Meet Tanner … an almost 5-year-old mix (lab, chow, plus some…) who was adopted at 3 months of age from the local county shelter. Gadora loves me some rescue dogs!
“Tanner, despite his 70 lb size, is as naturally mild-natured and well-behaved as can be,” offers his Hot-lanta Mama, Vanessa.
“He doesn’t care much to eat his regular meals but will sit with the most perfect posture (see below) and focus for a treat (or a tortilla chip!)… from us, at the pet store, at the vet, etc.”
“He always follows us around, and absolutely loves Dixon (the hubster—whose fave pic is below) because Dixon has spent the better part of 4 years working at home. Tanner absolutely loves his walks (at least 2 a day).”
Gadora has a real soft spot for sleeping pooches. Here, Tanner laps up the sun.
Lately Gadora has created Animal Prints for several pooches that have known sickness before their peeps nursed them to health. “Tanner was born with a rare infection in his spine (lumbar and neck) that specialists diagnosed him with when he was almost a year old. We treated him with 6 weeks of antibiotic shots and fluid packs (under the skin on the back) at home twice a day. Tanner never fought us needing to do this and once he recovered, gained a lot of energy we thought he naturally didn’t have. He has some arthritis now, but is the most loving, fun dog. Yeah, we love our dog!”
Gadora manipulated Tanner’s original photo to create his Animal Print: remove the red towel replacing it with more of his bed, and color-correct his coat to the beautiful red he normally sports… After days of working on his handsome coat, I sent him off.
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“Thank you so much – the Tanner portrait arrived yesterday. It looks fabulous and Dixon really likes it. The pic looks remarkably like Tanner.” Thank you Vanessa and Dixon. It was a pleasure to paint such a dignified doggie.
