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A bulging belly, a picture of an ultrasound and a glowing mother-to-be. Sounds like any other maternity shoot, right?
Well, yes, except in this case the expectant mother is a golden retriever – and her pregnancy pics are adorable enough to melt the hardest heart.
Lily-Mae was rescued from the streets of Houston, Texas, by animal foster carer Caitie Evers just a few days before the shoot.
Caitie gave her a loving home and arranged the photoshoot to raise awareness of animal welfare and to encourage people to think twice about how they treat their pets, Metro.co.uk reports.
“Lily-Mae got pregnant on the streets and it’s really lucky that we found her when we did,” Caitie says.
“If she’d given birth without a proper home, the pups would not have survived. They wouldn’t be able to handle the cold or any disease they may have contracted.”
In the shoot, Lily-Mae wears a flower crown, tied to the bottom of her face, and dons a maroon-coloured “skirt”.
In another photo, Caitie holds a mock baby scan to the camera which shows a puppy in Lily-Mae’s womb.
“It was my idea to do the shoot,” Caitie says.
“I’ve always wanted to do one because I thought it’d be a fun thing to do.
“My friend is a photographer so we headed up to our local park and just played about with some shots. They turned out really well. Lily-Mae seemed to have a good time.”
Caitie, a full-time teacher, took Lily-Mae in at the beginning of November but the pooch will permanently be adopted by Caitie’s mother so she has someone around most of the time.
Caitie has dedicated her free time to rescuing and fostering dogs in her area and over the past six years has saved 195 dogs and placed each in an adoptive home.
Stray dogs are a serious problem in Houston, she says, and she hopes Lily-Mae’s maternity shoot will “grab people’s attention about the seriousness of being a stray dog, especially a pregnant one”.
Lily-Mae’s eight puppies will be put up for adoption when they are old enough to be separated from their mom.
“I am really passionate about helping dogs and I just want
to do what I can to make them happy,” Caitie says.
“The puppies probably wouldn’t have survived without me. They will all go to a good home and that makes me happy.”
SOURCES: METRO.CO.UK, MIRROR.CO.UK, DAILYSTAR.CO.UK
