Latest news with #dogadoption
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Robert Kraft talks ‘adopt a furever friend' event at Patriots training camp
Robert Kraft spoke to the media about the dog adoption event that the Patriots held on the first day of training camp. Robert Kraft talks 'adopt a furever friend' event at Patriots training camp originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
Forbes
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Kidney Donor Adopts Dog Rescued From Lab Testing To Keep Saving Lives
Alexis Miller donated a kidney to a stranger on March 18, 2025. About three weeks later, she adopted ... More Culver. Just a few weeks after donating a kidney to a stranger, Alexis Miller felt so exhilarated that she wanted to save another life. So when the Colorado resident saw a photo of a dog rescued from laboratory testing, she decided to adopt him. 'I gave someone a gift of life with my kidney,' Miller, 38, said. 'Then I felt so good about that that I wanted to do more. So that inspired me to adopt Culver.' Culver was one of 24 beagles simultaneously taken in by the nonprofit Kindness Ranch Animal Sanctuary in Wyoming, which rescues and rehomes former research animals. Miller had 'always' wanted to adopt a beagle rescued from a lab and felt drawn to him. Though still recovering from her March 18 kidney donation, she drove over 200 miles from Denver to meet the 3-year-old dog at the sanctuary in early April. She was so charmed by his upbeat personality that she adopted him — and changed his name from Xavier to Culver. 'Culver means 'dove,' and the dove is a sign of freedom and peace,' she said. 'I feel like that is how his personality is.' In his new home in Denver, Culver also charmed Miller's senior hound mix, George. The 12-year-old dog acts more playful with the young beagle, who sometimes gets so excited to be alive that he races around with the 'zoomies.' Alexis Miller's senior rescue dog, George, left, accepted Culver into their pack. Now Culver loves playing with stuffed toys, eating treats, taking walks and playing with other pups at the dog park. 'There's a dog there named Vega who's about his age and height, and he'll run around with her. It is really beautiful that he has a bestie there,' she said. 'I think being off leash and being in the sunshine and being around other dogs and having all this space to do zoomies is something that's so contrasted compared to where he had no space most likely, where he was kept in a cage and he was inside and probably didn't see sunshine.' Culver's Past As A Research Dog Miller doesn't know the identity of the laboratory or many details of Culver's past treatment since the Kindness Ranch essentially has a 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy to encourage labs to send animals to the sanctuary instead of destroying the pets once they're done with them, she noted. But his behavior is telling. For instance, Culver wasn't potty trained. Though he's learned to do his business outside, he prefers to do it on tiles instead of the grass in the backyard since he was likely used to living on a hard surface. When it's time to sleep, he wedges himself between the bed and the wall. Culver tucks himself against the wall. 'I think this is partially because he grew up and lived in a box for the first part of his life,' she said. So it makes her happy to see the former research animal enjoy simple pleasures. Since adopting Culver in April, she's taken him hiking and paddleboarding, and introduced him to fourth graders at the school where she leads an Animal Lovers' Club. Culver rewards Miller by greeting her with tail-wagging joy whenever she comes home. She's amazed by his upbeat attitude. 'He is so adaptable and resilient,' she said. 'We go to the dog park and he plays with the other dogs and he's a snuggle bug and I'm very much in love with him.' Kidney donor Alexis Miller loves spending time with Culver. She donated a kidney to a stranger 13 ... More years after her father, Jim Miller, donated a kidney to a family friend. 'He was a big inspiration for why I did it,' she said. Before buying a product, Miller scans the barcode with the Cruelty-Cutter app from the nonprofit Beagle Freedom Project to check if it was tested on animals – and won't buy it if it was. She hopes other people will consider adopting dogs rescued from labs, as well as fostering and adopting shelter pets in general. (Her senior dog, George, was a 'foster fail' that she adopted as a puppy from a litter of shelter dogs named for Harry Potter characters; she also fostered his brother, Fred.) There's a big need. Nearly 6 million dogs and cats entered U.S. animal shelters in 2024. So the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is giving $2 million in grants to over 100 shelters to help waive adoption fees from August through October as part of The Rescue Effect campaign to promote pet adoption. Potential adopters can also search for nearby available pets on sites like and Former research dog, Culver, relaxes in his new home. For her part, Miller is grateful for the chance to adopt a special dog like Culver. 'He's a really great companion,' she said. 'It's weird to think about, but I'm 38 and he's three, so I expect to have him into my fifties. I'm looking forward to growing older with him. I'm so in love with him.'
CNN
19-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
Hollywood Minute: First look at the final season of ‘Stranger Things'
The first teaser for the popular show's fifth and final season, 'My Neighbor Totoro' returns to theaters, and 'Superman' spurs interest in dog adoption. David Daniel reports. (CNN and Warner Bros. Pictures share the same parent company, Warner Brothers Discovery.)
