Megan Blake

BIG $ FOR VALENTINE’S DAY…AWARDS SEASON…BACK TO SCHOOL

/ Louis Spirito / Leave a comment

According to a blurb in The Week magazine (Feb. 6, 2015) the National Retail Federation predicts that Americans will spend $700 million on Valentine’s Day gifts…for their pets. Speaking of gifts, if you’re having a tough time shopping for that special dog lover in your life, consider a book.

@ Amazon.com

While the Dog Writer’s Association of American writing awards are still two weeks off, the Malibu Times ran a nice piece on yours truly, and our dear friend Megan Blake, who are  nominated in the online article and radio show categories. Megan, who hosts the awesome A Super Smiley Adventure on PetLife Radio, interviewed us when Gimme Shelter first debuted. Eugenie, Tanner and I plan to celebrate the DWAA event with her, husband Kim, and her pups, Super Smiley and Angel. 

This past Tuesday, Eugenie and I met with Pepperdine University Professor Ginger Rosenkrans’ senior marketing class to field questions from the student teams that will be designing a comprehensive marketing campaign for GIMME SHELTER as their class project. The class was so enthusiastic and insightful! We can’t wait to see what they devise for us. The only tough moment came when one student asked what kind of cell phone I have. Red-faced, I mumbled that I still use a pay-as-you-go flip phone. The students looked away in pity for this out of step tech dinosaur. 

Lou with the Pepperdine University marketing students

A few weeks back, an L.A. Times article by Abby Sewell reported that L.A. County Supervisors are considering upgrading the county’s 6 outdated animal shelters. Here’s hoping they follow through and make life more bearable for the tens of thousands of dogs and cats they house each year. According to the story, 50 % are eventually euthanized, 43 % are adopted, and  only 8% are reunited with their owners. 

former shelter dog Tanner with his best pal, Charlie, and Lou

DOGS ARE PEOPLE, (AND HEROES) TOO

/ Louis Spirito / 1 Comment

This was a great week for those of us who roll on 4 legs, and our human friends.  First, Elle a Pit Bull (yes, a pit bull!) was named 2013 ‘Hero Dog’ by the American Humane Association. Making it even better, our friends and dog park pals, Megan Blake and Smiley were there to co-host the gala.

Megan and Super Smiley with last year’s emcee, stage superstar Kristin Chenoweth

Then there was a moving piece in the Huffingtom Post about a woman who rescued a wounded Pit Bull and took to Craig’s List to chide the dog’s abusive former owners. Be advised, Kleenex necessary.

Mama Jade
Finally, in case you think I have a pit bull agenda (moi?) that runs toward saccharine, my hard-nosed ‘dad, Lou asked me to include this story from the New York Times about Gregory Berns, a neuroscientist from Emory University whose work is proving what we’ve known since the first dog strolled into the first human encampment, that  DOG ARE PEOPLE, TOO. – “For the past two years, my colleagues and I have been training dogs to go in an M.R.I. scanner — completely awake and unrestrained. Our goal has been to determine how dogs’ brains work and, even more important, what they think of us humans. Now, after training and scanning a dozen dogs, my one inescapable conclusion is this: dogs are people, too.” (read the article & watch the video)

With Tanner and his girl, ‘Lola’ Mazza – Whatever Lola Wants, Lola Gets!