BDogs PET PORTRAIT PROGRAM

What is it?

In October 2020, Michelle Sturrock and a generous benefactor put their noggins together and came up with this amazing idea of supplying a memorial portrait to those members whose darling dogs had passed away. Previously, I was sending a card and chocolates.

Since inception, where Megan Jen's dog Jonesy was the first, BDogs has commissioned over 300 portraits and for the first 4 years the bulk of these were funded privately by two very generous benefactors.

Early in 2025, we did a callout in the group for member support/contributions and I am thrilled to say that most of the 2025 commissions were funded by these member donations. No longer do we have to rely on just one or two people!

The way it works is when the member posts of their loss, I contact them and ask for their home address and 3 or 4 of their favourite photos of their dog. I pass this information on to the artist and they then work on and complete the masterpiece. Once completed, they are framed and hand delivered to the recipient by the artist.

Michelle "retired" from this beautiful, yet time-consuming program and we now have a team of 4 artists who are: Karen Williamson, Chris Chapman, his daughter Sidney Chapman, and Heidi Hannah

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Since the new team of artists took over from Michelle in November 2025, they have completed 54 portraits up until now. That is a total of $8,100.00 we have gifted in just 11 months.

How do we fund this program? We periodically do a call out in the group for monetary donations whilst I also collect $10 per Business Membership. We have an amazingly generous community.

The aim of this program is to bring comfort, understanding and maybe even a smile amongst the tears and heartbreak.

To show that people care.

To help connect community.

Take a look at this video and see some of the amazing portraits we have gifted.