It's a BIRTHDAY PARTY!!

Brandy & Brittany are turning one year old

....and we're celebrating!

Birthday Party & Adoption Day

Saturday, July 21st - From 9am 'til Noon.

At the Dog Shelter in Chouteau.

These sweet dogs have spent their entire lives in our shelter. They came to us at 8 weeks of age & are now turning a year old. Come out & celebrate with us & hear their story.

When you meet these two....get ready to be loved. They are both lovable lab mixes from the same litter. We'd love to find someone to adopt these gals together as they are very bonded to one another. They will fill your life with joy!!!

We are a no-kill shelter so....NO....they are in no danger of being killed....but they have never known the joy of just being a puppy, roaming the yard looking for bugs, playing with children...just being a normal dog. As great as our shelter is...they need a loving home to enjoy. Won't you give these 'invisible' dogs a chance?

Please come by & greet these two & share a piece of birthday cake!

Donations gladly accepted as birthday gifts!


As a birthday gift to these two dogs a donor has offered to cover their adoption fees!!

                                                                        Brittany

                                                                      Brittany

                                                                       Brittany

                                                                        Brandy

                                                                           Brandy

                                                                          Brandy

For more information regarding the birthday party/adoption event or to fill out an adoption application for Brandy, Brittany or both visit www.chouteaupoundpals.com

New Blog

Having spent some time at the Chouteau, OK pound photographing dogs that need their forever homes, I decided to start a new blog that focuses on shelter dogs and showcasing dogs that are looking for homes.
The particular rescue I have been helping is the Chouteau Pound Pals, a no-kill, non-profit shelter that is located in Chouteau, OK, a small town NE of Tulsa.  It is run mainly by volunteers, the Chouteau Animal Control Officer feeds the dogs and cleans the kennels.  Chouteau is a small town and the kennel, often times, is overloaded with dogs.  Even with the advent of the internet, which has had to have been a boon to every small town dog rescue in America, alot of the dogs have a fairly long stay.
Because alot of people prefer to look at dogs on websites such as Petfinder.com and narrow their choices down before meeting the dogs in person a good photograph can make the difference between
someone scrolling on by or stopping to read the description of the dog.  So I thought I might talk a little about photographing dogs.  If you are reading this and thinking about a way to help your local rescue, alot of them could use help with photographing.  It helps to have a nice DSLR, but if you all you have access to is a "point and shoot"...don't despair, just make the best of it!

1) Blurry photos....NOT. In this day and age of digital photography don't be stingy with your picture taking, it's not like it is costing you anything to develop!  Take ALOT of pics of each and every dog! The more you take, the more chances you have of getting something usable!

2) Get down to the dog's level, if you can't squat down or lay on the ground to take a pic...get in shape!  Dogs (and people, for that matter) photograph so much better at eye level.

3) Get them out of the kennel...put a leash on them and have someone take them outside. Three reasons; the first is the lighting will be better (on camera flashes are really only good for occasional fill lighting) and secondly alot of people will quickly scroll by the photographs of the dogs behind bars. The third...when you get the dogs outside they are much happier which shows in their photos and happy dog photos get looked at!

These are just a few tips for getting started.  As the blog progresses we will have more tips and I encourage those of you reading this to share tips and ideas that can help shelter dogs and the humans that volunteer for them.

On the next blog I will spotlight a dog (or two) from the Chouteau Pound!