How the idea was conceived

During the winter months of early 2005 an idea was born for a calendar. A calendar with a difference. A calendar containing pictures of our Greyhounds and some of those we have fostered since June 2004. However, we wanted the calendar to be somewhat different from the norm - but what!

The idea finally came when Stuart was looking through the many thousands of pictures he's taken over the years. This picture of me and our lovely, much missed Penny was taken at our son's wedding in October 2002. We would create a theme of rescued Greyhounds with pretty girls!

We posted adverts on some model forums looking for girls who liked and felt comfortable amongst dogs and would like to pose alongside our four legged friends. The response was fantastic. At this point our idea seemed to gain a momentum of its own, with emails arriving on a daily basis with models asking questions like “ When can I pose with the Greyhounds? ”

We wanted to produce a classy, sophisticated, family calendar for all ages and walks of life that would be suitable for gifts as well as for the home and office. We wanted to donate a portion of each one sold to Greyhound Rescue so the more calendars we sold the more unwanted Greyhounds we could help.

They say never work with children or animals and yes, that is so true, for in addition to including a few 'outake' shots there are also some 'fun' shots. The photo shoots were often long and tiring for we not only encouraged the models to feel comfortable and relaxed with the dogs, we also helped the dogs feel relaxed and comfortable with the models and their often unusual surroundings. Although they were long and tiring days we tried to make them 'a fun day out' for the dogs, especially as some had only been with us a short time including Sandy who did his photo shoot the day after he came to us and Moss, whom we started to foster on the Saturday afternoon and did his photo shoot on the Monday. Others came back to us for the day from their new homes and we hope they found it an enjoyable day out and not too unsettling for them. Whilst getting the actual calendar shots and acquiring a number of outake and fun shots a long the way Stuart also took some somewhat saucy, but not rude photographs for inclusion on Bob's web site , which you may want to look at.

We hope you enjoy these photographs as much as we all enjoyed taking them and please remember to buy as many calendars as you can for the more we sell the larger the donation to Greyhound Rescue and the more unwanted Greyhounds we can help - and that's what it's all about!

Comments from the models