Aw… we rarely discuss Lauren Conrad these days, but I guess some people still care about her. Especially if the story involves an absolutely adorable shelter puppy! LC adopted her latest dog, Fitz, a few days ago from an animal shelter. Fitz Conrad joined Chloe Conrad, who is LC’s 4-year-old Lab mix, also from a shelter. Lauren was tweeting photos like crazy – Chloe seemed to take to the new puppy very quickly. And Fitz is SO small! I can’t really tell what kind of dog he is – some kind of mix.
Lauren explained, “Never go to the animal shelter ‘just to look.’ It never ends that way.” That’s actually really good advice. I don’t know how many times my mom has been like, “I’m ready for a new cat,” and she decides to make a trip to see some stranger’s litter of kittens or she’ll stop by the animal shelter and BAM, she has three new cats. My mom cries at animal shelters. I do too, which is why I can’t visit them, lest I take all of the puppies and kittens home.
Incidentally, should we discuss the absolute sh-t-fit in the comments of that Usher post yesterday? I felt like a lot of you really went overboard in yelling at me for holding a position I don’t really hold. It felt like some of you didn’t even bother to read what I wrote – I acknowledged that Usher paid $12,000 for a designer dog FOR CHARITY. Which is okay. But I just don’t like to encourage “designer dog trends” because most of the time, those kinds of “trends” lead to awful puppy mills and more “designer dogs” that won’t find homes, and are badly bred and have lots of medical issues. Plus, I’m just a big believer and supporter of animal shelters. I will acknowledge that I was more pissed off at the charity auction organizers for including a “designer dog” for celebrities to bid on – it’s not really on Usher, although I do think that when celebrities buy these designer dogs, it encourages more people to go designer rather than shelter animal.
PS… I still think Lauren Conrad is the California-blonde version of Duchess Kate. Their faces are identical.
Photos courtesy of LC’s Instagram.
beautiful!!!
OMG so cute!!! This is exactly what I needed this morning. I still really like LC- she is pretty much the best “product” of this reality-TV generation.
Ps. I hope all of the Northeast folks are doing okay today.
I totally knew what you were sayin yesterday but then again I actually read the whole post.
Ditto on the p.s!
Oy, that pup is so cute. NYC and surrounding areas are a mess. No power, people have lost their homes…there is a damaged crane dangling 90 stories from its cab… scary.
I don’t know who this is and I don’t care but puppy photos suck me in. So cute! So who is this? Some reality famewhore I assume, nevermind, I didn’t even read the story. Puppy!
I’m the same way when it comes to shelters…I got my cat at a shelter and haven’t been back since because I know I’d crumble and take all the cats home with me. That said, I applaud LC for doing the right thing (even though I don’t care about her personally) and that puppy is sooooo cute! Might have some Labrador in him…?
Same thing here… last time I popped in to the shelter to have a look, I went home with a dog 2 days later after the paperwork was approved. Never again! I have 3 rescue dogs and I’m outta room!
I approve of anyone who rescues dogs rather than purchasing them. As for Usher, why couldn’t they have been auctioning off shelter dogs? They’re just as adorable and loveable! I ended up with 2 purebreds who would have cost me probably about $6000 combined from breeders (one is very rare and usually imported), but instead it cost me $350 combined… one was free bc he was a foster first and they let me keep him for nothing, ha ha.
Too many people still think that they can’t get a puppy, purebred, well-behaved or “cute” dog by adopting. So wrong! Shelters and rescues are full of every kind of dog imaginable, you just have to look!
Very true, you can certainly get a great dog from a shelter or rescue. We got our Great Pyrenees mix from a rescue, and he is just the best dog. Whenever we walk him we’re constantly stopped and told what a handsome dog he is–he really is a remarkably good-looking dog. And he’s smart and very good-natured as well. I’m so grateful to the Big Fluffy Dog Rescue for him (yes, that’s really the name!)
The picture of her big dog and the puppy touching noses? ADORABLE. Two beautiful dogs.
awwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!
