Petfinder Blog

Carrie Underwood proved herself a devoted dog-lover recently when she rescued an injured dog abandoned on an interstate highway. (Read the full story on PeoplePets.com.)

The country star blogged about the rescue on her fan club site on Dec. 30. She wrote that, while driving between Oklahoma and Tennessee, she spotted two dogs on the highway median. "My guess is that the dogs were thrown out of their car by their owners on the highway," she wrote.

She pulled over and, when one of the dogs started wagging her tail, she put the "limping" and "bloody" pup in her car. The other dog, unfortunately, was dead.

Underwood, already mom to dogs Ace and Penny, named the rescued dog Stella (one of 2011's most popular adoptable-pet names!), brought her to an emergency vet and got her groomed.

PeoplePets reports: "On New Year's day, she updated her fans with a progress report: Stella was getting house trained, recovering from her road rash and getting her teeth cleaned."

After the jump: Find out what happened to Stella.

Don't take it personally if you apply to adopt a dog and the shelter or rescue group requires a home visit. Even George Clooney got one.

The actor tells Esquire he adopted his Cocker Spaniel mix, Einstein, from a shelter a year and a half ago.

So I go online and see Einstein. They had a whole film about him. It was actually really sweet. You see him all beat up and [stuff] in the shelter, and they show how they cleaned him up. God, I love this dog. So I called and said, "I like Einstein!"

The woman goes, "Well, we don't know if Einstein will like you."

"Well, can I meet with Einstein?"

"Yes, we'll bring him to your house, but if he doesn't like you, he can't stay. We have to have good homes for these dogs." She sounded very serious. (Read the full article.)

After the jump: Find out how George won Einstein over, plus: A pic of George with his pup.

Teen superstars Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber recently adopted a dog from a Canadian shelter, PEOPLEPets reports.

The shelter, D'Arcy's A.R.C. (Animal Rescue Center) in Winnipeg, still has 43 adoptable pets posted on Petfinder, including Bradley Cooper (pictured).

Gomez and Bieber are both longtime pet-adoption advocates -- she has five rescued dogs and he has filmed several pro-adoption PSAs for PETA.

Their newest family member is a 10-week-old Husky mix they named Baylor. The couple fell in love with him during a visit to the shelter while Gomez was in Winnipeg for a concert.

"They spent a lot of time with the puppies,"
the organization's CEO, D'Arcy Johnston, told PEOPLE. "I was told that [Gomez] was missing the dogs that she has at home."

Still, Johnston was surprised when the singer decided to adopt Baylor on the spot. Gomez was screened like any other adopter and took the puppy with her that day. (Visit PEOPLEPets.com for a photo of her and Baylor taken in London, Ontario.)

British soul singer Joss Stone is in NYC and fostering a senior Pit Bull for local shelter Animal Haven!

"She was looking for a low-key dog that needed out of the shelter but could handle being in the recording studio with her during the day," Animal Haven's Jennifer Bristol tells PEOPLEPets.com.

The dog who fit the bill was Oprah, a 6-year-old Mastiff/Pit Bull mix who's described on her Petfinder profile as "a big, mellow girl with a lot of love to give."

"I thought it would be nice to foster Oprah because she's so, so sweet," Stone says in the YouTube video above. "And I can't take her home because I live so far away, and I have four dogs of my own."

Canada's prime minister, Stephen Harper, recently adopted a kitten from the Ottowa Humane Society.

Then, in a truly democratic move, he decided to let the public name the cat. Fans of Harper's Facebook page were asked to vote for one of six names: Smokie, Vingt-quatre, Stanley, Earl Grey, Griffin and Gandalf. One soon became the clear favorite.

"Stanley is the winning name! Thank you to those who voted," Harper announced on Facebook in June. "We encourage everyone to adopt their animals from the many wonderful animal shelters across the country."

On Friday, Harper posted the below video of Stanley to his Google+ page. But Stanley isn't the only homeless pet to
benefit from Harper's advocacy: The PM is a longtime cat foster parent who has sections on his official website about fostering pets and pet adoption (including a weekly featured adoptable pet). To which we can only say, Go, Canada!  



Tell us: Would knowing a politician adopted a pet help sway your vote?

On Friday, Prince William and Kate Middleton will begin their lives as a married couple. What could make their happily ever after even happier? Adopting a pet!

The pair could adopt a Cocker Spaniel friend for Kate's Cocker, Otto, or a Corgi, which would please William's grandmother, Queen Elizabeth (she currently has four Corgis and three Corgi-Dachshund mixes, according to the royal family's official website).

If Kate and William want to consider other pets worthy of royalty, they could follow the lead of the Chinese and adopt a Pekingese -- the dogs were treated like royalty during the T'ang Dynasty (700-1000 A.D.). Or they could adopt a Pug, the breed favored in France by Marie Antoinette and the Empress Josephine.

