Pinups for Pitbulls

Deirdre Franklin thinks it's no accident that her fellow burlesque dancers and pinup models feel a kinship with pit bulls.

"They're people who chose to be on the outside and do it their way, who are used to being the underdog," she said. "They identify with the pitbull - they want to change the stereotype."

Changing the stereotype is one thing that Franklin - her stage name is Little Darling - hopes to do with her calendar, "Pinups for Pitbulls." Her other goal is to beat last year's total of more than $10,000 raised to support pit bull rescue.

Her involvement with bully breed rescue started with one dog that she wasn't able to save, when a woman brought a stray pit bull into an animal shelter where Franklin was a volunteer.

"She thought she was saving its life by bringing it in," Franklin said. "I took the dog and put her in the kennel - she was a sweetheart, totally gentle." But the shelter had a policy of euthanizing all pit bulls, and would neither let Franklin adopt the dog nor release it to a pit bull rescue.

Franklin's anger at the death led her to adopt another pit bull from a rescue group. With no experience with the breed, she was fearful. But the dog she adopted, Carla Lou, who'd been left for dead in a Texas basement, "came right out of the cage and was an angel," Franklin said.

Beautiful and quirky in their high heels, red lipstick, and in many cases, elaborate tattoos, these women are more than eye candy.

Models go through an application process to get into the calendar, and the photos feature them with their own dogs and text telling their stories, from heartbreaking rescue tales to one model's description of her dog wagging her tail "so hard that her butt wiggles."

The models must take part in fundraising events, too. Franklin says most dancers don't go to school to learn burlesque, so they're accustomed to doing research and creating their own routines to new and old music. "It's their art form," Franklin says. "They work very hard to create something that's only two minutes long and no one might see again."

By Linda Lombardi/savannahnow.com