Chloe looks like a black mouth cur mix. We have a lot of those here in Texas. Also, if you can go to a shelter without crying, they usually have lots of volunteer opportunities. I run some of the healthy ones around the nearby lake and it helps them be calm and present better to potential adopters. Volunteering can be fun, y’all!
So Usher’s puppy got a ‘ridiculous’ in the headline bc it was a *designer* dog not from a shelter and Lauren’s dog gets an adorable bc it’s from a shelter (and, ok it is cute!)? I understand your thoughts on the subject but for people with allergies, most of the time shelter dogs just don’t work. You never know what breed(s) you are getting unless you know the lineage of the dog and shelter’s usually don’t offer that option.
Anyways, both dogs are adorable and in the end, all that matters is that they have good homes, no matter where they came from.
Also, unless you NEVER buy nice things for yourself (do you realize how many hungry people there are in the world????!) it’s dumb to get self-righteous about how other people spend their money. Not everybody is going to prioritize the exact same causes as you.
I agree. I hate everyone being so judgmental.
There are breed specific rescues. Shelters have come a long way from just heading down to the spca and getting a mutt. Petfinder pretty much has any breed for allergies that one could ever want.
Designer dogs are dumb.
In response to the allergy comment, as someone else posted their are thousands of breed specific rescues… Even golden doodle and labradoodle specific rescues!. So people are spending tons of money on these designer breeds and still filling the shelters and giving them away! I had neighbor who purchased 3 different labradoodles for their family bc of “allergies”, yet they resold the first one bc it was too shy and the second bc it was too rowdy. If you have ever taken the time to see just how many dogs end up being put to sleep in shelters, purebreds along w mutts, you would probably find yourself upset about the continued purchase of dogs and if you educate yourself and don’t feel this way I hope you aren’t a pet owner. My dog is a puppy mill SURVIVOR, but I won’t go into the horror that he has endured, just google puppy mills to see. It’s exhausting for those of us volunteer to help homeless animals and “mutts” not get put down and find homes yet we continue to have people dumping off their purchased designer breed dogs they no longer want (which they should have never bought in the first place) and adding to the number of homeless pets we try to rehome. Maybe this is different other places but in the south we are almost equal w purebred and mix breed homeless!
Yes, thank you. Money does NOT insure a good home. Michael Vick spent thousands of dollars on his dogs… and that didn’t turn out so well for them.
I think Lauren looks more like Smurfette than Kate.
Personally, I think she looks like a young Carmen Electra.
I agree. I have always thought she looks like Carmen Electra.
Adorable!!!’
Definitely never a good idea to think you can just go to a pet shelter to ‘look’. And it can be JUST as hard working at one. I remember I had been waiting for a chance to adopt on my day off (they had what they called a ‘mandatory critter cleanse’ of 24 hours off before allowing workers to come in and adopt – for fear of us all ending up with a 100+ pets and ending up on a hording show) one of a little of half Persian black kittens that had come in (we had a lot of older widows in town who raised pedigree cats… who never seemed to grasp if you let your expensive purebred outside alone – you get mutt kittens. Adorable and often healthier then the pure, but mutts to the breed conscious) that all looked like teddy bears. I WANTED one of those cats. Came in… and my boss walked up to me, and plopped a tiny 4 week old kitten (not one of the teddies) into my head with a “Here, hold her for a moment. She’s so small… I don’t know if we can keep her.” I said nothing. “She is going to need so much care, it might be kinder to just put her to sleep…” silence. Then “Ah well. Let’s get one of the kittens that are easy to place for you and will all have homes by the end of the weekend where this one no soul will consider, just bring that one back we might as well put her down ~now~ before the paperwork…”
All I managed was a sigh, shoulders slumping, and a muttered “You are SUCH a ~BASTARD~…. put her in carrier. I’ll get her into the car for the ride home. Damnit…..”
