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July 17, 2012 • Rescue Story
FIDO loves to hear share heart-warming stories about rescue dogs and this one makes us wag!
As shared by the Hallmark Channel’s Pet Project: Every dog has its day, and every dog who becomes a star has its trainer. That’s where Sarah Clifford comes in. Clifford was the guiding hand behind the scenes for Uggie, the Jack Russell Terrier who stole everyone’s heart in this year’s Best Picture Oscar winner The Artist. It turns out that Uggie was a rescue pooch destined for the pound and an uncertain fate before becoming collared into stardom.
Clifford has done it again in the new Hallmark Channel Original Movie World Premiere “Puppy Love” that makes its debut Saturday, September 8 (9pm ET/PT, 8C). Along with human star Candace Cameron Bure, the film features another pooch star-in-the-making, this one a shaggy dog named (as in “Bugsy”). He too is a rescue who in the film portrays Jake, a canine at the heart of a tale of, well, puppy love, whose crazy behavior pushes an unlikely couple together. That’s just the kind of thing dogs are always doing.
But there is a method behind the madness for Hallmark Channel, which is putting “Puppy Love” at the center of its Pet Project. The project launched this year with a mission to help families find pets who are in need of a permanent home – and families in need of a loving animal. The film’s star Bure is a spokesperson for the Pet Project, while BugZ is the official spokesdog. The multi-faceted initiative is also at its core about celebrating pets and all of the joy and enrichment they bring to all of our lives. Original movies like “Puppy Love” help to plant the seed, while social media outreach, public service announcements, local grassroots events and strategic partnerships have helped it to grow all year long.
It’s also centered by a resource-rich website at www.hallmarkchannel.com/petproject. The site is packed with heartwarming pet adoption stories galore, along with the chance to vote for the American Humane Association’s 2012 Hero Dog Awards. This brings us back to Clifford, who doesn’t just train dogs; she adopts them, too. She’s the owner of Bug
Z, whom she taught everything she knows (which is a lot). If you want a pooch who can nail his/her lines on command in a film, then Clifford is the human you want to talk to.