, regardless of how much time I spent planning them. I look at them and see the dog’s derpy personalities. I see their curiosity. I see their love for their daddy. I see their excitement (and nosiness) over presents. I see our home that we’ve filled with so much love and wonderful memories over the years. I see our future with our little baby and these two.
These photos - they’re not anything super outrageous or impressive. I gave myself 15 minutes to shoot and then to just enjoy the rest of the time. It’s a really powerful thing, and one that I think will be incredibly useful as I transition into motherhood (ya know, for a human baby). I didn’t spend 20 minutes getting the dogs in the perfect position, setting up a crazy backdrop or running around to five different craft stores to make a cute set up. I baked the puppies cake, slapped some icing on it and put a generic number 7 on top. That was it. But these photos? They are a part of my personal collection that I will cherish.
Sometimes, we have to let go of the “perfect picture” ideal that so many social media platforms and pop culture have shoved in our faces over the years.
So enough rambling from me. All of this is to say Happy Birthday to my two favorite dogs in the entire universe! <3