Before Pugs took over as the English royal breed during the Victorian era, monarchs such as Charles II, and Mary Queen of Scots had Cavalier King Charles Spaniels -- Charles, the breed's namesake, loved his dogs so much, he was accused of neglecting his royal responsibilities for them.

Whatever dog they choose -- or even if they decide to break with tradition and adopt a cat! -- the prince and his new princess can find their perfect pet at a shelter or rescue group. Here are some of the more than 300,000 adoptable pets posted on Petfinder who could make fabulous additions to the royal couple's family:

Helin Jung is an associate editor at PEOPLEPets.com. She adopted her dog, a senior Maltese named Ethel, from the Humane Society of New York in 2009. She lives in Queens.

At PEOPLEPets.com, we hear about lots of stars who love their pets, many of them shelter cats and dogs. But on Adopt the Internet Day, we think it's fitting to call out a few of the celebrities who go out of their way to speak out for homeless pets -- and do all they can to find forever homes for them. Meet them below:

Alyssa Milano
When the Twitter maven found out about Scooby-Roo, an abandoned, two-legged mutt with Fuzzy Recue in L.A., She helped get him a custom-made cart to help with his rehabilitation. Milano then invited the dog to her home, where Scooby-Roo wheeled around the yard and met the actress's 10 horses. And her fans know all about it: Milano often Tweets to her 1.4 million followers about pets in need of homes. Read more about Alyssa Milano and Scooby-Roo.

We love it when celebrities promote pet adoption. So I was thrilled to learn that one of my favorite actors, Lost star Jorge Garcia, just adopted two rescue dogs he found on Petfinder.

Even better, he gives a step-by-step description of the adoption process, complete with adorable photos of the dogs, Pip and Smidge. (Read Jorge's blog post about the adoption here.)

Jorge adopted the pups from Cuddly
Canines in LaHabra Heights, CA. We wish Jorge, his girlfriend Beth and their two new family members a long life of happiness together. Thank you for helping two little rescue pups!

Here's another great PSA in honor of Adopt-A-Shelter-Dog Month. This one features pro-wrestling superstars Afa "the Wild Samoan" Anoa'i, WXW women's champion Miss Kimberly and WXW tag team champ Easy G on behalf of Orange County Animal Services in Orlando, FL.

Like us, our pals over at American Humane are celebrating Adopt-A-Dog Month ('round these parts we call it Adopt-A-Shelter-Dog Month), and they've produced this great PSA starring Peter Fonda, now playing on YouTube.

I'm always happy to see a celeb promoting pet adoption, even if they also get in a plug for their next project -- in this case, Fonda is starring in the upcoming movie Smitty, about a city kid who learns a valuable lesson from a shelter dog.

Congrats to American Humane and Mr. Fonda on a moving and, we hope, effective public service announcement!   

I'm so excited to see the new Tim Burton-helmed Alice in Wonderland -- and even more so after reading that shelter bunnies played a role in filming!

According to a press release from Walt Disney Pictures:

Tim Burton wanted the animal characters in Wonderland to appear real rather than cartoony. So before creating the White Rabbit, animators spent a day at a rabbit shelter for abandoned rabbits, observing the animals and shooting photo reference footage to ensure they captured the nuances of rabbits chewing and wriggling their noses.

There are more than 5,000 bunnies for adoption on Petfinder. Could one of them be "late, late, for a very important date" with you?

As many commenters to this blog have already noted, news emerged this weekend that Oprah Winfrey, after adopting a cocker spaniel puppy from PAWS Chicago, adopted a second dog, her puppy Sadie's littermate Ivan, who died of parvo.

As PeoplePets.com reports:

Ivan ... came down with a deadly virus called Parvo last Wednesday and died, said Dr. Jean Dobbs, the veterinarian who [is treating] Sadie since she was exposed.

"It was just a little bit too late. All the veterinary community got together to save his life," Dr. Dobbs told PEOPLE Pets. "The puppy didn't make it, but he's teaching others how important this is to get vaccinated at the right times."

Dr. Dobbs, who founded Hemopet, a non-profit animal blood bank [which also posts adoptable Greyhounds on Petfinder - ED], said that she thinks the shelter and vets did everything right, but that Ivan was exposed between two critical shots.

Oprah introduced her new adopted puppy, Sadie, on her show on Friday. What a cutie! Oprah and Alexandra Wentworth also give some great props to shelter pets and urge viewers to adopt. (See more on Oprah's Web site.)

In other, sadder celebrity pet news, Martha Stewart's new puppy was killed along with 16 other dogs in an explosion at a Pennsylvania kennel / breeding facility.

