Why "Heroes and Healers"? It all started for me in September of 2005. We lost our family Golden Retriever to cancer and I was really heartbroken. My wife, Evelyn, called me one day and simply said, "look at this photo". I went to the internet to a page and fell in love with the most caring eyes I had ever seen. I learned that day to love an animal as much as it could love me. Over the next 10 years Lily taught me to love unconditionally, forgive, and understand animals have a purpose greater than themselves. A little while after we found Lily, her half sister Bailey came into our lives and our lessons were doubled! Lily passed in January of 2016, Bailey in November of 2016, and there has been a hole in my heart ever since.

This year I am doing a presentation in NYC about photographing Dogs and I felt I wanted to take this opportunity to show and hopefully let others see the purpose of animals in our healing and often their purpose is that of what we consider hero quality.

Short term I want to capture images of these great animals, long term I want to help those organizations thrive in any way I can. Please follow along with me and these great animals on our journey. Please feel free to contact me with ideas or nominees for my project at bearwoodsphoto@gmail.com.

Lily August 2005-January 2016

Bailey August 2005-November 2016

Angels on Horseback, Therapeutic Riding Center, Jasper, Georgia. www.angelsonhorseback.org

Opus, Canine Companions for Independence, https://www.cci.org/assistance-dogs/Our-Dogs/

Butterscotch, HOPE AACR, Animal Assited Crisis Response https://www.hopeaacr.org/

Canine Assistants, https://www.canineassistants.org/

Shelby, NASDA, North Alabama Search Dog Association, https://www.nasdak9.org/