Ultra Violet. Beloved Golden Retriever, by a Maine Dog Photographer. Violet's dog Mom.

Violet

  03/08/14 - 01/03/26

Beautiful Violet crossed over the Rainbow Bridge Saturday evening, two months shy of her 12th birthday, surrounded by both her human family and her canine family.  To say Violet was the sweetest, "bestest" girl ever is an understatement.  Nicknamed our "forever puppy", Violet never passed up the opportunity for a game of tug with her own pups and grand pups. Violet is the mother to 11 pups from three small litters, six of her pups are local and a regular part of our lives.  Violet was a good Mama, and an incredible grandmother and was loved by all who had the pleasure to know her. Violet changed the trajectory of her human family in immeasurable ways, for every pup she raised she brought more humans into the Minors extended family. Then came her grand pups, both her daughter Ivy and son Appa had a litter in 2023 and 2025 and Violet made herself at home in the whelping box cleaning and stimulating pups from the onset, and continued to help out until all pups went to their forever homes. Violet loved to lick her human Moms feet too, a trait she and only she displayed. She loved stuffies, bones, treats, mealtime, walks, camping, hiking, swimming, chasing her tail, playing tug with her boys, smiling for photos, wearing props while smiling for photos, licking stinky puppies, and sleeping on her humans bed (they all like that :) ). Violet was predeceased by her Mama Chloe two years ago. Chloe left a huge hole in her families heart, but Violet helped them heal, and for the first time in 16 years they are both no longer with us. If you were one of the lucky ones to know them, don't hesitate to share your thoughts with us here on this post. 💜

Personal thoughts from Mama Joanne. Our family will cherish the memories of these two beautiful girls forever.  My previous blog post was of Chloe's death two years ago. My last statement was that I would post a slideshow of Chloe, which I never did. Time has a habit of marching on and sometimes I don't complete the things I want to complete. I do share on my business Facebook page, so please follow me there if you aren't already doing so.  https://www.facebook.com/minormomentsphotography

Every year at the start of the year I set my goals. Every year I say I want to blog more, for myself and for my friends who aren't on fb. I know what I need to do to work this goal, and this year I'm reprioritizing a few things to try and make it stick :) so with that said, I'm going to be a bit kinder to myself, give myself the proper amount of time I need to put together some beautiful photos and memories of my girls, and plan to share it right here next week.  As you can all imagine, I have so many beautiful photos, and even more beautiful memories, and chances are I am going to shed an enormous amount of tears while pulling this together. Once I successfully complete my next post, I may play a little catch up over the past couple of years and post some fun stuff too!! Overall I live a very blessed and positive life and want to share some of these blessings with you, right here!! Thank you for being here with me.

 

 

New Year Opportunities by A Maine Photographer

Hello and thank you to whomever may be reading this.  As a small entrepreneur I am very well aware that I must participate in putting content out into the world and letting people know I exist...and every January is another wake up call and chance to review how well I did...or how well I didn't do...

First off let me start with I am living a good life and doing my photography and scrapbooking thing on a  regular basis but I have been skimpy on the sharing on my blog platform...so again...new year...new goals...I'm excited to give sharing regularly a new go :)

First off I want to catch you up on my fall litter of puppies!  Three of them are local and one is gone to live up near Bar Harbor.  I ask each new home to let me be their facebook friend so I can watch these babies grow up and continue to love them in my own way because they all take a tiny piece of my heart with them as they go.

We have Oliver on the left, then Finley, Charlie and Appa

A family photo before the pups start heading to their homes

My husband doing a lunch classroom style learning session :)

This year I hired my own Santa...with all the Covid stuff going on I had no desire to leave the house! 

A little studio play with the last two pups to leave

Top photo is Finley with new family, then Oliver, then Appa , then Charlie!!!!

Appa's new home is with my son Nick and his girlfriend Carly, they live locally and Appa comes to visit his Mom and Nana a couple times a week!!  Also, Charlie's new home is with his big brother Cody!!  We are so happy to still share in our puppies lives!!

That's the big stuff.  We also got to celebrate Thanksgiving together and take a family photo for our Christmas card.

And I ended the year with a giant Birthday!  I've made all kinds of commitments to myself to try new things in 2022, but I ended the year with new also!

new kitty named Gizmo :)

first time visiting the beach in Maine on my birthday!

and my kids recreated a twenty year old photo shoot for me!

Now before I sign off on this post I will acknowledge in writing that I plan to return within the next few days to update what is going on in the new year of 2022!!  Once again, thank you for stopping by!

