Hotel for Dogs in Theaters Friday

If you know any kids who were traumatized by “Marley & Me,” the cure might be a stay at “Hotel for Dogs,” a movie that balances adorable dogs of all breeds and sizes with clever set design.

Oh yeah, there are some people in it, and they’re perfectly OK. But it’s not their movie.

Orphans Andi (Emma Roberts) and Bruce (Jake T. Austin) have been bounced around from foster home to foster home, but they’ve always managed to keep their always-hungry dog Friday on the sly. One day when Friday is on the run from animal control — I’m frankly surprised that the Dog-Catcher Anti-Defamation League isn’t already picketing this movie — he ducks into an abandoned hotel where he finds two other dogs hiding out in its crumbling splendor.

Andi and Bruce eventually find him, and even though Andi warns Bruce not to name the other two dogs, lest they become attached, soon the siblings are also taking care of Lenny and Georgia. (For adults who enjoy this sort of thing, “Hotel for Dogs” includes throw-away references to not only “Of Mice and Men” but also “Suddenly, Last Summer” and even Jean Vigo’s “Zero for Conduct.”)

With the help of pet-store employees Dave (Johnny Simmons) and Heather (Kyla Pratt), as well as neighborhood kid Mark (Troy Gentile), the kids create their own surrogate family by not only taking in every stray they can find but also by turning the hotel into a canine paradise. Bruce’s proclivity for Rube Goldberg–esque devices allows him to create machines to handle all the dogs’ feeding and hygiene needs. (He even creates a simulator ride involving car doors, a fan and travel footage.)

The film also stars Don Cheadle (as Andi and Bruce’s compassionate social worker) and Lisa Kudrow and Kevin Dillon as the duo’s moronic metal-head foster parents, but the real stars of “Hotel for Dogs” are the art department (with bonus points to propmaker bosses Marc Tantin and Marcel Worch for creating Bruce’s dizzying inventions), the army of animal trainers and dog wranglers, and the special effects artists who no doubt made all of the above look much slicker on the big screen.

The kids are all charming — I’ve enjoyed Roberts and Gentile more in other movies — but the script (adapted from the novel by Lois Duncan) gives all the personality to the four-legged actors and to the hotel itself — the building is a sprawling, old-school masterpiece of grand stairways, long banquet tables and velvet banquettes. Even the pee-and-poop solutions that Bruce devises fit in with the hotel’s grandeur.

If you’re the sort of person who checks out CuteOverload.com for pictures of puppy baskets, sleeping kitties and frolicking pandas, this is definitely the movie for you.

[Source: MSNBC]

Mickey Rourke Thanks His Dogs at Golden Globes

Mickey Rourke won the award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture-Drama at the Golden Globes this evening for his lead role in The Wrestler.

Rourke thanked his agent, director, producers, co-stars, etc. and then he told the audience he'd like to thank his dogs--both the ones that are still with him now, and those that had passed on.

"Sometimes when a man's alone, all you got is your dog, and they mean the world to me", the star said.

[Source: Examiner.com]

Dog Trust's Top 5 Favorite Breeds

Obama Dog Watch: Finalists in the Hunt for a Dog

The Obama family is nearing a decision on the breed for the first dog.

Before President-elect Barack Obama began his interview on the ABC program “This Week,” which was broadcast Sunday, his daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, asked the host, George Stephanopoulos, to slip in this question: “What kind of a dog are we getting, and when are we getting it?”

When asked, Mr. Obama laughed “They seem to have narrowed it down to a Labradoodle or a Portuguese water hound,” he said, adding that the next step is to canvass shelters.

“We’re closing in on it,” he said. “This has been tougher than finding a commerce secretary,” a reference to the recent withdrawal by Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico as his original selection for that post.

Both breeds — a Labradoodle at top, a Portuguese water dog below — were chosen to reduce Malia’s allergy to dogs and have big Democratic backers. Senator Edward M. Kennedy owns two Portuguese water dogs, Sunny and Splash, which often flank him as he walks the halls of the Capitol. Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. has a Labradoodle (part Labrador retriever, part poodle) named Brother.

Fulfilling his promise to get a dog is just one of the personal decisions that Mr. Obama and his family face as they settle into Washington.

