08/13/2026
FOR ZEUS...
Back in 2014 when The Walking Dead was a cultural juggernaut I was friends with Darlene who works with the Georgia English Bulldog Rescue crew. She lived close to some of the filming locations and she was in a relationship with one of the set crew who I’ll call Max. He was responsible for location prep for the show. Max knew the cast and producers who were really into animal rescue and at one point I heard there was a chance that the rescue was going to the set offices of TWD to talk about their rescue. How freaking cool!
Darlene told me that her boyfriend knows one of the executive producers of TWD named Jolly Dale who is very much a dog lover and I should give her one of my prints from the Tattoos & Rescues project (the SAVE THEM photo). I quickly had one printed and had Major (the dog in the photo) pawtograph it for her. I thought if nothing else people would see it and maybe strike up a conversation about rescue. You never know.
A few weeks later after learning about the potential visit for the rescue my brain came up with an idea. I've been a fan of Greg Nicotero's FX work and thought it would be cool to meet him (hey I can dream too). I know he is a huge fan of Night of the Living Dead director George Romero. DING! What if I mimic'd one of the original movie posters of Night of the Living Dead but called it Night of the Living Adoptable Bulldog? Go for it! You have to be be a little bit dingy to be creative.
I found the perfect poster. It had a red background, white text, the model has a yellow overlay, and it was just what I was looking for. I had also just finished a photo shoot with some of the dogs from GEBR and I had the perfect pose from the perfect model named Zeus. You can see how perfect he is in the attached Side-by-Side attached photo. After I finished what I wanted to do and showed the image to a few friends who liked it I asked Max to give the print to Greg if he had the chance.
A few weeks passed and I saw Max at Darlene’s house and asked him about the print. He said he didn’t give it to Greg because the print was “Night of the Living Dead” and this was “The Walking Dead.” I guess the point of this story is to never let people talk for you because he had no idea what I was trying to say to Greg. I was crushed because I knew it would have made an impression.
Needless to say, nothing ever came of it and I’m not even sure Greg ever saw the print. It was a long shot really but to know it never reached the intended audience makes me sad. I know for a fact that a lot of dogs could have benefited from working with the crew of that show because like-minded people are very hard to find.
I do think this story should be told because of the incredible work that rescues do every day and the obstacles they face are sometimes not as easy to identify. Sometimes the obstacles are in plain sight behind the eyes of a person who claims support but lacks imagination to make a difference. English Bulldogs are one of my heart breeds, I love all dogs, but I have a special place in my heart for EB’s because I don’t know how they fit so much personality and so much gas in to such a tiny body.
I recently learned that Zeus passed away a few years ago and I also wanted to share this story with his memory because he was very sweet and such a clown as is typical of the breed. This is not the only time I have tried to create marketing for rescues and been either ignored or dismissed. I’m sad to say those experiences left a bad taste in my mouth for the rescue world, and I’m not involved as much as I used to be. I can see how rescue workers can feel like what they do is putting a band-aid on cancer if for no other reason than bad marketing and lack of imagination. Not all of them are like that and anyone who works in rescue you have my undying support and empathy.
