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Why you will hardly see us use the word, ‘pet/s!’

If you’ve ever had a photography experience with us, or if you’ve ever spoken to me over the phone, you would have noticed I usually refer to our ‘pets,’ as our ‘fur babies,’ ‘fur kids,’ ‘fur bubbies,’ or ‘fur family.’ I will often use this term for dogs, cats, guinea pigs, rabbits etc. Unlike the state of Queensland, in the state of Victoria, rabbits are permitted to be kept as pets. For birds, I will often refer to them as our feathered family and for reptiles, they are our ‘scaley family.’

You may wonder why this is the case. It’s not because I have anything against the word pets, not at all. After all they are our ‘pets,’ or are they? We think they are always way more than ‘just our pets’ – they are our family! And calling them our fur babies, evokes so many more emotions about what they mean to us and how we relate to them. For us, our fur kids are our babies. They are our everything. Prior to COVID-19 and the introduction of social distancing rules and regulations, our fur kids came with us everywhere. They came out to cafes and had their own puppachinos. When my Mum was alive, Maya and Blaze would come with us to visit Grandma 😊 I remember the first time I took Blaze to my Mum’s house. She didn’t know we had gotten another puppy and I was surprising her. I had this noisy, but ever so adorable, dingo looking pup (Blaze was a very fair tan colour and resembled a dingo as a pup), in the backseat of my car. He was strapped in his car seatbelt and couldn’t see out the window because he wasn’t tall enough! LOL He had the sweetest little howls that were very noisy but ever so cute and he would try and stand on his back legs and stretch his head to see over the window. Mum came out because she could hear a noise from inside the house – yes, our Blazey boy was loud enough for Mum to hear inside the house. LOL All she could see was this ball of fluff trying to get out of his car seat belt. Needless to say, he soon became one of Mum’s favourite Grandkids 😊 Although, secretly, our Princess Maya was Mum’s favourite girl. Mum adored Maya because she was such a sweetheart. Always calm, yet there was a streak of cheekiness in our beautiful Princess that Mum adored. The treasured moments are beautiful and they make me smile.

For us, and for me as a pet photographer, or as I like to say, animal art photographer, your fur kids are so much more than just your pets. They are not just part of your family, they ARE your family. They too go with you for visits to Grandma and Grandpa. They visit the local café with you and have a puppachino. They go to Bunnings when all you need is something small. They comfort you when you are sad. They bat their pretty big puppy dog eyes at you while tapping their tail on the floor just to make sure you know they’re there and want to come along for the ride.

“Frankie is my brave boy! He was a rescue from the RSPCA at 10 months old.
He is very gentle, loving and his Grandma says he looks like Red Dog (from the movie Red Dog). Frankie will beg
and will wag his tail at people to greet them. They call him Pepe Le Pew because he will bop up and down just like
Pepe with his toys, but he’s like a gazelle and leans and lunges at them.” ~ Wendy about Frankie

Your cat curls up on your lap just before they’ve given you a head butt and purred their way into your heart. They swish their tail in the air just before they ever so softly nudge your chin all while singing their picture purr-fect purrs of affection, love and adoration, just to remind you they are always there for you, and that you must feed them – now! 😊

“Drew is my smoochy girl who adores curling up on my lap. She always has but when
she was younger she did have her ‘wild side’ where she would be a little crazy and definitely
unpredictable when she chose! Then along came Kitty. This little kitten kept grabbing
my attention. I couldn’t help but be taken in by this kitten’s obvious reaction to me and so Kitty chose me
and came home along with the cat food!” ~ Janet about Drew & Kitty

Your feathered family come out and happily chirp away or say, ‘Good morning,’ even when it’s not a ‘good’ morning. They flutter around and happily land on your shoulder or your head, or make their way under your t-shirt just so they can cling to you in the most awkward way while you do the housework. 😊 They bow their beak and give you a soft peck on the nose, just to remind you they love you with all their heart.

“Bean adores playing and along with how I would describe as ‘about a million toys’ also loves cardboard and
finding other items to ‘play with!’ My girl loves her scratches and time with me. I love the way she adores getting wet
and playing with water. She will soak up as much as she can and will look to ask for more. She is my little mischievous
Bean who will take my phone from my hand and fly off with it just to get my attention.
She’s my baby Bean.” ~ Ella about Bean, the Amazon parrot.

Your scaley family look at you when you get home knowing that it will be time to come out and hang out with the family while you relax. They wrap themselves around your arm, or your neck or they make themselves comfortable curled on the hat on your head all while they keep warm from the warmth of your head. They slither toward you with their eyes wide open knowing you will always be there to protect them.

“Moose was a gentle soul who had been a constant source of comfort, security and unconditional love for all
of our family. Moose happily lived the life of luxury hanging out with all of his human family, following me around the
house and making sure my daughter and I were okay. Moose was my shadow at times and his favourite place to be was by our side! He always had the most amazing instincts and simply knew within himself what was needed at any given time. Moose travelled halfway around the world with us and lived one of the most amazing puppy lives. We are blessed to
have had him in our lives. I am so grateful we had our session when we did and we now have our beautiful artwork since Moose has gained his wings.” Suzanna about Moose.

Our fur kids are more than just pets, they are our family, they are our everything. They are what help us get through each and every day. They help us get through the good days and the bad days. They are there to comfort us when we are sad and they happily give us their ‘fur-love’ and ‘paw of approval,’ when we are happy. When we feel like we can’t go on another day, they are there for us. We go beyond loving them with all our heart. We value all that they give us in our lives. We sometimes, even maybe most of the time, love them more than our human family.

They enrich our lives, they give us meaning. They give us the will to go on when we feel defeat. They take up the whole couch and we smile and move to the next available seat in the house. They lick the tea out of our tea cup and look at us with a cheeky grin as if to say, ‘What? Everything that’s yours is mine!’

They look at us with their big beautiful kitty eyes, similar to puss in boots and swish their tail in the air letting us know we’re late for dinner and to hurry up.

They fly over and bow their beak and remind us of the beauty in this world.

They sprawl themselves across our, their bed, leaving only a smidgeon of space for us to ever so carefully crawl into bed without disturbing them and of course we have no blanket!

Theylick our tears and gently provide us with the will to go on because without them, we don’t feel complete. We pay the bills but the house is theirs and we secretly, or not so secretly – wouldn’t have it, or want it any other way.

At times, we may rescue them, but I like to think they choose to rescue us when we need it the most in the way they best know how – by being their furever loving, caring, unconditional selves.

And this, is why you will hardly ever see, or hear, us use the word, ‘pet/s.’

If you’d love to learn more, you can contact us on (03) 9021 2248 for Melbourne, or (07) 3870 0903 for Brisbane. Or you can click on the link below. We’d love to hear how your fur kids have changed and enriched your life.

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