Saluki Love - and the conclusion of Orange for Animals

I'll continue my Orange for Animals saga in just a moment. I was able to pop in to Union Square as promised. Unfortunately I was able to spend all of 15 minutes there before i had to go back to class... but i got pictures! lol...

But first! Salukis.


A few weeks ago, Nancy (SmokeyLady54) asked me to paint a Saluki on a shell. Being a sighthound lover at heart, I obliged to the task. I wound up redoing this dog twice (major touch ups) but in the end it came out pretty well, if I say so myself :)


And Nancy's done something really cool with the shell - she hung it up on her wall! Its a bit hard to tell but its hanging over her desk (you can guage it by the papers in the corner, desk indeed). People keep telling me that i should start putting the shells on ribbon and making ornaments with them. Maybe that's a good idea :P


Nancy also shared pictures of her pets with me! This was her Saluki - what a stunning dog, huh? Funny coincidence, I didn't even know that her dog was sable, I just happened to paint a dog in that colour :P


The Saluki is no longer with Nancy unfortunately. But now she shares her home with Smokey and Bandit :)

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Now back to ASPCA Day..
I ventured out to Union Square as promised. I went there at around 11 am, only to find out that the ASPCA stuff wasn't gonna start until 4 pm. Well i had some time before class, so I ventured out to Petco and placed my business cards in some books. The Union Square Petco is all bling-ified and has all sorts of fancy jazz like a mini dog library with some armchairs. And it was full of those generic breed books. So I put my cards in a whole bunch of those books, primarily books with breeds that I've painted. Hey, no one stopped me. And that fancy animal-loving city audience is just who my shells are perfect for :P

I also surveyed a couple of artists selling work on Union Square. Very little animal art today, alas.
But i did find the work of John and Marge Bobbish - www.bobbishart.com - a husband and wife team who do some very cool watercolor art, much of it focused on dogs and cats. The piece above is John's work.

Unfortunately my lab lasted longer than usual and i wasn't able to leave that class until 4:20 or so. I got to union square ar 4:45... at that point i was getting tired and not too thrilled to go there for the second time. Oh and at 5 I had to get back on the train to get to a 5:35 class. But I did show up and look around and get a few picture :P

People showed up :P There was lots of retina-burning orange all around.

They were handing out orange bandanas and bracelets.

We've got two interesting things going on here - first airbrushed totes. Now I personally never liked how airbrushing looks on stuff. Perhaps some people can make great stuff with it, but the usual stuff i see always looks awkward. but I guess its sorta cool to have your own animal on a tote bag :P Also - you can text message the aspca to donate to them..

If my dogs saw this, they'd report the owner to the ASPCA for animal cruelty. And yet he wore the boots without a problem. I wonder how long it took the owner to teach the dog to be okay with it... i tried boots on Perry once, took a video of him kicking and never bothered again...

Up last - the ASPCA apparently gave Union Square this honorary doggie water fountain at the bottom of the people water fountain. A wonderful gesture on their part, especially since Union Sq is hugely popular with dog people, and there's a dog run. Matter of fact this is right in front of the dog run.

I am concerned with practicality of this fountain though... first of all there's water and bowls inside the dog run. Most dogs get watered there. Second I'm wondering about drool and bacterial buildup. I didn't look too close but it seems that the bowl is always filled with water - that's an algae/bacteria/mosquito hazard. Also you don't know whose drool is in that bowl. My dogs have very tight lips and don't drool at all but after they drink from their bowl even once its all drooly. Imagine a basset hound or a bulldog drinking. Meeeeh.... gross.

...but its still a nice gesture. Even though i wouldn't hypothetically want my dogs drinking from there.