Dog Photography Helps Local Animal Shelter

By Melissa Maynarich, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- A woman's love for her pet and a few snaps of her camera are making a difference for a local pound.

Some say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but in the short time it takes to snap a few photos, it's not too hard for Melissa Rawlings to get any pooch to pose.

Although to some people, her job is difficult to understand.

"'You're a what? You're a dog photographer? You don't take pictures of kids or babies or seniors?'" dog photographer Melissa Rawlings said people often ask her.

There are no humans in Melissa's snapshots. But she does consider her baby to be this Siberian Husky/German Sheppard mix named Kyla, who she picked up at the pound a year and a half ago.

Her idea to take photographs of her furry family member was catching on.

"They turned out great, so people started asking me to take pictures of their dogs and it started from there," Rawlings said.

Soon, she was compiling composites for a book, the pages, filled with photographs of rescued animals. All proceeds from her photography book "The Rescued" go to the Edmond Animal Shelter and Paws for Life.

"I knew that she wasn't going to be able to come on a weekly basis and help at the shelter. And so when she offered that, she's a very giving person," said Mary Robertson with Paws for Life.

The money raised is helping to cut down on euthanizing animals and sustaining them until they have a home, so that dogs like Kyla, who had once been sitting on adoption row for 2 whole months, will be cared for properly while they wait for the perfect family.

See Melissa Rawlings' photography and learn more about "The Rescued."