My friend owned her first Jack Russell Terrier since he was a puppy, and I’ve known him most of his life. I took this photograph with my digital phone because I thought his sleeping pose was hilarious.

When I looked at it, my minds eye turned it upside down, and saw a photo art opportunity. I used the image as the basis of a little present for her – Jack the Angel. She loved it when I sent it to her by email later that week.

What we didn’t know then is that Jack had cancer.  She found out a few months later. Devastated, she asked me to go on a little adventure with them one day while she took him for a special trip to the park. I was to take as many photos and videos as I could, so she’d have something to remember him with. It was a late summer day, with beautiful blue skies and a breeze. As sad as the day was, knowing he’d soon be gone, it was also one of the loveliest.

The following Christmas, I created a memorial poster for her, as a gift. I took the best photos of her Jack, and arranged them in an 18″x24″ design, with his name, and had it printed on heavy photographic paper. She can frame it however she wants, and keep him nearby. And she’ll always have Jack the Angel to look over her.