Celebrate Life Session with Lea & Jonathan! | Portland, ME

This Celebrate Life session was really special. Celebrate Life sessions are something that I do for free for families, couples, or individuals who have pets that are elderly or terminally ill. When Lea got in touch and told me about their family, I was MORE than happy to get together with them for a session! They came up from Massachusetts and brought their three fur kids along with them. Ozzy is the black Tibetan spaniel mix with the wild teeth — Lea adopted him as a puppy, and he had just celebrated his 14th birthday shortly before our session. Lola is the chihuahua — Lea had adopted her three years prior. She’s around 8 years old (she had been found as a stray so they weren’t 100% sure) and has had her fair share of illnesses as well, poor girl. And then Rocco is the handsome cattle dog mix. Lea had adopted him 10 years prior and at the time of the shoot he was around 11.5 years old. He had a hemangiosarcoma, a rapidly growing and highly invasive form of cancer that is almost exclusively found in dogs and occasionally in cats and horses. Lea told me that his episodes of being sick and lethargic were starting to outweigh his more happy, healthy times, so she wanted to do a shoot while he was still moderately able to enjoy himself — he loved going for rides and on adventures! We met around the East End of Portland and Rocco got to explore with his parents and siblings, sniff the sea air, and we even got to see a dog on one of the schooners at the pier — a great day for Rocco. 🙂 He passed away only 5 days after this shoot — a very tragic loss, but after seeing all of them together, I know he spent his life being loved more than most dogs can only hope for. <3