The Guardian
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Puppy power: canine in new Superman movie spurs pet adoption interest
Superman's dog Krypto is not the best-mannered canine in the new James Gunn-helmed blockbuster about the Man of Steel – but he does prove himself to be a capable sidekick and he has driven a real-world surge in pet adoption interest, if online search trends are any indication. Searches by Google users for 'adopt a dog near me' increased by 513% after Gunn's Superman was released in US theaters during the weekend of 11 July, according to the Woofz dog training app, which cited its own analysis of the trends on the search engine. Searches for 'rescue dog adoption near me' and 'adopt a puppy', meanwhile, respectively jumped by 163% and 31%. Furthermore, Google searches for 'adopt a schnauzer' rose by 299%, Woofz said on its website. That is revealing because – as the app noted – the CGI-created, red-caped Krypto which stars alongside David Corenswet's Superman in Gunn's flick evidently is a Schnauzer and terrier mutt mix. Pet lovers in the US, where nearly 6 million dogs and cats were placed into shelters and rescue centers nationwide in 2024 alone, generally met Woofz's findings alongside Krypto's scene-stealing turn with enthusiasm. More than 450 pets were adopted across the US during the first 10 days of July, when Warner Bros – the studio which released Superman – collaborated with Best Friends Animal Society to cover animal adoption fees. Nonetheless, in a statement first reported by the Wrap, Woofz chief executive officer, Natalia Shahmetova, made it a point to tell those seeking out their own Krypto that 'adoption is a real commitment'. 'The hype will fade, but your dog will stay, so make sure you're ready to give them the time, care, and training they need and deserve,' Shahmetova's statement said. Gunn has spoken publicly about how he based Krypto's likeness and behavior off his own rescue dog, Ozu, whom the Superman director called 'the world's worst dog'. When rescued from an owner who had hoarded about 60 dogs, Ozu wouldn't let Gunn and his wife 'pet him because he had never known human beings', Gunn had said. 'And he was biting my feet until they bled, ate my new $10,000 laptop, chewed up all my shoes and our furniture – and I was like, 'Thank God he doesn't have superpowers.'' That gratitude over his dog's lack of superpowers then gave the film-maker the idea to have Ozu '3D scanned and then digitally altered to resemble' Krypto – who is overly excitable, easily distracted and benevolently disobedient, but fearlessly goes into battle alongside Gunn's version of Superman, according to the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). During one particularly poignant scene, Corenswet's Superman laments how Krypto is 'not even a very good' dog at a time when the pair are apart. 'But he's out there alone, and he's probably scared,' the Last Son of Krypton says, before leaving to try to reunite with him and grapple with various enemies.
The Guardian
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
A real wag: Superman gets the bleak realities of dog ownership spot on
Superman might be one of the most confusing blockbuster films to hit the big screen this year. The tone, as you might expect from a goofball superhero movie that is plainly about the invasion of Gaza, is all over the shop. Too many characters contribute too little to the plot. There are moments when it feels like it was written specifically to provide work for the silly-glasses and ironic-haircut industries. It is a bit of a mess. But that said, one thing is demonstrably true: the dog is cool. As shown in the trailer, Krypto the superdog is Superman's secret weapon. A mile away from his last screen outing, where he was muscular and proud and voiced by Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, Superman's Krypto is scrappy and wild. He doesn't obey commands. He destroys whatever equipment is put in front of him. Whenever he may or may not save the day, it seems like he does it out of accident rather than design. And now everybody wants one. Research by the dog training app Woofz has shown that Google searches for 'adopt a dog near me' jumped 513% during Superman's opening weekend. What's more, searches for 'rescue dog adoption near me' rose by 163%, while 'adopt a puppy' rose by 31%. And these searches are specific, too. Krypto is apparently a schnauzer-terrier mix, and 'adopt a schnauzer' searches have risen by almost 300% since Superman's release. There are many potential reasons for this. Perhaps viewers who found themselves confused by Superman's swampy storytelling latched on to Krypto as a guidepoint. Perhaps they have short attention spans and fail to think things through, as with the boom of dalmatian sales (and subsequent boom in dalmatian abandonments) after 101 Dalmatians was released in 1996. Or perhaps it's because Superman is one of the rare films to get dog ownership exactly right. So often in Hollywood, dogs are either loyal companions or would-be therapists who teach their owners about the meaning of love. Think of Marley and Me, in which a dog helps Owen Wilson to love and then dies. Or Turner and Hooch, in which a dog helps Tom Hanks to love and then gets murdered. Or Old Yeller, in which a dog helps a boy to love and then the boy shoots it with a shotgun. Some mix the formula up a little – in The Call of the Wild a dog teaches Harrison Ford to love, and then Harrison Ford dies – but you get the gist. Meanwhile, Krypto is a bit of a dick. The first time we meet him, Superman has been beaten for the very first time. Bleeding and broken, as a last resort he calls on his faithful pup to help him to safety. In any other film, this is exactly what Krypto would have done. But here he leaps all over Superman instead, doing little but compounding his injuries. He's excited. He wants to help. But he's also a dog, so he's sort of useless. Winningly, there's no sentimental ending to his story, either. He doesn't ever really bond with Superman, and he definitely doesn't die. In the end (and this probably counts as a spoiler), Supergirl comes and picks him up, and Superman barely even notices. There's no growth. Nobody learns anything. It's sort of great. It's telling that Krypto was only written into the script after James Gunn adopted a dog of his own, named Ozu. Last year on Twitter, Gunn wrote that 'Ozu, who came from a hoarding situation in a backyard with 60 other dogs and never knew human beings, was problematic to say the least. He immediately came in and destroyed our home, our shoes, our furniture – he even ate my laptop. It took a long time before he would even let us touch him. I remember thinking, 'Gosh, how difficult would life be if Ozu had superpowers?' – and thus Krypto came into the script.' And maybe that's the key here. There were no misty-eyed Marley and Me-style reminiscences about Ozu. Gunn was living through the incredibly annoying part of dog ownership where neither party fully trusts the other, and just lifted it wholesale into the script. And this realistic depiction has apparently translated to the hearts of Superman's audience, as we will soon see when thousands of schnauzers are definitely not abandoned at shelters four months from now.