Previous entry:

Oprah Winfrey adopts a dog from PAWS Chicago

Oprah Winfrey has adopted a cocker spaniel puppy from Petfinder member PAWS Chicago, a rep for the shelter tells Us Weekly.

According to Usmagazine.com, Oprah "adopted an 8-week-old blonde-colored cocker spaniel on Sunday. ... The pup -- one of a litter of six -- was named Amanda by shelter staff, but [shelter rep Lisa] Nowak isn't sure if Winfrey renamed her."

This is, of course, great news for adoption advocates! Oprah vowed her next dog would come from a shelter during her episode last year that exposed the horrors of puppy mills (and featured Bill Smith of Petfinder member Main Line Animal Rescue).

Of course we're thrilled that she's made good on her promise -- but she'd become a bona fide pet adoption advocate even before this week:
 

• She donated to PAWS Chicago in honor of her late cocker spaniel, Sophie.
• She aired a show recently about Yorkies rescued from a puppy mill in Missouri.
• Her Web site features a photo gallery of her employees' rescued pets.

Check out this cute photo of The Hills star Lauren Conrad with her adopted dog, Chloe (courtesy of CelebrityDogBlog).

I'm always on the lookout for celebrities who've adopted pets -- especially ones who are popular with young people and can counteract the influence of the Paris Hiltons of the world -- so it's great to see a fashion icon like LC showing that saving a life is always in style.

Conrad, also the proud parent of a rescued cat, adopted Chloe in March, writing on her MySpace blog:

On Monday, I got a puppy from the pound. She is the cutest puppy ever! Her name is Chloe. She is a lab/shepherd mix.

I'm not getting much sleep because she thinks nighttime is play time! Ashes (my cat) is not thrilled with her, but I think they will become friends. (Usmagazine.com)

Congrats to LC on finding such a sweet pet. (Although judging from this photo, she may want to check out our video, Teaching Your Dog to Walk on a Leash.)

I recently wrote about how Barack Obama reportedly promised his daughters a dog after the election. Since then, Best Friends Animal Society has gotten 45,000 signatures on its petition urging the Obamas to adopt.

Now we'd like you to nominate a Petfinder dog for the Obamas! Just leave a comment with a link to that dog and an explanation of why you think he or she would be a good fit.

My candidate? Pride (right), an American bulldog-pit mix at Chicago Canine Rescue. Why? He's from Chicago, like the Obamas. He's a pit, so he knows what it's like to be misunderstood. His last family lost their home -- so he can help Obama stay in touch with the common person's financial troubles. He misses being part of a family with small children. And Pride -- you can't ask for a more American name than that!

To add to the list of celebrities who support pet adoption: British pop singer Lily Allen posted on her MySpace blog on Monday about her plan to adopt a dog.

She writes:

I'm getting a dog from Battersea dogs home, i found her on the weekend, and after a visit from a rehoming officer hopefully, i'll have her by next week. She's called Honey and she's quite fat (insert dogs like their owners joke here), but very sweet, she's a mongrel.

There were so many Staffordshire Bullies there it was so sad. People should really think about getting puppies from breeders or breeding them for that matter, if you saw all those poor dogs without a home with their sad little faces, you wouldn't even think about buying dogs from people who profit.

Hooray for Lily! A celebrity who saves a life by adopting a pet is a real star in my book!

Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States, recently wrote on his blog that Barack Obama has promised his daughters they can get a dog once the election is over.

Pacelle notes that the American Kennel Club has nominated a number of "hypoallergenic" breeds for the girls -- one of whom reportedly has allergies -- including the bichon frise, poodle, Chinese crested, miniature schnauzer and soft-coated wheaten terrier.

We applaud Pacelle for urging the Obamas to choose adoption, whatever breed they opt for. And, as Pacelle notes, there are plenty of purebreds (such as wheaten terrier Maggie at TAILS Humane Society in DeKalb, IL, pictured here) waiting for loving homes -- in the White House, or any house -- on Petfinder!

Before Petfinder, I was an editor at People.com, so I've got a secret interest in all things celebrity. I've also got a mental tally of celebrities who adopted their pets, and I'm always happy to add another one to the list.

So I was thrilled yesterday to read the new issue of the New York Post's Page Six magazine and learn that cover girl Gabrielle Union is the proud mama of three dogs:

Bubba, a mastiff-American bulldog mix; Pink, a pit bull-Dalmatian mix; and Bobby Hurley (named for the basketball player), a Maltese. (Read the full story here.) 

Oh, and if anyone wants live like a celebrity, it's easy to find a mastiff-American bulldog mix (like June, left, at Friends of Linden Animal Shelter in Linden, NJ), a pit-Dalmatian mix (like Chablis, center, at Pet Paws for Love in Garfield, NJ), or a Maltese (like Billie, right, at Metropolitan Maltese Rescue in NYC) on Petfinder!