Mr. Obama said the family planned to visit a number of churches to see “what’s comfortable.” Every president since James Madison has attended St. John’s, the Federal-style Episcopal church across Lafayette Square from the White House. But several predominantly black churches are eager to lure the Obamas, like Metropolitan A.M.E. Church, where Bill Clinton twice attended inaugural prayer services.

One family matter that appears to be going well is the Obama girls’ transition to their new school, Sidwell Friends.

“They seemed to thrive,” Mr. Obama said in the interview of their first week at the private school. “I’m trying to figure out why it is that they don’t seem to be fazed by anything.

“People think — you know, folks think I’m cool. They are a lot cooler than I am. They just don’t seem to be intimidated.”

[Source: The New York Times]

Four-Legged Mets Fan Can't Wait for Opening Day

Jackie the wily pooch is one New Yorker who just couldn't wait until opening day to see the Mets' new stadium.

The stray dog was spotted sniffing around Citi Field for several days before animal control officers were sent Wednesday to rescue her. She led them on a run through the stadium, which is still under construction. New York City Animal Care and Control spokesman Mike Pastore said, "She was around home plate, ran up the first base line and ducked into the stands."

Rescuers nicknamed the 40-pound shepherd mix Jackie. Pastore said she was jumpy and shaking when they caught her, but was able to pet her once she calmed down.

Jackie was taken to the agency's Manhattan shelter. She could be adopted as early as Saturday.

[Source: Newsday.com]

'Marley & Me' Author's Puppy Treated for Hip Dysplasia

“Marley & Me” author John Grogan’s new Labrador Retriever Woodson – one of several puppies to portray a young Marley in the film adaptation – is being treated for severe hip dysplasia, Grogan writes in USA Today.

“We noticed that our pup seemed unable to do the things Lab puppies do so effortlessly – leap onto furniture or hop into the back seat of the car,” Grogan says.

A veterinarian delivered the bad news. “Both rear hips were so malformed, the balls and sockets did not connect,” Grogan says. “With each puppy step, bone was scraping bone.”

Grogan called the now 1-year-old dog’s breeder – “not to complain, just to inform,” Grogan says – who offered to exchange the dog for a new puppy. “My wife and I thought about it overnight before realizing there was really nothing to consider,” Grogan says. “Woodson was part of our family now.”

Woodson is now on a special diet and a “regimen of cartilage builders and medicines” and sees an orthopedic specialist at the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School, Grogan says. “Surgery might be in his future, but for now he’s comfortable and enjoys his life as a pampered house pooch. Woodson will never go hunting or hiking or even on long walks, and that’s OK,” Grogan says. “Some dogs are put on this Earth just to love you.”

[Source: DogChannel.com]

Pet Owners Willing to Sacrifice for Fido

Despite a tough economy, pet owners are willing to sacrifice many luxuries to provide for the needs of their canine companions, according to a recent survey conducted by the American Kennel Club.

The survey of more 1,000 people on akc.org found that more than 96 percent of respondents with a taste for gourmet coffee would give up their latte habit to save money for their dog’s expenses. Ninety-seven percent also said they would forgo massages or spa treatments to afford a vet bill, and nearly 79 percent would cancel a teeth whitening appointment so that Fido could have his annual teeth cleaning.

The only item that seems to compete with people’s love for their pooches is Internet access, with more than 70 percent of respondents indicating they would not be able to abstain from their Web addiction.

Not at all surprising, if you ask me. How else are people going to read dog clothes horse?!

[Source: Kansascity.com]

Pets Everlasting

The most difficult thing about the cloned puppies is not telling them apart, but explaining why they don’t look exactly alike. This was the problem Lou Hawthorne faced on a recent afternoon hike with Mira and MissyToo, two dogs whose embryos were created from the preserved, recycled and repurposed nuclear DNA of the original Missy, a border collie-husky mix who died in 2002.

To be sure, they have a very strong resemblance to each other and to Missy. It’s just that sometimes, as soon as people hear that the dogs are clones, the questions start coming:

“Why is one dog’s fur curlier?”

“Why aren’t the dogs the same size?”

“Why is one of them darker?”

“Why does this one have a floppy ear?”

Mr. Hawthorne, who is 48, is highly invested in the notion of likeness. With clones, after all, what good does similar do? It is Mr. Hawthorne’s biotech company, BioArts, which is based here in the Bay Area but has arrangements with a laboratory in South Korea, that performed the actual cloning.

To read more about this unique pair, visit NYTimes.com