Glamour Shots for Shelter Dogs

What do you do if you want to adopt a pit bull reeeeeaaaallly bad but your landlord says no? If you’re a regular person, you might entertain any number of questionably passive aggressive ways of coping, like paying your rent in nickels. But if you’re Stacey Gammon, you use your powers for good.

Stacey’s powers happen to be photographical in nature, and she decided to use them to help dogs in need (and maybe get in a little puppy love at the same time). Stacey knows the power of a good profile pic, so she began volunteering at local animal shelters taking beautiful photos of rescue animals to help aid in their adoption process. Instead of shoddy shots via camera phones, Stacey took photos that captured each dog’s unique personality and beauty.

And it worked.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE! This story gets even better and our hero gets hero-ier. (That’s our second made up word, for those of you keeping tabs.) One day while volunteering at the Newark Humane Society in New Jersey, an elderly, blind pit bull caught Stacey’s eye. The dog’s name was Bella and Stacey understood immediately that this dog was among the most vulnerable of an already vulnerable population of shelter animals in overcrowded, inner city facilities. Elderly dogs tend to need a lot of extra care, often including expensive medicines and treatments, which places them at high risk for euthanasia.

Bella

But this dog’s fate wasn’t the grim prospect that Stacey feared because Bella was to be included in the Mr. Mo Project, a nonprofit dedicated to placing sick and elderly shelter dogs into “forever foster” homes. The foundation also pays for all their medical expenses for the rest of their lives, however long or short that happens to be.

Well. It just so happened that the foundation is based in upstate New York, not far from where Stacey and her family were planning to relocate. And if you’ve ever seen a superhero movie, you can see where this is going. (Well, unless you think that Stacey swings on a superhuman spider silk thread to upstate New York and/or beats up a bunch of bad guys while wearing a lot of spandex.)

Stacey joined up with the Mr. Mo Project and began taking portraits of the dogs to help bolster their adoption profiles. And as you study her portraits, you can’t help but be moved.

Patsy

Millie

Grace

Panda

You don’t see sickness or age or years of neglect or abuse. You see beautiful animals. What you don’t see, of course, is the hero behind the lens. Let’s take care of that. Ladies and gents, here is a true hero. No spandex required.

Stacey Gammon

Learn more about Stacey Gammon and her other projects.

Learn more about the Mr. Mo Project and how you can get involved.

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