And the Winner Is

No, this isn't about the Oscars. On The Bonnie Hunt Show, she had the finalists for the Milkbone Dog Biscuit Spokesdog. No, really. Thousands applied, a hundred were chosen and the public(not me) voted on the 3 finalists. The winner would get to be on the box and also got $100,000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So here is what I recall of the finalists.
The first one was a pit bull who had been rescued. The owner had fostered her and just fell in love with how sweet she was and trained her to be a therapy dog. She visits nursing homes and spreads the love. She also helped her owner overcome his fear of flying. He had good reason--he was in a crash in the late 80's and barely lived. So his psychiatrist suggested that they train the dog to be a service dog so she could fly with him. When they got on the plane to go to the show(his first flight in 27 years), she put her paws on his chest and laid her head down on him and he petted her the whole way there and he was fine. It was some story.
The second dog was a Great Dane--very Marmaduke-y and beautiful. His owner was a young woman who had owned him since he was seven weeks and he gave her a lot of love. They had to drive there because he was too big for the plane. So she drove from Wisconsin to LA.
The third dog was also a rescue. He was a blood donor for dogs! Really! His owner is a vet and she knew about the need for blood for dogs who have been in accidents or are having surgery. It only takes 3-5 minutes for the dog to donate and she swore he loved doing it. I forget the kind of dog it was but it was a friendly animal...but not too friendly.
So, the winner was...the service dog, right??? Nope. The blood donor...right? Nope. The winner was the Great Dane whose big contribution was having an attractive owner for the cover of the dog biscuits. The service dog owner was a heavy, older man and the vet owner was an older woman. The Great Dane's owner was hot. She was blonde and had a cute hairdo and a cuter figure. I think the whole thing was rigged.
It would be like Kate Winslet won the Oscar because she had the best looking husband. Not fair!
I wondered if the other owners were stunned. I would have been. If I had brought my best friend who gave back and the pretty one was the winner, I would have been royally ticked off. They were quite gracious though and applauded the dog and the owner. What else could they do?? After all, it was national television.
So we are so obsessed with beauty it even factors into the cover of a box of dog biscuits! That's pretty lame.