Obama not the Unlikeliest Candidate for White House, a Shelter Dog Is

I'm just an ugly mutt from the pound who got lucky

Me and my best friend Lamby, the hypoallergenic shelter dog

Lamby had to wear his Hawaiian shirt until Florida was won on Election Night

An open letter to Barak Obama about a DOG. Barak Obama is not the least likely candidate for the White House, a shelter dog is.

Dear President Obama,

I am so happy you are our president. Your election meant a lot to underdogs like me, a mutt who was on death row at the pound. It means that all things are possible and that change really is coming our way. I want to tell you something that you might not have heard simply because you can't hear as well as I can. As a dog, with ears forty times more powerful than yours, I can hear a moose fart in Alaska. I can hear your little girls asking you for a dog too and I want to help you find one for them.

You don't have to settle for an ugly mutt like me, you can get whatever kind of dog your daughters have their heart set on. There are hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dogs in our nation's shelter system howling, "YES WE CAN!" right now. They are full of what your campaign brought to our country: HOPE--- Hope that you will hear their cries and be their voice.

I'm a shelter dog who got lucky. A lot of my old cell mates in the pound didn't make it. As a matter of fact, five million of my buddies die every year because there aren't enough homes for us. And what people don't understand and what I'm trying to tell them all the time is that when people BUY a dog, one of us gets the needle. The dummies who make more and more dogs in order to make a profit never think of us. The shelters are full and unless somebody comes and rescues us, we're 'dead dog walking.'

Now back to you and your family: you've got two great girls and one of them has allergies. OK, no problem. Did you know that 20% of dogs at the shelter are purebred dogs? Did you know that my best buddy (our family adopted him last year) is a hypoallergenic dog that was "redlisted" at the shelter ? He's a very fancy dog, a Bichon (and if it wasn't for Prop 8 here in CA, I might be able to marry him). How do you like the Hawaiian outfit he put on in your honor? He had to wear it until Florida was won on Election Night.

Just look at my best friend Lamby. He's gorgeous, purebred AND hypoallergenic. But more important than that, he's smart and he's nice and he didn't understand why he was homeless. There are lots more abandoned hypoallergenic dogs like him who are homeless. So when the AKC comes calling with their special interest, tell 'em what I tell 'em. Why are you trying to sell me a dog? You can't buy love. And why are you creating an overpopulation problem instead of being part of the solution? You know it costs American taxpayers 2 billion $ a year to house and kill dogs in our shelters?

Mr. President, there is (hypoallergenic) love waiting for your girls at your local shelter or on http://www.petfinder.com/ . A Bichon, or Poodle or Maltese is there right now and he hears your call to bring change to America. Let him be the first shelter dog in American history to be elected to be the first family's dog. He is the least likely candidate for the job of loving up your girls but he is deserving, he is ready to serve. He is qualified and he is full of HOPE for CHANGE he still believes in. He's hoping we live in a meriDOGracy.

Your example would lift us all even higher.

Yours truly,

Jinky, a simple pound mutt who got lucky.

By Carole Raphaelle Davis, actress, animal welfare advocate and author of "The Diary of Jinky, Dog of a Hollywood Wife."

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