JaiAllyson.Com Photography Jackson TN

Check out the new photography website! Please visit JaiAllyson.Com to see the newest photographs by this mother and daughter photography team and to purchase prints and greeting cards from these Jackson, TN photographers.

We're looking forward to bringing you fabulous imagery in 2010 of our favorite subjects - animals, birds, flowers, pets, wildlife, nature and still life.

German Shepherd Owners Who Feed Royal Canin Take Note!

I'm one of the many satisfied German Shepherd owners who finally was able to get my dog regulated by feeding the Royal Canin German Shepherd food. I thought all was well...until...

...We bought the most recent bag of food. Attached to the bag is a small paper. It kind of looks like a coupon or promotional thing. I would have never noticed it...but my daughter pulled it off the bag and showed it to me.

Much to my surprise (and disgust), the company is changing the formula for their German Shepherd food. Yes, this is the food that has gotten many 5 star reviews from German Shepherd owners like myself. It's the food which has regulated our dog's sensitive tummy issues. (which, I might add, stomach issues cost me THOUSANDS in vet bills over the past 3 years until I got him on this food!)

So what is Royal Canin doing that's so bad? According to this little note - which gives you detailed instructions on how to "switch" your dog over to a new food - they are changing the ingredients to include PORK and WHEAT. It's not clear whether this change is replacing the super-stable chicken and rice - or if it's just adding to it.

I have a sensitive stomach too. I do well on chicken. I *rarely* eat pork because it causes ME stomach upset. My German Shepherd is a house dog only - do I want to take the chance on switching him to a food that can cause stomach issues? NO WAY! Not to mention the wheat...what is the company thinking? They supposedly created this dog food especially for the German Shepherd breed - who is known to have stomach and skin issues. My mother is allergic to wheat. She can have rice. Wheat gives her incredibly horrible stomach issues!

Why switch from chicken and rice (that works well) to pork and wheat? Am I the only one out here who thinks this is insane???? I did a google search and couldn't find any German Shepherd owners who are feeding this food talking about this. Of course, this note just appeared on the dog food bag this week. Other owners may not have found out about it yet. I'm sure when they do, there will be an uproar.

I have visited the Royal Canin web site and written them an email with my extreme dissatisfaction with this decision. And I will not be feeding my dog pork and wheat. So the search begins for a new dog food.

So far, the best food with the best reviews with limited ingredients I can find in my area is Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance Limited Ingredient Diets. They have one which has chicken and it has sweet potato instead of rice. I think this is the one I will try to switch to. Reviews have been awesome of their limited ingredient diets. And being I have a guy with a sensitive stomach, I don't really want to switch to a food with tons of new ingredients...I want to keep it as basic as possible.

I guess it's a worthless cause to hope Royal Canin would change their mind on this decision. By the time they do, they probably will have lost so many customers to other brands, it most likely wouldn't make a difference anyway.

NOTE: The photo of the new formula bag is shown here - note the ingredients still reflect chicken/rice and not pork and wheat gluten.

UPDATE: I have received the new ingredient list from Royal Canin. I am posting it here for your reference:

New German shepherd

chicken meal, brown rice, oatmeal, chicken fat,barley, rice, natural chicken flavor, pork meal, soy protein isolate, sodium silico aluminate, wheat gluten meal, dried beet pulp (sugar removed), powdered cellulose, anchovy oil (source of EPA/DHA), soya oil, potassium chloride, salt, calcium carbonate, dried egg product, sodium tripolyphosphate, DL-methionine, L-tyrosine, taurine, dried brewers yeast extract (source of mannan-oligo-saccharides), vitamins [DL-alpha tocopherol acetate (source of vitamin E), inositol, niacin supplement, L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), D-calcium panthotenate, biotin, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), riboflavin supplement (vitamin B2), thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), vitamin A acetate, folic acid, vitamin B12 supplement, vitamin D3 supplement], choline chloride, glucosamine hydrochloride, marigold extract (Tagetes erecta L.), Trace minerals [zinc proteinate, zinc oxide, ferrous sulfate, manganese proteinate, copper proteinate, copper sulfate, manganous oxide, calcium iodate, sodium selenite], tea (green tea extract), chondroitin sulfate, preserved with natural mixed tocopherols, rosemary extract and citric acid.

They said "We added both the pork and wheat gluten to help with the digestion of the formula." (which makes no sense to me...why mess with a food that gets 5 star reviews by making these additions??)

