Meet Kismet, Princess and Model Extraordinaire

Years ago I discovered my love for photography. At the ripe old age of 11, my parents helped me buy my first "real" camera. It was a Canon film camera with a detachable lens that I bought from one of my dad's friend's wife who was a professional photographer. I was unstoppable! I had a professional camera, spent all of my allowance on film, and I was taking pictures of everything! Fast forward to today and while I don't have to spend money on film, I am still taking pictures of pretty much everything. But my absolute favorite thing to photograph? Animals!

This is where I introduce my princess, Kismet. Kismet came into my life when I needed her most. I had lost my heart dog Jazz in February 2019 suddenly when she started having seizures and they didn't stop. Jazz had been with me through high school, college, meeting my husband, all of the hard years of my life. And suddenly she was gone. Yes, at the time I had 2 other dogs, Diesel and Ruger, who I love immensely, but there was an extra special bond between Jazz and me. And I was now outnumbered in the house, 3 males and me the only female. I wasn't sure when my heart would be ready to add another member to our pack, but I knew 2 things for sure, it must be a female and a rescue in honor of Jazz being a rescue. One day I just happened to be looking through photos of dogs available for adoption at Saving Grace here in NC. A little black and tan German Shepherd that the rescue called Kismet caught my eye. I just had to meet her. My husband and I made an appointment to meet her that weekend. However, the rescue warned us that they didn't hold dogs and that she may be gone when we got there. All week I kept checking the site to see if she was still showing available and when Saturday finally came around I was a nervous wreck that we would get to the rescue and she would have already been adopted. We arrived at the rescue and when the rescue volunteer asked if we had a particular dog in mind, we asked for Kismet. Amazingly she was still there! The volunteer stated she would let her whole group out and then we could take her to one of the smaller fenced areas for the meet and greet. When the volunteer let all the dogs out of her little kennel area, Kismet saw us and immediately came over. I knew immediately that she belonged with us. We told the volunteer and spent time interacting with Kismet while they got the paperwork together. She hadn't been spayed yet, so we couldn't take her home that day, but she was pushed up to the next spay day and we would be able to pick her up the next Thursday. On the way home, we were unsure about the name Kismet, but I decided to google it and see the meaning. Kismet - noun, destiny; fate. Well after a sign like that, you can't change the name. We brought Kismet home and she instantly not only fit into the pack, but started bossing the boys around even though they were both larger than she was.