Hi,
You have posted some really great pics of your fur kids. This a link to a free program that I use for some of the things I do. It's best feature is the sorting, labeling and keeping track.
It also does a pretty good job of editing photos and never touches the orgingal. Try it on some of your shadowed pictures. Choose the picture to edit and then pick the tuneing tab. You have three choices fill, highlights and shadows. pick either the fill or highlights and brighten them. You can undo if you don't like.
Hope this helps,
Skippy
http://picasa.google.com/PS It will shrink them for e-mailing, not the orginal and should work with your default mail program.