This is the current ingredient list:

Ingredients: Chicken meal, brown rice, rice, chicken fat, oatmeal, soy protein isolate, natural chicken flavor, powdered cellulose, dried beet pulp (sugar removed), sodium silico aluminate, anchovy oil (source of DHA), soya oil, potassium chloride, calcium carbonate, dried egg product, sodium tripolyphosphate, DL-methionine, L-tyrosine, taurine*, salt, dried brewers yeast extract (source of mannan-oligosaccharides), vitamins [DL-alpha tocopherol (source of vitamin E), L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of vitamin C*), inositol, niacin, L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of vitamin C2), D-calcium pantothenate, biotin, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), riboflavin (vitamin B2) supplement, thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), vitamin A acetate, folic acid, vitamin B12 supplement, vitamin D3 supplement], choline chloride, glucosamine hydrochloride*, marigold extract (Calendula officinalis L.), Trace minerals [zinc proteinate, zinc oxide, ferrous sulfate, manganese proteinate, copper proteinate, copper sulfate, manganous oxide, calcium iodate, sodium selenite], tea (green tea extract), chondroitin sulfate*, preserved with mixed tocopherols (source of vitamin E) and citric acid, rosemary extract.

So - it appears the pork meal and wheat gluten are *additions* - not *replacements* for the chicken and rice. Are they far enough down on the ingredient list to not be in a large enough quantity to cause a problem?

Have a Maine Coon Christmas

Our Sassy, the stray Maine Coon, makes a beautiful model in his Santa hat for Christmas. His painting turned out fabulous, but what do you expect with a subject that's so handsome? :)

Sassy's Christmas portrait is available on a variety of fun gift items at the GalleryJai.Com shop.

buy unique gifts at Zazzle

New Painting: Too Much Tuna

This painting features a rare glimpse into Pistol's life. Most of our photos of him are crap, due to him being an indoor-only cat -- and due to the fact our house has poor lighting in the room he's normally in -- we always have to use a flash. Which distorts his colors and features. With him being a solid black cat, it makes it even worse!

Allyson had captured the below photo of him on Paul's bed. He was sitting (laying?) is his OH-MY-I'M-SO-STUFFED position. Despite the fact he doesn't eat tuna fish or anything other than his normal cat chow, I could "see him" with an empty can of tuna to go with his bloated look in the photo. So I decided to do a painting of him -- in the way I thought the scene should look.

I've titled this painting "Too Much Tuna". Cards, prints and other cool gifts are available at the GalleryJai.Com shop on Zazzle.

Life Lessons from a Cat 24 Month Calendar

I finished Oreo's new calendar and it's now available via Zazzle. Click below to see all the photos you get and words of wisdom from little Oreo. Even though she's gone, she will live on through her photos and messages! Individual greeting cards, note cards, mousepads, fine art prints, and collectible packs of ACEO art trading cards are also available with Oreo's Life Lessons here.

Life Lessons from a Cat Calendar

Oreo's Last Photos

The last two photos taken of Oreo...the first photo is the last GOOD photo of her, and the second one is the very last photo taken of her. I love how she has her tongue sticking out in that one...it's almost like she's sending a message.

Animal Advocacy - Stop Animal Cruelty

In memory of Oreo and all the other pets and animals who have lost their lives at the hands of a human with no disregard for living beings, I have created a line of animal advocacy products to help bring awareness to this issue.

View the product and gift line here.

JusticeForOreo.Com

Murdering innocent pets and wildlife is a crime. Please visit JusticeforOreo.Com and help me get justice for my pets.

Justice for Oreo

I'm doing everything I can to get justice for my baby girl.

I finally called animal control myself, since I heard nothing from them. I was told I needed to speak with this man at the Dept. of Agriculture because a wild animal was killed (so far there has been one dog found, one cat (Oreo), one squirrel and the possum). The possum was the only physical evidence here. An officer from the state of TN called me and then came out.

The TN Dept of Agriculture officer was here over 2 hours. They
apparently do a very thorough investigation when wildlife has been killed.

The possum is on his way to Nashville where they will do a big battery of tests
to determine how he died. If they find poison, then the neighborhood
investigation will begin, which from what I understood him to say, they will
talk to everyone as well as search property for evidence of poison and/or other
dead animals.

The man wrote up a big affadavit I had to sign, took photos of EVERYTHING
including my posters I had put up for the missing cats. He also had the
neighbor that owns the property the possum was laying on (right
next door to the lunatic) sign an affadavit as to the possum being on his
property and giving permission for the officer to remove it.

This same lady (and her husband - now deceased) is reported to have poisoned this man's nephew's dogs 6 years ago. The nephew lived on another street with a
yard that backs up to the lunatic. The dogs were purebred search and rescue
dogs and dropped dead IN THEIR OWN FENCED YARD. That guy turned over every
stone to get her and her husband held accountable, but they didn't have enough
proof. BUT...even though there was also tons of dead wildlife in the yards here
at that time, no one ever called the wildlife commission or animal control or Dept of Agriculture!

These people are SUPER SERIOUS about wildlife poisonings/killings.

It might be a while until I find out anything on their findings. I'll get a
letter, he said. In the meantime, if more dead animals appear, I'll have to
contact the police each time. I've told all the neighbors and gave them my
incident # with the police so if THEY see one in their yard, they can call and
report it too.

