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Cesar's Way 13

  

“To me, Frank honors their fundamental nature as animals, dogs, breeds, and finally as individuals. That is the exquisite magic of what he does as a photographic portrait artist.” — Cesar Millan, in the foreward to Compawssion: Portraits of Rescued Dogs

 

Compawssion is a collection of moving, black and white portraits of rescued dogs that reminds us that the world can be largely unaware ofor insensitive to the woeful mistreatment of animals. In compiling the book, photographer Frank Bruynbroek interviewed twenty-five public figures about what it means to rescue, save, and care for a dog, and how it has had a positive impact on their lives.

 

Frank first met Cesar Millan over a decade ago. He was instantly charmed by Cesar's authenticity and pedagogical approach, and was impressed and inspired by his pack of forty dogs. Frank soon asked Cesar if he would consider writing the foreword for his book. The result, Frank noted, “Was an acute and distinctive testament of my work’s true meaning.” 

 

This oversized 160 page hardcover book contains more than one hundred photographs and three chapters of stories, including a foreword written by Cesar Millan. Other celebrity contributors include Jillian Barberie, Kim Basinger, Jackie Chan, Ellen DeGeneres, Josh Duhamel, Dr. Jane Goodall, Emmylou Harris, Katherine Heigl, Diane Keaton, Ali MacGraw, and Sharon Osbourne, among others.

 

Compawssion: Portraits of Rescued Dogs is available to purchase from the book’s official web site. A percentage of the proceeds from each book will benefit organizations that rescue, rehabilitate, and rehome abused and abandoned dogs, including the Cesar Millan Foundation. (Select Cesar Millan Foundation at checkout and they will receive an additional five percent.) Frank Bruynbroek has also produced a 2013 calendar featuring photographs from the book, which also benefits dogs in need.

 

Good Morning America and George Stephanopoulos recently selected Compawssion for their best gifts list. For more information on Cesar’s involvement with the book or to order, visit the Compawssion site.

 

Read more: http://www.cesarsway.com/dogrescue/foundationnews/Compawssion-Getting-the-Big-Picture-on-Rescued-Dogs#ixzz2GfLdoIpA


 

Compawssion: Portraits Of Rescued Dogs on YouTube 1

 

Tee & me 2

When Aja passed I was mourning her for a long, long time. It was like a window in my heart where the wind blew me apart. In the middle of the emotional storm I manifested that I needed to honor her by expanding my heart, and I decided to foster a dog in need. Divine synchronicity again... I come home, I turn on my computer and there's a message for my friend Sylva Kelegian, devoted rescuer extraordinaire. She sent me a picture of a dog looking straight at me with those eyes, you have seen those eyes, you know what I'm talking about! A few hours later Sylva is in my yard with Tony, rescued from a landfill in North Hollywood. A few litters later, surviving scars on her forehead, Tony has a broken leg with a cast on it. She has no manners. She doesn't really know what a house is. Sylva is leaving. Tony howls. She knows that her life savior is not coming back. Oh boy, another misfit, she's gonna be a hand-full. Great, now what am I going to do? "Well, it's just you and me. I'll keep you until your cast comes off young lady, and I am not going to call you Tony, even if it's for a few weeks, it'll be Tee. Yeah, that's right, don't look at me like that, it's Tee now. Don't ask me why." Tee knew right away that she could persuade me to never let her go. The seduction game was on. She worked at it and worked at it, and she relentlessly worked at it until my guard was down. Tee's magic was stronger than my resistance. She wrapped me around her paw like a pro. Thank you Sylva. Tee's an amazing dog, and I need more than a thousand words to describe our extraordinary bond.


- Frank Bruynbroek

Shannon Tweed Has Compawssion 1

 

Cesar Millan has Compawssion 0

 

When I first met Cesar Millan I was immediately charmed, not by his TV personality. "The Dog Whisperer" show was not created yet. I was charmed by Cesar's authenticity. As a former elementary school teacher myself, I thought that Cesar's pedagogical approach was very similar to mine. The way I like to teach and the way I like to be treated. I was looking to interview personalities with rescued dogs. A friend of mine told me about this trainer extraordinaire who had a big compound downtown Los Angeles called The Dog Psychology Center. I sent a sample of my work, and within a few days I got a call from Cesar Millan himself, who agreed to meet. The encounter with him and his pack of 40 dogs was very impressive to say the least. We walked. We talked and talked, and at the end of the interview, out of the blue, I asked him if he would consider writing the foreword for my book. He had to think about it. When I told my friends that I had asked this man to write the foreword, unanimously, they all said that I should have waited to meet a real celebrity, somebody with clout, someone popular. In my heart I didn't care. My intuition told me that he was a perfect match for the book. When Cesar agreed to do it, I put it on the back burner. I didn't ask him to write it immediately. My book was not even close to being finished. Five years later I had a few interviews under my belt. In the meantime Cesar's popularity had gone through the roof. When I asked him again this time, if he could write a few words for my book, I honestly expected that he had changed his mind, or that he was going to write a few words of no real meaning or significance, just to keep his agreement. Au contraire. The first time I laid eyes on what Cesar wrote it made me so emotional. It was such an acute and distinctive testament of my works true meaning. I was baffled and impressed. A few years later I was asked by his producers to shoot a poster with Cesar regarding the very idea that caught my attention in the first place: "Exercise, Discipline and Affection"...In that order. I really like the resulting poster. And, I'm pleased to know that Cesar will use it in his next book. Our paths keep crossing... that's what I recognize as "divine synchronicities".

 

- Frank  

Bobby & me 2

 

I fostered Bobby for almost a year before he was adopted by an amazing couple. I couldn't keep him because I already had three dogs at that time. He was very imposing, but the most gentle dog ever, such a lover. The best. Every Sunday the people from the adoption program would come to pick him up, and he hated it. He would sit in the back of the van staring at me through the window, as if he was telling me that he didn't want to go. That morning it was raining, I took the shot.

- Frank