Pillow Talk

Most homeless dogs in shelters sleep on a hard concrete floor with only a towel to soften the surface.

But, not in New York's three municipal shelters in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Staten Island!

New Yorker Susan Brandt launched the Mother's Comfort Project to give some of the animals a little comfort while they are housed at Animal Care and Control of New York City.

That comfort comes in the form of beds stitched together and delivered to the shelters. Volunteers put each bed into the dog's or cat's cage and quickly show their gratitude.

The project was conceived by Rational Animal, a New York City-based nonprofit Brandt founded in 2002 to foster public awareness of the need to aid animals. The Mother's Comfort volunteers gather at a rented sewing studio in Brooklyn to construct the beds. While sewers stitch the bed components together, non-sewers cut fabric or padded batting, or deliver fabric to the studio or the beds to the shelters. Brandt estimates that the project has made and delivered about 4,000 beds.

Dog Art Exhibit

The William Second Gallery in New York City offers an exhibition and sale of more than 150 dog and animal-related works of art from Dodge's personal collection.

February 11 through March 24th

Portrait of Geraldine Rockefeller in 1906
by Friedrich von Kaulbach
Dodge Room in the Morris Museum
Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge came from a life of incredible wealth, but what is not as well known is that she lived her days immersed in the company of dogs.

"An Artistic Legacy: The Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge Collection" includes 19th century paintings; bronzes; silver dog show trophies; and over 40 watercolors of Dodge's dogs by British artist R. Ward Binks; other dog artists work include those of the late George Earl, Gustav Muss-Arnolt, and Percival Rosseau.

Geraldine founded the prestigious Morris and Essex Kennel Club, wrote books that helped establish the English Cocker, Spaniel, and German Shepherd Dog in the U.S., bred and owned some of the most influential show dogs of her day, and was the first woman to judge Best in Show at Westminster without the input of male colleagues.

Proceeds benefit St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center in Madison, New Jersey, which Dodge founded in 1939.