I have known Michelle for a couple of years now.  We met through Twitter, through a shared friend circle and through our love of tattoos.
Michelle adopted Milly the Bull Mastiff around 11 years ago whilst she was still living in Canada.  When Michelle emigrated, Milly came too, first spending 30 days in quarantine.

Recently Milly was diagnosed with cancer of the cartilage.  There are options for treatment however they are pretty invasive.  Michelle has decided that the rest of Millys life should be about cuddles, carrots and car rides when possible – all the nice things in life.

I’d been tweeting a little about the Sessions in the Park when Michelle replied back to me and said “I wish I was in the Tron” (the Tron being Hamilton, where I am based).  And I thought about it for a moment, I could get to Wellington but with short notice, it wasn’t going to be cheap.  And then I remembered Givealittle.

Givealittle is a zero fees fundraising service owned by the Telecom Foundation.  You can create a cause and publish that cause and hopefully raise some of the money that you need.
I thought I was being a little cheeky when I created ‘Let’s Shoot Milly‘ but it was worth a shot.  I was being completely honest in my intentions; I set my target at $400 to cover flights to and from Wellington, taxis if needed and to cover some of the costs for printing some photographs for Michelle to keep.  I would cover the rest of the travel costs and we would go from there.  Little did I know.

We smashed that target.  In 75 minutes, we had the $400.00.  I grabbed some money from my savings account and booked my leave and my flights.  In 24 hours, we had $745.00.  But it wasn’t just the money.  It was the messages.  Michelle was in tears – people were sending the most amazing words with their donations.  We kept repeating “people are awesome, people are awesome’.  And indeed they are.

I flew to Wellington on Monday night and stayed at home with Milly and Michelle and Megan.  The next day we enjoyed a creamy cloudy Wellington waterfront, sunshine in Milly’s favourite spot at home and then a walk through the Kaitoke Reserve to Rivendell (home of the fairies in the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings movies).

I am just so glad we were given the opportunity to take these photographs by the 32 donations we received.