Jennifer Aniston is one of Hollywood's most notable dog lovers, having owned an adorable pooch since the late '90s, and is now entering the children's book space through that love as well.
On October 1, the 55-year-old star is releasing the first of her four children's books featuring the animated dog Clydeo, inspired directly by her own rescue dog Clyde, titled Clydeo Takes a Bite Out of Life.
In a conversation with People, the dog mom-of-two (she also owns rescue Lord Chesterfield) spoke about the upcoming book and her journey to parenting animals, which began with her first two pups, Norman and Dolly.
Norman passed away in 2011 and Dolly in 2019, and the actress got a little emotional thinking about them. "You mention them, and I get a lump in my throat," she stated.
But looking back on how she found Norman, Jennifer revealed that she actually first saw him decades ago, when he happened to make an appearance on Friends, of all places.
"Norman was my first. And it was just a fluke. He was in a scene with Joey and Chandler on Friends when they left baby Ben on the bus," she recalled. The episode in question was from season two, episode six, titled "The One With the Baby on the Bus," released in 1995.
"They were running through the streets and ran into a dog walker that had all these dogs. Norman was one of them, and I just fell in love."
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Jennifer remembered her conversation with the dog trainers on the set: "'Well, he's not getting hired because he doesn't really hit his mark.' So I jokingly said, 'I’ll take him.'"
"And they said, 'Absolutely.' And then I kind of had that moment of, 'Oh God, am I really?' And then that was it. I got the addiction to dogs and what they bring to you. Cut to now wanting to rescue all shelter puppies in the world."
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She revealed also, in fact, that she wanted to do just that with the help of The Clydeo Fund, which she is setting up to help animal rescue organizations worldwide, which are suffering from a lack of infrastructure and funding.
Jennifer 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. We can get awareness out and help the shelters that are in desperate need."
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She continued: "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." Jennifer also actively shares footage of dogs and other animals in shelters online, imploring her massive fanbase to look toward adopting them or spreading the love.
"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."