My Pink Bunny by Purple Ivy, Great Grandpup of A Maine Photographer

 My human Mommy bought me a pink bunny for Valentine's Day.

We all laughed at it cause it was so big...huge really.

We all played with it.

Nana, Mommy and me and my big brothers.

My pink bunny is not going to make it to Easter.

I'm hoping to get a new toy Easter Sunday...

Happy Easter Everyone!

Introducing Purple Ivy, A Maine Dog Photographer

 Hello.  It's been awhile.  Not sure if my hesitation to share this story was based on superstition or something else but never-the-less I did hesitate to share...and then I just was a bit embarrassed at my delay in sharing that I haven't gotten out of my own way to share...but today is a good day to share.

My blog is my space to share my photography, much of it professional work, but also much of it personal work too.  Lately all is personal.

I've shared over the years how Chloe (my 11 year old golden retriever) came into my life.  She came to us based solely on timing.  Her date of birth is my sister's date of death.

Chloe came to me with a contract.  She needed to breed a few litters...but she herself held a distinct title, her breeding name was "Third Times A Charm" because it took her Mom three tries at breeding before she came to be.

Fast forward to Violet.  A pup we kept from Chloe's first litter...invitro...also born after several attempts, and just a litter of three.

We kept Violet, in hopes of keeping Chloe's lineage going.  

Violet also has been a challenge to "get pregnant"

She had her first litter (just 4 pups) in 2017 and we have tried each year since to have another litter so we can again hope to keep this lineage going.

Some might understand this unlikely method I have of keeping my sister with me.

We were blessed this past fall to successfully breed Violet, naturally too, and we prayed we would have a girl pup so we could again have hopes of continuing the legacy Chloe created for us.

We scheduled an ultrasound to be sure and learned we were expecting three pups!

As the holidays approached we celebrated Chloe's 11th birthday and looked forward to the birth of Violet's litter, hoping we would have a girl to continue Chloe's legacy.  Violet's previous litter was a litter of three boys and one girl, so we told ourselves if it's meant to be it will be.  :)

The pups arrived on the afternoon of December 22nd!  I delivered the first alone, but was surrounded by family for the other two.  Chloe was front and center the entire time, not leaving Violet's side.  Two boys and a girl!  

The holidays were low key due to the pandemic but all was very right in our little house.

and Christmas...was perfect!

we had been watching The Mandalorian, and I thought this photo was funny :)

We did weekly photo shoots!

                                                                    one week old

                                                                    two weeks old

                                                                    three weeks old

                                                                        four weeks old 

           

                                                                        five weeks old 

                                                                            six weeks old

Whenever I did these photo shoots I always placed the puppies in birth order so I would know who they were in the photos.  As they got older we could tell them apart by their personalities and their physical differences.

Sully (his forever name) was our first born, we called him Frank (for Frankincense)...(Christmastime puppies).  Sully's head fur was fully "poofed" at all times which made him pretty recognizable at first glance, he's a bit larger than the other two and was always willing to be the first to try anything!!

Our girl name changed over a few times...we were searching for the right fit.  We tossed around Angel and Noelle for the Christmas theme...but say "no"elle enough times and we quickly realized it wasn't appropriate for our dog and chose the name Ivy as we got to know her...and found that it fit perfectly!!  And if we are lucky to someday breed her, Purple Ivy will speak for itself!!  To sum up her personality, she's a "spitfire"!!

Yeti (his forever name) was third born.  We called him Myrrh (or Mur)...again, think Christmas.  Yeti loved to play with his siblings, but he was also the first one to toddle back to the puppy room for some quiet time.

We managed a family photo the weekend before the pups went to their forever home...and a pup group photo with Nana, Mum, and brothers Cody and Brady.  We are hopeful that we will continue to bring these beauties into the world a little at a time.

Final group photos before separation!

Yeti left first...with Tim and Jana

...and lives about an hour a way, we are staying in touch and planning a play date soon!!

The next hour Sully left with Patti and Kevin... 

we also are staying in touch and planning a visit this summer.  Patty asked me to share that Sully is "the best pup"...and Joanne speaking here...no argument from me, these three little ones are amazing!!

I LOVE my puppy family, and the extended grown up family too!!  So grateful for social media and that we can all stay in each others lives and watch these beauties grow!!

Of course, Ivy is with us and fits in amazingly.

 

Chloe (11) Ivy 12 wks and Violet on her 7th birthday this past week :)