Jennifer Aniston has always been a great dog momma and rescue advocate. Her first pup was Norman, whom she famously rescued after he had a bit part on Friends (the boy couldn’t act, but he could love!). Norman has sadly left us, as did Jen’s dog Dolly. But she still has in her pack Lord Chesterfield and Clyde. In 2021 Jen turned Clyde’s illustrated alter-ego Clydeo into a children’s book, and this month she just released a fourth in the series: Clydeo Takes a Bite Out of Life. She also just launched The Clydeo Fund, which aims to help out shelters that take care of our pups on their way to finding forever homes. Jen spoke with People Mag to tout both projects, and she talked about how she keeps posting dogs on her Instagram so they can be rescued, even if it’s tough to constantly be faced with their hopeful, longing mugs.
Jennifer Aniston had made it her mission to help rescue as many animals as possible.
Along with her new children’s book, Clydeo Takes a Bite Out of Life, and The Clydeo Fund, which supports animal shelters, the actress, producer, and entrepreneur, 55, also uses her Instagram account to share stories of rescue dogs in need.
“It’s so hard, but it helps; they get seen and rescued,” she tells PEOPLE. “It’s almost impossible to keep up with it. But I’m constantly updated that so-and-so got rescued. So all I keep thinking is if one gets out, that’s all I care about.”
The Morning Show star and executive producer wrote her new picture book, illustrated by Bruno Jacob and inspired by one of her rescue dogs, Clyde, to help motivate kids to explore their interests. “They’re so focused on these phones and just disappear into this void of scrolling,” she says. “They don’t really spend time being stimulated by the world and figuring out what they want to do.”
First introduced as an animated dog on Aniston’s Instagram account in 2021, Clydeo now has a four-book children’s series. “When they came to me with the idea, it was like, ‘Obviously, I’ll make it about something that I fully love and adore, which is my rescue animals,’” she says.
The actress also wanted to “create a fund where we can donate to these animals all over the world and inspire people to just throw in a dollar. It all adds up,” she says. “We can get awareness out and help the shelters that are in desperate need.”
With every dollar donated, The Clydeo Fund will help organizations rescue, rehabilitate, and find forever homes for animals. “We can help these animals, and we can get awareness out, and help the shelters that are in desperate need of upkeep because they’re falling apart,” explains the former Friends star. “They can’t keep up. And all you see is that we’re euthanizing innocent, beautiful, perfectly, perfectly fine two-year-old dogs, or a puppy, or a litter. I can’t. It’s too much. It’s too many.”
Oh, I feel you Jen! Seeing all those faces, you just want to scoop up and rescue all the floofs! Like Molly Shannon in Year of the Dog. While I usually side eye when yet another celebrity comes out with a children’s book, I have no problem making an exception here. I love that Jen is helping out the shelters — they deserve all the funding and support we can give them! I just went through all this with My Guy, and the shelter that picked him up took such great care of him. He was three-years-old when he came to them and sick, un-chipped, and not neutered. After making sure he recovered from his illness, they got him microchipped, neutered, and up-to-date on all his vaccines. Maybe that’s pretty standard now, but it wasn’t when I rescued My Girl over a decade ago, so I greatly appreciated it! Here’s to Jen in her very best Doris Day Dog Advocate Era!
photos via Instagram and credit: Nicky Nelson / Wenn / Avalon, IMAGO/Faye Sadou / Avalon
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