{"id":1273,"date":"2017-11-06T19:33:57","date_gmt":"2017-11-06T19:33:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thestandardps.com\/?p=1273"},"modified":"2017-11-06T19:33:57","modified_gmt":"2017-11-06T19:33:57","slug":"heartthrobs-and-hounds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thestandardps.com\/?p=1273","title":{"rendered":"HeartThrobs and Hounds"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Year of HeartThrobs and Hounds
\n<\/strong>By Larry Olsen<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Big or small, fluffy or shorthaired, young or old, everyone loves photos of adorable pooches. So what happens when you pair the cutest pups on earth \u2014 who just happen to be in need of forever homes \u2014 with beautiful, hunky men? The year\u2019s most buzzed-about calendar, that\u2019s what.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Photographer Mike Ruiz\u2019s 2018 calendar, \u201cHeartThrobs and Hounds,\u201d is thirteen months of perfection (1 bonus month in 2019) that will put a smile on your face every day of the new year.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mike Ruiz is a celebrity photographer whose clients include Kim Kardashian, Katy Perry, and even legendary pop icon Prince. In addition to his work in Hollywood, Ruiz is known for shooting top male fitness models. \u201cI admire men who have sculpted their bodies into works of art,\u201d he says. \u201cIt takes incredible skill and knowledge to form human tissue to near perfection. Photographing their work is quite gratifying to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The hunks in \u201cHeartThrobs and Hounds\u201d are some of the biggest male fitness models working today including James Alexander Ellis, Dragos Sykos, Myles Leask and cover-model Mike O\u2019Hearn. Each has hundreds of thousands of followers online as well as a personal link to animal advocacy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mike Ruiz, too, is an animal rescue rockstar.   He saved Oliver, a beautiful pit bull who had been left for dead, five years ago. Through Oliver, Mike was inspired to help other dogs like him by fusing his two passions \u2014 photography and dogs in need \u2014 together into an annual calendar.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The dogs that appear in the calendar were chosen at random and represent only a fraction of those in need. \u201cWe get multiple calls and emails every week from people looking to re-home or surrender their pets,\u201d says Nancy Flint, the founder of Fur Friends in Need, a foster-based rescue organization that was introduced to Mike Ruiz through animal advocate, Millie Acosta. \u201cWe try our best to help as many of these animals as possible so they do not end up at kill shelters. We also reach out to local shelters to see which animals are on the TBD list (To Be Destroyed) to see if we can match them with appropriate foster homes before it\u2019s too late.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why we urge people to consider fostering animals,\u201d she continues. \u201cThe more fosters we have, the more animal lives we can save.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Michele Schafer from Lilo’s Promise Animal Rescue, the other beneficiary for this year\u2019s calendar, agrees. \u201cWhen a person fosters a dog, they are saving two lives: the dog they welcome into their home and the dog that takes that dog’s place in the shelter.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Flint and Schafer hope the \u201cHeartThrobs and Hounds\u201d 2018 calendar helps to shatter misconceptions about rescue animals. \u201cPeople mistakenly assume it is the fault of the animal that it ended up being surrendered or abandoned,\u201d says Flint. \u201cI would say 90% of our animals have no issues whatsoever. It\u2019s their humans who have failed them.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Adds Schafer, \u201cShelter pets are not second hand goods. There are amazing animals in shelters all over the US, including Aladdin and Bordeaux who are featured in the calendar. They simply need a little love to shine!\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Every dollar made from the sale of the \u201cHeartThrobs and Hounds\u201d 2018 calendar will go directly to Fur Friends in Need and Lilo’s Promise animal rescues. \u201cThe calendar makes a perfect holiday gift for any human being with eyes and a pulse, and it brings awareness to our furry friends in need,\u201d says Mike Ruiz.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mike Ruiz\u2019s 2018 calendar, \u201cHeartThrobs and Hounds,\u201d is available for only $19.99 at http:\/\/www.furfriendsinneed.com or http:\/\/bit.ly\/MIkeRuiz2018Calendar<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Year of HeartThrobs and Hounds By Larry Olsen   Big or small, fluffy or shorthaired, young or old, everyone loves photos of adorable pooches. So what happens when you pair the cutest pups on earth \u2014 who just happen to be in need of forever homes \u2014 with beautiful, hunky men? The year\u2019s most buzzed-about calendar, that\u2019s what.   Photographer Mike Ruiz\u2019s 2018 calendar, \u201cHeartThrobs and Hounds,\u201d is thirteen months of perfection (1 bonus month in 2019) that will put a smile on your face every day of the new year.   Mike Ruiz is a celebrity photographer whose clients include Kim Kardashian, Katy Perry, and even legendary pop icon Prince. In addition to his work in Hollywood, Ruiz is known for shooting top male fitness models. \u201cI admire men who have sculpted their bodies into works of art,\u201d he says. \u201cIt takes incredible skill and knowledge to form human tissue to near perfection. Photographing their work is quite gratifying to me.\u201d   The hunks in \u201cHeartThrobs and Hounds\u201d are some of the biggest male fitness models working today including James Alexander Ellis, Dragos Sykos, Myles Leask and cover-model Mike O\u2019Hearn. Each has hundreds of thousands of followers online […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1274,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1697,1698,1702,1694,1701,1695,1699,1704,1696,1703,1700],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thestandardps.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1273"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thestandardps.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thestandardps.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thestandardps.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thestandardps.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1273"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thestandardps.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1275,"href":"https:\/\/www.thestandardps.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1273\/revisions\/1275"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thestandardps.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thestandardps.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thestandardps.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thestandardps.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}