This lady has messed with the wrong cats here. And the wrong person. We're thinking of putting up a reward sign for information leading to the conviction of the person who is poisoning domestic and wild animals in our neighborhood. A LOT of people saw my posters, and just maybe, someone who knows more or who has witnessed her doing it will come forward. The woman has a BIG MOUTH and I'm SURE she told someone what she was putting out as bait and where she is putting it.

I want justice for Oreo. And I don't want any other animals killed by this murderer. How can a person be so cruel and then so heartless as to throw my cat in the garbage, KNOWING I had posters out and was missing her? She is sick. SICK SICK SICK. I don't ever want to see her face again (except as they tote her off to jail, perhaps). I know I won't see her in heaven, because animal killers like this surely will go to hell.

UPDATE: Oreo's murder

I filed a police report this morning about Oreo's murder and also took the police officer and showed her the dead possum.

They are calling animal control about the possum.

According to the Tennessee code, if it can be proven that she is intentionally
killing these animals, she can be fined $2500-$300,000 and serve time in jail. PROVE is the key word though...it's VERY hard to do with poisoning. The police told me not to go ON her property, but I can go all around it with my camera and if I see a dead animal (domestic or wild) I am to photograph it and call them immediately.

They had me assess a value on Oreo. I showed them some of her published works
(calendar, book, and greeting cards) and told them this cat earned me about
$2,500 in the past year and that we have had at least another $500 in vet bills for
her, as well as food expense.

I went back to one of the neighbors this morning and gave her my incident # the
police gave me, and told her if any more people report animals dead or if they
see any more dead over there, to call the police and report it and refer to that
#. If they get enough reports of animals dead in her yard or nearby, they can
zone in on the lady easier. It's just a shame more animals will probably have to
die to stop this. I also told the officer I was letting all of my neighbors
know - she said that was fine for me to do.

I'm thinking about putting another poster up - just not sure what to say on it? I thought about a reward for verifiable information about the poisoning of domestic and wild animals in our neighborhood. I also thought of simply writing "THOU SHALT NOT KILL" on it. She told me she is a "born again Christian" (after she screamed at me and threatened my other animals, as well as threatened the neighbors animals) As a Christian woman, she surely has seen that phrase before.

OREO has been murdered

I found out today that Oreo has been murdered by a very cruel woman who is putting out poison in her yard - on PURPOSE - to kill any animal that wanders into her yard. She's killed Oreo, a dog, a possum and a squirrel. And she probably killed Mr. T as well.

I found this out through an anonymous phone call from a neighbor of mine.

The woman lives on Rebel Rd. in Jackson TN.

I don't know what I can do, but I'm going to start with filing a police report in the morning. I'm also going to get in touch with the wildlife commission, since she has also killed wildlife. According to the Tennessee code, there could be some serious fines involved. I'm sure it has to be proven, and I will certainly work on THAT.

I cannot believe my baby is gone, and so maliciously by the hands of this person who dares to call herself a Christian to my face today.

Tennessee § 39-14-201 et seq.** Cruelty to animals Intentional killing of animal

Class A Misdemeanor Considered theft (ranges from Class A Misdemeanor to Class B Felony)

$2,500 $2500 to $300,000

11 months, 29 days 11 months to 12 years

Lost cat in Jackson TN

I haven't posted here in so long because of all the turmoil going on with my life. And I'm sad to report in this post that my little baby Oreo is missing. It's been a week ago tomorrow that she's been gone, and we have no clue as to where she is. It's just like POOF, she up and disappeared.

If you're from Jackson, TN and reading this and you've seen her, please email me! She's small and long hair, and weighs 7lbs. And she's so sweet! We want her to come home.

Also, my black male cat, Mr. T., is also missing. His photo is below. He's a big boy, also long hair, with the longest white whiskers you've ever seen. He's a big pet...loves to sit on the lap and get petted. He's been gone 8 days.

I find it awful strange two of my cats have disappeared the same week. Oreo is spayed, but she still likes to roam around the neighborhood. I'm hoping a kind neighbor took her in and will see my posters I've put up and call me with her whereabouts.

Mr. T. is NOT neutered. He's been with us over a year now. And he's never been one to disappear. I think someone has befriended him as well and possibly taken him in, because he's just a big ole pet.

Both cats live in the south Jackson area near Southside high school behind Freds/Goodwill.

If you've seen either of them, please email me!

Yummy French Toast Breakfast

A new addition to my favorite things series...
yummy french toast and bacon. :)

Sassy the Maine Coon Cat

We've determined that our newest feline, Sassy, is a Maine Coon. He weighs in the heaviest, at 13 lbs. Though Mr. T and Nikko look heavier...Sassy wins.

