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I've never painted a pet portrait before. I've wanted to for a long time because I have a girlfriend whose cat died and I thought she might like to have a painting of him. But when I asked her for a photo of her cat pal, Nick-At-Night, the photo didn't do much for me so I never really did anything with it. But it's always been at the back of my mind.

Since I've been surfing around enjoying wonderful artist's blogs, I've seen some great pet portraits and it sort of rekindled my desire to paint someone's beloved animal. I could always paint my Rocky... (He's a sort of scary looking white pit bull who is so wussy and lovable that once you get past his initial looks, you'd never believe he was a pit bull at all.)

Well, over Christmas my daughter, Francesca, and her husband, Greg, came up with their HUGE and lively new young dog. Lulu's not actually a puppy anymore.... She acts like one and she weighs over 75 pounds now and is always in motion... except when she's asleep. Her tail is deadly but she's endearing and smart and... yes... she's cute. My Rocky is ten or eleven years old. Lulu is almost one year. Rocky loves to play, but Lulu did try his patience and more than once he told her in his own scary pit bull way to KNOCK IT OFF!

Both dogs got presents for Christmas. (Somehow Santa knew!!) Lulu's gift was a stretchy and squeaky monkey which she would bite and toss around. Bite, squeak, bite, squeak.. run a bit... rest a bit... bite, squeak. Okay, Lulu... knock it off!

I decided to paint her. I think my daughter will like the portrait. I thought about titling it "Lulu's First Christmas", but decided against it. I had fun adding colors in to Lulu's shiny black fur... and I think it looks like her.