For Kathy Smith, one pet is not enough. The pet owner from Corwen, Wales, is a true pet lover, with an astonishing 17 animals. That’s a lot of feeding, grooming, and care, especially considering she also has a child. She works so well with her pets that she was able to do something that many might consider almost impossible to pull off.

Not only was she able to get them all to sit still for a group photo, but she also was able to get all 17 to look at the camera at the same time. How exactly was she able to pull off this amazing feat?

Smith decides to take a photo of all of her cats and dogs

All told, Smith owns a total of eight dogs and nine cats. She also has four budgies, a few fish, and a baby hedgehog, oh, and on top of that, she has a young son. The task was not a simple one, according to Smith. She figured she would start with one group of animals at a time to see if she could convince them to sit still long enough to get their picture.

She broke the animals up into cats and dogs to see if she could get them in place

Starting with her eight dogs — Ben, Ruby, Sheba, Max, Teddy, Rio, Storm, and Mishka — she tried to get them to sit still. Surprisingly, they all seemed to latch onto the idea pretty quickly. Next, she would have to tackle the truly difficult task of getting all nine of her cats to sit still for the photograph.

It was not as easy as it sounded

At first, she did not know if she would be able to succeed or not. Cats are notorious for their independent natures and do whatever they want, whenever they want. The cats kept moving around on Smith, who had to put them back in place at least three times.

Eventually, she was able to get the perfect shot

Then, miraculously, for a split second, the stars aligned just right. All 17 of her pets sat completely still and looked directly at the camera at the same time. What she took was a photograph for the ages.

“I was so thrilled when I realized I’d captured this shot – it’s like a little family photo,” Kathy said.

How to get your dog to sit still for a photo

While taking a photo of your pet might seem impossible, you do have some methods you can use to get them to sit still long enough to get their picture. Start by trying to use treats as a reward for sitting still. Dogs, especially, love tasty treats … cats do too.

You also need to have plenty of patience with your pet and might consider practicing with them by taking a few practice photos beforehand. Once you do have them in place, use noise to get their attention so that they look at you and the camera. You can also use toys for this purpose, or anything bright and shiny.

If at first, you don’t succeed, keep trying. All it takes is one success to get a great photo of your pets. Check out the video below for eight tips on taking photographs of dogs.

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Source: COOPH

H/T: Paw My Gosh, Bored Panda, Redbarn