As President-elect Obama said in his acceptance speech on Tuesday night, he and his family will be bringing a new member with them when they settle into the White House-a dog.  And, news stories report that the dog will be lovingly adopted from a shelter.  How great is it that the Obamas are already making an exemplary choice as the soon-to-be first family by adopting a dog?  Hopefully this will spurn national interest by  families across the country to skip breeders and puppy mills and instead choose a beautiful mutt or pure-bred from a local shelter or animal rescue group.  Coincidentally, this happens to be National Animal Shelter Week and the Obamas’ choice is probably the best PR ever for this movement. I don’t need to remind everyone of the millions of dogs and cats that are annually killed by shelters because of the unmanageable number of animals they receive. TakePart by visiting the Humane Society’s Animal Shelter site today to find your local shelter to adopt a pet or volunteer.

I live in New York City and more than that I don’t have a super conventional lifestyle, meaning despite my love love love of dogs, having one is kind of out of the question.  I am therefore supremely jealous of Malia and Sasha Obama, who not only get an awesome new home to call their own but also, according to their father, a new dog!

There’s a lot of internet chatter about what dog they girls should get and where they should get it from.  The Obamas say that is is imperative that they adopt the dog from an animal shelter or rescue group.  Which is so awesome!

If you’re thinking of joining the Obamas in adding a dog to your family, be sure to takepart and adopt with the ASPCA.

And go after the jump to see President-Elect Obama’s speech where he mentions the puppy (and hope!) Read the rest of this entry >>