Hi! My name is Birdie. I am a black Lab and a studio dog. My mom, Katie Willoughby, is an artist. She paints and makes sculptures in Maitland, Florida. We live with my human sisters and Katie’s husband — he’s human, too.
Our family has had a lot of pets (too many, some might say) so my dad suggested we make some. This is how our art animal menagerie began. Katie sculpts them out of clay, then fires, paints and fuses beeswax on them and hangs them on the wall. She seems to want a real lot of pets around, even though I am the best one. She has me model on occasion. I enjoy the attention for a while, but then I go to sleep.
Most days my mom gets my human siblings off to school then we spend an hour walking around our neighborhood. We walk by a few creeks — one that has birds and occasionally river otters and alligators! They’re cute but creepy … so we don’t go near the water.
It’s very hot where we live, so afterward I jump into the cement pond at home and do a few laps. I fell in when I was a puppy, so it took me two years to try again. Now I love to swim. I still don’t submerge my head — I just drop my ball in and make the people fetch it from the bottom so they can throw it again. That’s why I call it fetch. This is my favorite game. Sometimes they seem worn out, which is weird. It really never gets old for me.
While I swim, Katie kills some plants and waters others. She calls this gardening. Afterward, I bring my very wet self in for a treat and sleep while Katie 153 works. Upon waking, I stand guard at the window to watch for squirrels … because you can’t be too careful. She lures them back with raw almonds, but I give them the stink eye to let them know who is really running the show around here — ME. And I say: NO SQUIRRELS!
I am currently sharing the house with two parakeets and four chickens. We’ve tried having them ride around on my back, but they don’t appreciate it. After a few minutes they fly away to focus on hanging out on curtain rods or clucking around in the yard. So, if Katie wants a painting or a sculpture of us together, she lets us sit separately. The fact of the matter: Birds are annoying (although I do love scrambled eggs).
In the afternoon, we go on another walk to visit my cousin dogs four doors down. They like to swim and hunt lizards with me. When Katie makes sculptures of them, she works from pictures because they lick her too much to get any art made. Not everyone is as good a model as I am.
Sometimes I ride in the car with Katie to Winter Park, about 10 minutes away, where she sells her sculptures at a cool shop/gallery called Haven Uncommon Goods. It’s right next to a giant park, so I really enjoy these important work errands.
Back at home when Katie takes a break to look up pictures on her phone, I get fully in her lap. You really can’t get too close in my opinion.
Katie used to leave all day to teach art. Her school closed during the pandemic, so my people added a studio onto the house. Now she can make and teach here. I really prefer the togetherness of it all.
In the summer they load me into the car, and we all drive to Sewanee, Tennessee, to visit family and our friends on a sheep farm. The sheep freak me out, but everyone says they are beautiful. Katie likes painting and photographing the sheep almost as much as she does me. When we are up there, I get to hike and chase deer and lightning bugs. The mountains are great but when summer ends I have to get back to my station in the art studio before the squirrels take over!
Hi! My name is Birdie. I am a black Lab and a studio dog. My mom, Katie Willoughby, is an artist. She paints and makes sculptures in Maitland, Florida. We live with my human sisters and Katie’s husband — he’s human, too.
Our family has had a lot of pets (too many, some might say) so my dad suggested we make some. This is how our art animal menagerie began. Katie sculpts them out of clay, then fires, paints and fuses beeswax on them and hangs them on the wall. She seems to want a real lot of pets around, even though I am the best one. She has me model on occasion. I enjoy the attention for a while, but then I go to sleep.
Most days my mom gets my human siblings off to school then we spend an hour walking around our neighborhood. We walk by a few creeks — one that has birds and occasionally river otters and alligators! They’re cute but creepy … so we don’t go near the water.
It’s very hot where we live, so afterward I jump into the cement pond at home and do a few laps. I fell in when I was a puppy, so it took me two years to try again. Now I love to swim. I still don’t submerge my head — I just drop my ball in and make the people fetch it from the bottom so they can throw it again. That’s why I call it fetch. This is my favorite game. Sometimes they seem worn out, which is weird. It really never gets old for me.
While I swim, Katie kills some plants and waters others. She calls this gardening. Afterward, I bring my very wet self in for a treat and sleep while Katie 153 works. Upon waking, I stand guard at the window to watch for squirrels … because you can’t be too careful. She lures them back with raw almonds, but I give them the stink eye to let them know who is really running the show around here — ME. And I say: NO SQUIRRELS!
I am currently sharing the house with two parakeets and four chickens. We’ve tried having them ride around on my back, but they don’t appreciate it. After a few minutes they fly away to focus on hanging out on curtain rods or clucking around in the yard. So, if Katie wants a painting or a sculpture of us together, she lets us sit separately. The fact of the matter: Birds are annoying (although I do love scrambled eggs).
In the afternoon, we go on another walk to visit my cousin dogs four doors down. They like to swim and hunt lizards with me. When Katie makes sculptures of them, she works from pictures because they lick her too much to get any art made. Not everyone is as good a model as I am.
Sometimes I ride in the car with Katie to Winter Park, about 10 minutes away, where she sells her sculptures at a cool shop/gallery called Haven Uncommon Goods. It’s right next to a giant park, so I really enjoy these important work errands.
Back at home when Katie takes a break to look up pictures on her phone, I get fully in her lap. You really can’t get too close in my opinion.
Katie used to leave all day to teach art. Her school closed during the pandemic, so my people added a studio onto the house. Now she can make and teach here. I really prefer the togetherness of it all.
In the summer they load me into the car, and we all drive to Sewanee, Tennessee, to visit family and our friends on a sheep farm. The sheep freak me out, but everyone says they are beautiful. Katie likes painting and photographing the sheep almost as much as she does me. When we are up there, I get to hike and chase deer and lightning bugs. The mountains are great but when summer ends I have to get back to my station in the art studio before the squirrels take over!
