As I mentioned a couple days ago, I recently had the pleasure of participating in the American Animal Rescue Project, a nationwide effort to pair professional photographers and animal rescues to increase adoption rates by creating uplifting images of available animals.  I am very passionate about using photography to help animals in need, so it was a great day meeting so many adorable, smiling, and sometimes slobbery faces.  I teamed up with the wonderfully talented Jessica from Chocolate Moose Images to photograph nearly 40 dogs, cats, puppies, and kittens from 2 local rescues – Ruff Start Rescue and Secondhand Hounds.  Jess was kind enough to puppy wrangle for me when needed (thanks, Jess!) and is an expert kitten whisperer – be sure to check out her amazingly adorable images from the day here.  It’s obvious these rescues and their army of volunteers are doing a fabulous job caring for these animals and preparing them to get adopted into wonderful homes.  Please check out all these available animals and and many more on their websites!

Here are just a handful of my favorite images from the day –

Bella – so sweet with velvety lips:

Melvin – the happy-go-luckiest little pooch: (he has since been adopted – yay!)

Two young’uns – Tina and Dodger:

Oke, with the million dollar smile:

Ok, this last group is admittedly a little over the top!  Their momma, Katrina the hound dog, was rescued from a high-kill shelter late in her pregnancy.  She gave birth to five beautiful puppies in her foster mom’s home (I watched via web cam!) and they are growing at an incredible rate.  Any guesses on who their dad was?

These puppies are almost ready to be adopted – submit your adoption application here. :)  And without further ado, here are the Rescue Ranger puppies:

Monte, the ham:

Chip, the introvert:

Gidget, the precious (and only girl!):

Zip, the cuddler:

And finally Dale, the mischief-maker.  I have met these puppies 3 times and he is the trickiest to photograph!  He picked up my little broom and carried it around for me:

He’s a trouble maker!!

There are many more animals that Jess and I met and photographed that day – check out Ruff Start Rescue and Secondhand Hounds to meet them!