Rachel and Brandon got engaged! And then, while searching for wedding venues in New Orleans, they serendipitously stumbled across some weddings I shot down there and contacted me to do their engagement session in Durham where they live. They were super pleasant and friendly via e-mail and phone and I was already excited to work with them and their dog Jovie. But then, a few days before the session, Rachel casually sends me an email that reads, “And a heads up. We recently rescued a kitten, so he’d have to be involved here as well.” I like how she worded this: the kitten has to be involved… as if to imply there might be some sort of chance I wouldn’t accept?!?? Or would tell her, “NO. ABSOLUTELY NO KITTENS.” Rachel did not know me well enough when she sent that email but I think she does now. This is when I grabbed my Crazy Cat Lady cape from the back of my office chair, slung it around my shoulders and got to work converting her engagement/family session into 100% a kitten session without even trying or thinking about it. I did try very hard to pet Jovie the dog and hug Rachel and Brandon equally but let’s face it, I think they all knew I was there for Crash the Cat. Crash is really good at posing because he’s really good at sleeping when he’s not running full speed around the house. Jovie is really good at eating Crash’s cat toys and also entire Dominos pizzas when we weren’t looking. Rachel and Brandon are good at looking cute and adopting a lot of animals and eating pizza. I wish I was still shooting weddings so I could follow them to Nola, but these kitten photos were a good consolation prize.
When flipping through these pictures you might ask yourself, “Is this dog real?” or “How much did it cost to get such a life-like mechanical dog who doesn’t seem able to bend any of his limbs but makes such cute facial expressions?” We are here to assure you that Frank the Frenchie is, indeed real, and is living a cushy life in Raleigh, North Carolina where his lives with Jo, Brad, Laurel, and Sam (whom you might knot from “The Lake” part one, and “The Lake” part two). But this, my friends, is not about them. Well, it kind of is, but is mostly about Frank. He is their recently adopted Frenchie.
Johanna’s initial skepticism about owning a dog has turned into her sitting in the living room with Frank on her lap whispering in his ear, “Nobody loves you like I do,” so it’s safe to say he’s made quite an impression. He is small yet made entirely of muscle, which he will use to excitedly jump all over the place when you first arrive, and then collapse into an overheated heap in the exercise room while the family shouts, “He is overheating! Quick! Get him to some tile!” He is then placed on said cool tile and we wait while his batteries recharge, and then he comes barreling out of the room with his tongue stuck out again. Frank makes a constant audible noise while he breathes, and stares constantly into space. It’s like he can see into the Upside Down all the time or has been spending a lot of time on the road with the Grateful Dead. He is 100% malleable and uses 0% of his energy to do anything except overheat himself when you initially arrive, and occasionally chase balls. He owns his own Casper bed and enjoys eating ice chips from the fridge.
HOW CAN I SEE MORE OF THIS DOG, you might ask. Well, Frank has his own Instagram account where he’s actively trying to gain more followers so that he and Gary Fisher can become fast friends. I love Frank. And these people here love Frank. And so should you.