Couple welcomes puppy to family with paw-dorable photo shoot
WARRENSBURG, Missouri -- These proud fur-baby parents wanted to announce their new pup Raven in a special way.
So, Kennedy Sartwell and Jake Terry of Warrensburg, Missouri, had a gender reveal photo shoot to show off their new addition to the family.
"I've been looking for a puppy for quite a while and I've been wanting to do some way to announce it to the world," Kennedy, 19, told ABC News. "Mom and I were coming up with ideas and thought of a (sex) reveal."
The black lab and German shepherd mix had a blast being the center of attention, and as the photos show... She was pooped after her big shoot
"It was the dog's photo shoot and she ran the show," said Kennedy.
Kennedy's mom, Cristy Sartwell, was the photographer who took the pictures.
Cristy said it was nice to work with her daughter, but said she had to squeeze the 45-minute photo shoot in between finishing up senior portraits.
"It definitely was fun, but I can't take all the credit, it was all Kennedy," she said.
The photos quickly became an online sensation and have been shared more than 150,000 times on Facebook.
"It was a quick shoot for Jake and Kennedy to show their puppy to their family and friends, and we had no intention of this," she said. "But it's exciting."
Kennedy and Jake, who have been together for almost five years, hope to capture each of Raven's milestones moving forward.
Cristy never thought that the photos would go viral, but she said that she's happy they are bringing joy to the world or at least to the internet.
"If a puppy can bring us together for a little bit then why not," she said. "It's really neat what photography can do for people and the emotion it can bring, that's why I love this job."
The couple chose to name their puppy Raven because that was also the name of Cristy's very first dog, who just happened but to be a full lab.
"We didn't know how my mom would feel about it and we brought her over to the house and she said, 'Aww, you should name her Raven,'" said Kennedy.
Cristy said this isn't the world's first puppy gender reveal and said it certainly won't be the last.
"With the way the world is going, I think we're going to be seeing a lot more puppy gender reveals in the future," she said.
ABC News contributed to this post.
