When Rio’s dad contacted about doing a Joy Session, he had just happened across my site via Twitter. A few days prior, the 13.5 year-old Husky girl was found to have a massive chest tumor that was growing rapidly. Two days later we did the session, and two days after that, they had to let her go.

I had to laugh when, in his initial email, Rio’s dad described her as such: “She is a bit of a challenge, with dim eyesight and limited flexibility, coupled with a life-long love of being obstinate.” That was the Rio I met, to a T. She refused to sit or lay down, often wandering away from us for seemingly no reason, with very little care of the photo shoot in general. Her face was quite swollen, so she didn’t really look like herself, but I thought she was beautiful.  She loved to hike, loved her little brother, Wizard, and loved her dads so, so much. Rio is and will be greatly missed.

This is Wizard, Rio’s little brother….

Goodbye, Rio. You were a very good girl.