Yeah. Shelters are wonderful and THE place to look for pets. But trust a gal who has worked & volunteered in them often over the years – you WILL be assimilated. You WILL take one… two… more home. You will be guilted and griefed and generally frogmarched to your pet hair covered doom.
But as the doom comes with a lifetime of love, companionship and cuddles… not a bad doom to be handed, really.
So true! I love my extra layer of pet hair and dozens of morning mutt kisses.
I was going to say why is this news but with my dog going through oral chemo right now I am just a real mushball for adorable faces at the moment. She is quite lovely as well. My puppyface was a shelter dog also so I always like folks who don’t go to a pet store.
Gah! I want a dog SO badly. IF it wasn’t for fear of upsetting The Mistress Madame Zizou, I would have adopted a small mutt by now.
All these puppy-centric posts are not helping, Kaiser.
Let me help calm down that desire. The six-month puppy stage is brutal. I had no clue. Thankfully, I had other first-time puppy owners to commiserate with. It was exhausting. My puppy was spirited to say it politely but the cutest puppy in the world. I would get tears in my eyes just looking at that little face. As a puppy, I used to farm her out to my sister for a night once a week to have some peace and quiet until she couldn’t take it anymore. I do so adore my dog, though, just love her to pieces. But it cured my tendency to do things impulsively as far as getting a second puppy no matter how cute. I will adopt a one-year-old dog next time when my beloved dog (11 years old now) one day dies, which I can’t fathom. I hyperventilate thinking about it.
My niece wanted a little Pomeranian puppy so much. My sister got her one for her birthday when summer hit,but as a condition she had to get up and take care of it and be responsible for it. At then at end of three weeks, my niece appeared at my sister’s bedroom door at six a.m., exhausted (up to take it out to pee, and the puppy was then running around nipping at her heels wanting to play) crying, saying, I had no idea taking care of a puppy was this hard. LOL My sister never understood my treating my dog like a baby (she was a cat person)until they got that Pomeranian ten years later. My sister loves that little dog so much that she finally understands my treating my dog like a child.
Ahaha, make sure that if you adopt a one year old it’s a breed that has a shorter puppy phase. My dog up until she hit around 2 decimated everything she could get a hold of. We’d do everything we could to stop it- exercise, buying more stimulating toys, making sure not to leave stuff around. She chewed part of our cupboards. I love her to death, but it was incredibly frustrating.
🙂 I can relate to that. When my dog was just a puppy he destroyed everything that he would find (inclusive my sister’s prom dress!!). I was the one asking my parents to have a puppy so I had to take care of him…and oh boy that was a lot of work and a lot of adventures, some better than others. Point is, he was one of the best things in my life. It is one of those decisions in life that we shouldn’t take lightly because it is a being that needs our constant care and attention, so we have to be prepared for the responsibility.
Unfortunately, we had to put our dog to sleep last year because he was too sick and suffering. That was really hard, and for some time I thought that I would never have a dog again. Now I just think that when I get more of a fixed place to live I will get a dog again…dog love can be overwhelming 😉
P.S. Sorry, I know that it’s grammatically incorrect, but I can’t call my dog or any animal an “it”
I never understand why people post a comment without having read the entire article. Their ignorance truly comes to the forefront when this happens!
Aw. So sweet. The girl retained her dignity, for the most part, throughout the reality series she was on when younger compared to others and got off the reality show train smartly.
PUPPY! there’s nothing guaranteed to give me the warm fuzzies faster than puppy shots (especially when they’re rescues). I can understand the photo bonanza, I take lots of shots of my pups and go a little camera crazy with each new foster too
Cute. I’m with you on this one Kaiser, I don’t like the puppy mill business or anything that promotes it. I’m a guardian member of the ASPCA and the North Shore Animal League. There are too many dogs in shelters for us to try making new breeds, until we can get the current population under control.
