THESE are great!
Kelly Garrison swears this picture isn't photoshopped:
Bumper, the licker, "went to kiss" Willis, the lickee, Garrison says. And photographer Lynn Terry "got the shot. She got just the perfect trigger time."
This
picture is so perfect it's been shared tens of thousands of times on
social media in the last few days. More than 200,000 people liked the
photo on one site alone, the official Facebook page for a Chihuahua, pit bull and doberman threesome who use their YouTube fame to advocate for animal welfare.
The
administrator of that page -- we're guessing the Chihuahua? -- said it
"may be the greatest photo booth session of all time," which seems
entirely right. And the photo gets even better when you find out more
about the dogs who are in it.
Bumper is a pit bull who "came from a
not-so-great area of St. Louis," says Garrison. A "gentleman tried to
fight her. She wouldn't engage." A little boy "lured her away" and got
the dog to Mutts n Stuff, a local pit bull rescue.
Garrison
and her husband Jason had had Bumper about 1.5 years, she says, when
they felt ready to take in a foster dog. They were matched with another
pit bull, then six months old, who had been part of of a 500-dog fighting ring that was raided in the summer of 2009.
"The
largest pit bull fighting bust in U.S. history," says Garrison. Willis'
mother was pregnant at the time of the bust; Willis himself was,
Garrison says, "born about two weeks after the rescue."
It didn't
take long for the block-headed pup to become a permanent member of the
family. All the Garrisons had fallen in love with him. That includes
Bumper.
"She mothers him," says Garrison. "She's constantly giving him kisses."
Lynn
Terry, the photographer, tells HuffPost that for her part, she's been
working with animals for about 10 years, and especially likes pit bulls
because "I have a personal affinity for the breed. They are the underdog
and I want to do what I can to change public opinion about the breed."
She
says they also "make some of the best faces," which is professionally
satisfying, as you can see in her first pit bull photo booth pic, from a few years ago, of two more Mutts n Stuff dogs named Tucker and Pitunia:
"They got right on set and started licking each other. I could instantly
relate it to new lovers who stepped into the privacy of a photo booth
and locked lips," says Terry. "I knew right away I, or rather they, had
made magic. It's been the shot of shots to live up to but I think with
the new series it has met its match."
"I love them, I love them,
they're my whole world," says Garrison of Willis and Bumper, who she
does not worry, with all this attention, will get big heads. Especially
since Willis, in particular, already has one.
"You can see it in the picture," she says. "Friends texted, 'I don't think his head can get any bigger.'"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/25/pit-bull-photo-booth_n_4848766.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular
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