He's such a fun cat...happy go-lucky with some delightful expressions and actions. We read they act like dogs sometimes...following owners around, playing fetch, and even doing tricks. Allyson put it to the test and she taught this cat how to "high five"...yep, in under 24 hours he learned how to high five. It's cute. Really cute!

Sassy's advice for today? If it itches, scratch it.

Aren't I just the prettiest boy?

Sorry I've been neglectful in posting new photos lately. I've been so busy working on my jewelry website and trying to eek out a living that I haven't had much time for anything else. Hopefully that will change soon! I'll try to get an update on all the pets posted this week. If you get tired of pets, I could upload a photo of my son with his chickenpox. :) --Jai

God's Word, Shared by Feline Friends, a photography book

Please check out my new photography book!

God's Word

Shared by Feline F...

By Jai Johnson

Book Preview

Unsigned copies can be purchased by clicking the preview box above...signed copies are available at my website.

All 64 of the God's Word cat photos with Bible verses are being made available in my Zazzle store on cards, prints, postcards, business/calling cards, and mousepads for your gift giving needs as well!

Frogs

From the Things I Love Series of Photos

Gemstones, Wire & Coffee

From my Things I Love series of photographs

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

From my Things I Love series of photographs

I also made these business cards on Zazzle (totally customizable for your bakery or food biz!):

Bakery Business Cards by jaisjewels

Update on Lady #2

We made it through another night with no incidents. Lady is calm...calmer than I'd like, as I was enjoying her energy and playfulness over the past 2 months. She is still alert, and her stomach seems calm and she wants to eat. Yesterday, she didn't have a BM. This morning on the walk, she did, and it definitely wasn't normal yet (never thought I'd be so interested in POOP...LOL). BUT, it was better than it had been before her vet visit, and she didn't appear to be straining or cramping at all. Also, since she had a BM, it appears that the food IS passing through her intestines...which is good because that must mean she doesn't have a blockage. Or if she does have a partial blockage, it hasn't gotten worse. This is a good sign!

We are still seeking donations to help with her vet bills and medications, as we are not in a good enough financial condition to pay them. It's really great the state can help people when they're in financial straits...but sad they can't help the pets. If you can help, it will be greatly appreciated! Just click the donate button below...even $1 will help!

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Please Help My Dog Lady!

This week, I got seriously ill! I had to spend the night in the hospital and the vet suspects an intusseception. They won't know for sure without doing surgery on me to check me out inside. The good news is it's not a total blockage. The bad news is my owner cannot afford the surgery. So they've sent me home with 3 bottles of pills and special food. And my owner now owes a lot of money just for that and the tests they did! Can you help me? Every little bit will help and I would surely appreciate it because I've been doing so much better over the past two months and I want to keep feeling better!

Click the button below if you can help by making a donation - every little bit helps and THANK YOU! Woof!

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Trip to the Safari Park 2009

I hope you enjoy this photo journal of our trip to the safari park in Alamo, TN! We had a great time! Click on the photos to see them larger.

We were greeted by this fella. He's quite handsome, don't you think?

Aw...sweet...Momma and baby Zebra.
Uh oh, Momma Zebra wants treats...

Maybe I'll try the guy in the front seat...

Got food?

No treats? Phooey on you!

I was glad these Kangaroos were fenced...they probably would have been jumping all over the car!

Hello!

Taking a Sunday afternoon nap

Hey Dude, if I give you my Elvis look, will ya gimme a treat?

Yeah, I'm pretty and I know it!

Dude! I'm over here!

We thought this was a bale of hay...when we got closer, we saw it was a buffalo!

I'm backkkkkkkk!

You stay there, we'll stay here, and no none will get hurt.

Just got my hair done...whaddya think?

Hey Ethel...you see all these crazy people taking our photos?

I'm starting to think we shoulda gone to Hollywood!

Lucy, you really think we could be famous? Wow!

Can I have a little privacy puh-le-eze?

How many ya think I got in here? C'mon...go ahead and guess!

I am not responsible for her condition...I swear!

Admit it...you wish you had nails like mine!

I see some peacock feather earrings coming out of this deal. :)

If you won't open this lock, I'll just chew it up!

Hello, my name is Jerry. Got any carrots?

The highlight of the day...a one day old Caspian Mule. CUTE CUTE CUTE!

Hello. Goodbye. I can say more, but that's all you're gettin' today.

And you thought the three little pigs was just a fairytale.

A sheep sharing words of wisdom with a pig, who appears to be sleeping through it all.

They call me Santa Claus.

This spider monkey was quite friendly. He wanted to shake everyone's hand. A moment later, that little boy in the photo decided to lean over the rail and hang his head down. Oops...monkey apparently also liked to grab hair. Screaming ensued. Guess that's why they have that warning sign up there. Hmmmm.

All in all, it was a fabulous day! Hope you enjoyed the photos. :)