Sorry that our intensity annoys some of you but when you work in animal welfare and/or realize that millions of healthy, happy companion animals are killed every year due to being surplus, yes, we do really hope people will have enough compassion to adopt, not shop, for their next dog, cat, guinea pig, horse, etc. And allergic people: purebred dogs are at shelters everywhere every day – and yes, they die there too. Also, every pure breed has rescue groups throughout the country. At least if you must buy, please go to a reputable breeder who does genetic research and tests their dogs for all health issues known to that breed, and who breed for solid temperaments as well as beauty and health. It won’t be an impulse buy, as reputable breeders want to check you out too, to be sure you’ll be a good home for their dogs, and often have a wait list. There is never an excuse for buying from a pet store – top prices, puppies from mills always (yes, the store employees lie to you about the source) in which the adults suffer daily for the greed of the mill owners.
This was a great comment, Shelley.
To be honest, I don;t know why they couldn’t have auctioned off a puppy in rescue instead of a pup donated by a breeder. if they didn’t want a mutt of a mixed breed, we get an awful lot of pure breed and designer mixes through the rescue I volunteer with (and most rescue groups like ours, that aren’t breed specific, get the same types of dogs).
I like the 4th pic of Chloe and Fritz together. Chloe has this look on her face saying “I like the new kid. Let’s keep him”. Adorable. And good for her for getting a rescue dog!
Awwww, that puppy is adorable. I’m in college right now, so I can’t have pets. Seeing a cat or dog literally makes my day.
Wow, new advertising placement!
Right under pictures of cute puppies! About as subtle as Jay Leno’s McD’s jokes. Sorry but, LAME!
Of course the dog is cute but you sure got us, Cadillac & K! bleh.
Cuteness freakin overload!
I didn’t read the Usher article because I knew it would just make me mad. I do not agree with any dog being auctioned off. My cousin owns a restaurant franchise, and every year, they have an auction. And every year, they auction off a dog. Last year, she placed the winning bid. I went apeshit when I learned about this practice. And it’s not just because I feel people should adopt from shelters rather than buy from breeders. It’s because adding a dog to your family should be a well thought out and well planned decision. How will you care for the dog? Who will care for the dog? Dogs require work and attention. Depending on the breed, they require lots of exercise. Are you in a position to provide this? Does your schedule allow for you to implement a schedule for your dog? Dogs need routine. What if there are unexpected vet bills? Are you in a position to provide the care your dog may need? When you go on vacation, how will you plan for your dog? These are just a few of the things people need to consider when adding a dog to their family, and it drives me mad when people purchase a dog on a whim, as they do at these kind of “auctions.”
All that being said, I love the photo of the two dogs in the dog bed. So sweet. And Chloe’s all about the ball. Lol!
Good for her! There are literally thousands upon thousands of homeless animals who, thru no fault of their own, end up in shelters. Euthanizations of such animals are overwhelming.
While anyone willing to spend a lot of money can go to a reputable (ethical) breeder, the majority of people go to pet stores or “back yard breeders” who get most of their animals from puppy mills. The conditions in mills are beyond horrific.
Toronto, Canada has a fairly new bylaw. Pet stores can no longer sell dogs or cats unless they come from a rescue group/humane society. The animals are housed at the pet store, but it is the rescue group(s) who handles the adoption details. They do home visits, interviews, and contracts to ensure people know what they are getting themselves into.
For people who find it too depressing to walk into a shelter, many rescue groups have their adoptables posted online, although animal control (city pounds) less so. An amazing resource is petfinder.com. It lists adoptable shelter pets across the US and Canada. It is very simple to use. Enter in the breed u are looking for and u will be provided with a list of available dogs/cats (including descriptions & pics) arranged by proximity to ur area of residence. While most often the dogs are not purebreeds, the dominant cross breeds are listed. U can even sort by age or size.
I love her. I wish she was still on tv. She has something…
Thank you, Lauren, for setting a good example and saving two puppeh lives. 🙂 May they bring you a lifetime of joy.
Hooray, I love her. Any excuse to read about her is a minute well spent. She’s just cool and savvy.