Listen, life can be rough and some of the most comfort and safety we can feel is with an animal of our own. Whether it be cats, dogs, birds, guinea pigs, horses, ferrets… having another living creature that trusts you, another species entirely, with taking care of them. That’s precious. And, well, Bush‘s Gavin Rossdale wants you to find your perfect companion this Christmas with his ’12 Days of Dogmas’ campaign.
“I have partnered with the incredible Best Friends Animal Society and Best Friends Animal Society LA to introduce you to some wonderful dogs you can adopt,” Rossdale writes in the caption of an Instagram post launching the new campaign three days ago (December 10th).
He continues with, “We are kicking things off with Milano (I love her) – a most beautiful girl – If you have been thinking about adopting – now is the time. Imagine the love and the joy. It’s a win – win. I personally cannot endorse this girl any more and all the dogs that follow over the next 12 days. Pure magic waiting for you and your family. Come on people. Let’s save these dogs.”
The following photos in the Instagram carousel post detail that Milano is a year-and-a-half old American Staffordshire Terrier mix, saying she’s “one of the sweetest, softest girls you’ll ever meet.”
On the second day (11th December)Â Rossdale featured Goober on his Instagram (great name), the slides detailing he is a 3.5 year old American pitbull terrier mix that loves a good snuggle after playtime, and is eager to “join you on your next adventure.”
On the third day of Christmas (12th December), Gavin Rossdale gave to his audience on Instagram, Peanut, a very timid boy. A four year old Jack Russell terrier mix that is currently recovering from hip surgery, but is incredibly sweet nonetheless.
On the fourth day (13th December), Lindt, like the chocolate, appears to have stolen Rossdale‘s heart in photo in which he is giving her a very sweet hug – she’s only 10 months old, and she’s another American Staffordshire terrier mix. A “friendly, wiggly pup eager to trade kisses for belly rubs.
Today, on the fifth day of Christmas (14th December), Rossdale posed alongside Dune, “an energetic and playful boy who’s ready for any adventure.” And honestly, just looking at Dune, he seems like he has a good bit of energy. He is an eight month old Collie mix (energy makes sense now, go figure), who is a “happy, excited, young boy looking for his new best friend.”
Rossdale explains that the idea came about from his publicist, and it pretty much takes the cake for best PR gig ever [as transcribed by Blabbermouth]: “Yeah, it’s wonderful — probably my favorite job I’ve ever done,” Rossdale tells Z93‘s Matt Bingham in a radio interview, “My publicist got it for me, and I said to her, literally it’s my favorite job I ever did, or favorite assignment, whatever the phrase is.”
Previously, Rossdale had been involved with other animal advocacy, joining PETA for a campaign to encourage people to rescue animals instead of buying them, “I did a campaign with PETA, for People for Ethical Treatment Animals, [as part of the] ‘Adopt Don’t Shop’ [campaign]. So that was hardcore. That was L.A. County [animal] services. That’s where I got my dog from. It’s dog jail. It’s a kill shelter. It’s just awful. The people that do the work, they’re incredible — angels on earth — but they’re just overrun, and the bureaucracy of it is pretty terrible. So that was hardcore and very upsetting, and I did a whole thing with them, campaign with them, the previous week.”
For this campaign, Rossdale was working with the Best Friend Society, which is pretty well-known on social media. And while he loves all dogs just the same, the experience was quite different: “I went to Best Friend Society, which is a really incredible no-kill animal shelter… this one was a shelter that was in Brentwood and it felt like it’d been really well funded and they don’t kill, and it just was amazing to go meet all these dogs.”
Regardless of what shelter the dog is in though, Rossdale tells Bingham that it can weigh on you all the same, that “there’s always this sort of a backdrop of tragedy. When you sit and you pat a dog, you’re, like, this dog is literally homeless, literally needs you, has been totally let down by every other human it’s met, and it still has the capacity to be nice to you when really it probably deserves to sort of be far more uptight and difficult,” Rossdale stressing how difficult it is for these animals. “So I just went in there, and there’s an amazing woman who photographed us together. So I spent time with the dogs, took them out, played with them a bit, and did a few pictures with them. And the idea is just to promote these dogs, to adopt them. Amazing dogs. I would’ve taken any of them… Yeah, really hard, because shelters are terrifying.”
The natural query as to whether any of the 12 dogs chosen for the 12 Days Of Dogmas would end up being adopted by Rossdale himself, to which he offers, “My dog is a little reactive, so we’re getting through that. But I’m gonna be getting a second dog soon enough, I think… I have a living, working dog who’s like a new career — a new career. [I’ve] really bitten off as much as I can chew. But he’s worth it. He’s incredible.”
He concludes his line of thinking by stating that his dream “is to have some kind of a rescue place, just help these animals,” saying that “you gotta pick something. And I love the idea of just always being connected to dogs… I feel that with animals, the defenseless nature and the torture of these animals is something that I’ve aligned myself with proudly and will continue to do so. Anything to help them.”
So, don’t be too surprised if you see Rossdale with a dog sanctuary in the next few years.
Keep an eye on what dogs Gavin Rossdale is featuring here.
Header Image: Best Friends Animal Society
