Yesterday I covered an interview Jessica Simpson gave recently, but we didn’t get into the actual event she was attending, which was the PetSafe Unleashed contest launch. PetSafe is a group that facilitates the creation of dog parks across the country, and they’re holding a contest to celebrate their 25th anniversary. You can find details here, but the gist is that one community will be winning a brand new dog park. Last Friday’s event marked the first day you could enter the contest, and coincided with International Dog Day. I never knew that August 25 was International Dog Day. In my house Dog Day runs from January 1 – December 31, and it seems the same is true for Jessica Simpson. She shared with Extra how it’s Santa’s fault her family now has eight dogs:

On Friday, Jessica Simpson brought her doggy Penny Lane and her daughter Maxwell, 11, to PetSafe Unleashed in L.A. for pet owners and their furry friends.

“Extra’s” Terri Seymour spoke with Jessica, who told us she is making some new music.

She teased she will “have some of my southern roots back while I am in the recording studio.”

As for how she feels to be back in the studio, Simpson admitted, “It gives me chills thinking about it because I know that whenever I open this big old trap of mine, a lot is going to come out and it’s going to be really powerful. I finally feel connected enough to my purpose in music, and I know exactly what it is I want to do. It’s very exciting.”

Simpson said she feels like it is the perfect time to return to music. “I really wanted my kids to be raised as normal as possible in the first 10 years,” she said. “Like, I didn’t want to be on the road all the time, I didn’t want to be gone all the time, and I feel like I’ve given that to them.”

Terri also spoke to Maxwell, who is ready to follow her mom’s showbiz footsteps in singing, business, and fashion!

Jessica praised Maxwell’s singing, saying, “She has an unbelievable voice.”

While Maxwell noted that she’s “not a big stage person,” Jessica is gonna let her “test some waters” once she starts “touring next year.”

For now, Maxwell is all about the dogs!

Jessica shared, “Maxwell is a dog person, so we wanted to bring Penny here to see if she would socialize.”

As for how she ended up with eight dogs, Jessica explained, “When Max was younger, she asked Santa for a dog, and it’s happened every year for eight years, so Santa brings a dog every year.”

Between the kids and the dogs, is it complete chaos at home? Jessica quipped, “I don’t even know what life would be without chaos. I think I’d be very bored. I’m sure I complain at times that there’s too much going on, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

[From Extra]

I guess it’s lucky they celebrate one day of Christmas and not eight nights of Hanukkah, or they’d be overrun! I love love love my dog, but I can’t imagine having eight at once. If you have the space and money to handle it, though, and take in rescues, then more power to you. Penny Lane is a great name for a dog. I tried looking up the names of the rest of Jessica’s dogs, but could only confirm one, Dixie.

As for her human babies, I hope Jessica is being a proud mama but not a stage one. Just from reading the interview, it’s hard to get a sense of how much Maxwell is genuinely into singing.