It was a “love-in”: dogs, kids, adoring friends and families. The collaboration that evolved between the Orcas Off-Leash Area (OOLA) and the APS Shelter worked beautifully. The day was filled with a very special spirit of the holidays. People enjoyed hot cider and home baked cookies. Amidst excitement and festively adorned dogs, new human and canine connections were made. The celebration was a huge success.

The shelter’s space graciously accommodated both people and pets awaiting their turn, and offered a quiet, private room for each animal’s starring moment. Damien Stark, of Stark Images, professional photographer extraordinaire, generously donated his time and talent. He worked his magic, making sure that each animal lover left with a fantastic 8 X 10 photograph. The pictures have been loaded to the Dog Park web site, where folks can access various versions of their photos and send them to a Kodak web site where they can order additional photos, mugs, T-Shirts, even calendars.

Looking forward to pet photo day as an annual event, Shelter Manager Marsha Waunch and her staff and volunteers are thinking of ways to create a stress-free environment for cats and their loving friends, in order to increase feline comfort for holiday pictures.

In addition to being a delightful way to connect and get great photos, the event turned out to be an effective fundraiser. Islanders were generous with their donations, which were split between the dog park and the shelter. All who helped to make pet photo day happen were exuberant about it being such a great success.

Judy Dorman

OOLA board president