Their eyes met across a not-so-crowded TV station foyer.
WCCO-TV political reporter Pat Kessler was instantly in love. His wife, Mim Davey, Fox 9 news director and one of my bosses, understood because she, too, fell in love with the face of Roxy the puggle.
"I was walking out of the building and there in the lobby is this dog and we had to have her," Kessler told me Monday. "Our dog died over this terrible winter. We've been looking for a new family member. We've been going to the Humane Society rescue operations and nothing looked like a fit until Roxy. The problem is that she was on our 'CCO news and I knew the minute she was on our news, somebody was going to grab her. I went up to watch the noon news and be with Roxy, then I raced to the Animal Humane Society in Golden Valley, filled out an application and claimed her.
"She is the greatest dog. I cannot understand how someone would have given her up. She's happy. She's playful. She loves to go out for walks. She's housebroken," Kessler said. "Now I'm not a Facebook person and don't know if you are."
I am not; Twitter is my online drug of choice.
Kessler laughed: "Honest to god, I don't know much about this stuff. Here's the thing. The Humane Society put this picture up on the website of me and Roxy. It got thousands and thousands and thousands of, in Twitter we call them 'hits,' but I guess on Facebook they call them 'likes.' It's just crazy." Here's a link to the photo: www.tinyurl.com/k8oztb4.
Roxy's online popularity hasn't gone to her head, and she continues to be a worthy successor to the late Shelby, Kessler's and Davey's pug everybody assumed was named after retired WCCO-TV anchor Don Shelby. "And Don was so proud," Kessler laughed hysterically, which he continued to do as he added, "It was a rescue dog and that was the dog's name when we got it. But I always told Shelby the dog was named after him. Don was in on the joke."
A pug named Rupert preceded Shelby in death. "After Rupert Murdoch," Kessler said laughing. "That was the given name [when Rupert joined the family]! It just happened that way."
Kessler said, "The revelation for me is that people were interested [that he and Davey adopted this dog]. I choose to interpret the 'likes' and the responses on Twitter as them finding out I really do have a heart. I think people were just startled to find out that I had a heart."
An image problem with which I can identify.
"Yes! You and me both, sister!" Kessler said. "When I show up at their doors they are not happy to see me."
Maybe Kessler should roll with Roxy everywhere he goes.
Humphries on 'Mean Tweets'
Congratulations, Kris Humphries, for making Jimmy Kimmel's "Mean Tweets NBA Edition No. 2" segment Sunday!
Your tweet was not one that normally merits congrats, but you must have been cool with it since you went on TV and read the tweet in your usual pulseless delivery.
For the uninitiated, this is the bit where Kimmel has celebrities read sometimes vicious statements people post about them on Twitter. It is comic gold.
Humphries read: "@KrisHumphries **** YOU! You're so pathetic! Seriously kill yourself please. XX," a tweet from @DavidMateDi according to various websites.
I don't think Humphries, of the Celtics at this moment, knew he was supposed to have a reaction to the tweet. Humphries doesn't really do reactions.
Paul George, of the Pacers, had a pitch-perfect response to a tweet that read: "I would kill my parents if they named me Paul George … that's an ugly ass name."
Looking directly into the camera, George prominently flipped off the tweeting Beatles-hater, his middle finger pixilated for viewers.
For the Most Spot-on Cerebral Response to an Idiot, I turn your attention to the Rockets' Jeremy Lin. His "Mean Tweet" read: "Jermy lin need to git the weight room."
Lin's response was "You need to 'git' the spell check."
C.J. can be reached at cj@startribune.com and seen on Fox 9's "Buzz." E-mailers, please state a subject; "Hello" does not count. Attachments are not opened.
C.J.: Jerry O'Connell gets support from Wendy Williams for talk show
