It’s fall at BarkPost, baby. And you know what that means. Hot, greased-up studs taking it off to save dogs in need. Is there anything sexier?
We didn’t think so.
So we decided to bring you the hottest, hound-doggiest dudes with dogs we could find: combat veterans. They fought for the security of the nation, and now they’re fighting for a few good dogs. Shirtless.
To learn all we could, we went directly to the source of the much-anticipated calendar Heartthrobs And Hound Dogs 2016. Professional photographer Ricki Beason earned her stripes in the hot-dudes-with-dogs community with her 2015 Heartthrobs And Hound Dogs, which was a mashup of sexy firefighters and rescue pups.
After the success of her 2015 calendar, Ricki noticed that firefighters-with-dogs calendars were becoming very popular, but also repetitive. She decided that another group of hot guys had earned their chance in the spotlight.
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“I started doing research on military veteran calendars and realized that there are no calendars that feature veterans,” Ricki told BarkPost. “To me this seemed absurd.”
After determining that veterans would feature in her next project, the relationship between veterans and dogs began to seem more significant than just attractive dogs with attractive men.
“I definitely want to make a connection between rescue dogs and veterans. So often in media there is a misconception about both. A large part of society looks down on rescue or shelter dogs because they didn’t come from a 5 star breeder… I used veterans because I want them to be seen in a positive light, demonstrating how they continue to help and volunteer their time for a good cause and doing their part again to make the world we live in a better, safer, and happier place for everyone.”
The calendar features 12 different veterans hailing from all branches of the U.S. military. “These men aren’t male models or actors,” Ricki said. “They are real life heroes.”
And speaking of heroes, Ricki will be donating 100% of the proceeds from the calendar to shelters in her Texas homeland, including rescues in Dallas, Houston, and Austin.
Ricki made a point of sharing that the veterans are not the only ones in the calendar with compelling stories. “The dogs are all amazing animals,” she said. “All of these dogs have stories of being mistreated but they continue to be loving and forgiving animals with hearts of gold.”
And she also made sure to tell us that many of the calendar rescue pups are up for adoption. 🙂 (More below.)
Ricki let us know that production has wrapped on 2016 Heartthrobs And Hound Dogs and calendars are available for pre-order today. In the meantime, you’ll just have to bookmark this article to get your heaping helping of hunk from BarkPost until the calendar hits the press!
If you’re interested in adopting any of the dogs featured in the calendar, you can find a list of relevant shelters below.
