It’s time to ditch the boring dinner and a movie idea and impress your valentine with something new. Here’s how to make sure this Valentine’s Day is one your love will never forget. 

A Guest Blog by Valerie Howes 

Valerie Howes is a photographer and dog lover. She runs the instagram account @valhowesdogphotos, where you can see her gorgeous photos of dogs living their best life on Fogo Island, where she lived for almost two years. She recently returned to Toronto and founded Wild + Ruff Dog Photography, a boutique service offering bespoke wall art and albums of dogs in natural settings. 

A Guest Blog by Valerie Howes

The first time I saw my dog Piña, it was in a photo, sent by the high-kill shelter where she was residing in Texas. She looked filthy, as did her cement-floored enclosure (there are more than a million stray dogs in Houston, Texas, alone, and the shelters are overwhelmed). Her eyes were covered in a blue-white film, as if she were a senior dog with cataracts, only this muppet-haired little terrier mix was estimated to be just one year old.