figurehead, sadly, the original Zelda
is no longer alive. She lived to be
thirteen, and Gardner had a party for
her thirteenth birthday at a hotel in
Portland. "Zelda loved the attention,"
recalls Gardner. Today, "Second Zelda"
and Otis--Zelda's boyfriend--live
with Gardner and appear in the 2012
Zelda Wisdom calendar. Two female
understudy bulldogs are also used
in the "Zelda Wisdom" photographs,
which are never Photoshopped.
"You never know what the dogs
will do in the pictures, and that's
part of the fun," says Gardner.
"Many of our best photographs
were unexpected responses from
the dogs." In fact, according
to Gardner, one of the original
Zelda's favorite outfits was her pink
bikini, which she would fetch all by herself from her
costume bin.
Diane Sawyer is such a fan she once flew Zelda to New
York to meet her. "Sawyer liked the photo of Zelda wearing
curlers and a wig with the caption, `I'm a morning person
at noon,'" laughs Gardner.
Harvard. Well...sort of. 1999, Gardner's son was a Harvard
University student, and the college was asking parents
to submit their student's favorite recipes to the Harvard
University Dining Services; the winning recipe would be
cooked for the students.
a picture of Zelda in a chef 's hat. I forgot all about it,"
says Gardner. Turns out, Harvard did not--not only was
strawberry pie served all day to Harvard students, but Zelda
was invited to Harvard to receive a special "Pet Degree."
"Everyone loved meeting her. My son joked he was being
upstaged by his dog," recalls Gardner, who says that Zelda
had the magic to make Harvard University poke fun at itself.
philosophers; so I created the Zelda quote: Plato and
become a popular Mother's Day card," she recalls. In fact, a
few professors at various colleges have contacted Gardner
over the years because they use Zelda's wisdom in their
philosophy courses.
and even when she unexpectedly found herself in the
hospital recently, she was "sitting up in bed, coming up
with Day to Day Dogmas." At one point, Zelda even had
an online advice column, which was turned into the book
Dear Zelda. (Written by Gardner, with Zelda's expertise,
of course!)
" We're involved in the Zelda/American Humane
Association's Children's Hospital Project. And we're proud
to be partnering with them," says Gardner. The goal of this
collaboration is to use therapy dogs to help brighten young
patients' time in the hospital.
to you," laughs Gardner. "They have other forms of
communication. They are all about love and intuition and
are extremely sharp. Dogs can sense your mood and are
the best listeners in the world."