Don't judge a book by its cover"”or a magazine. Bonnie-Jill Laflin, American Dog cover girl, is more than a model of exotic eye-candy. Sure, she has all the bombshell credentials"”she's a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader and an international Maxim magazine cover girl who is on Maxim's Hot 100 list. But beyond the striking exterior, Bonnie-Jill is a very accomplished person.
Bonnie-Jill is the first and only female scout in the National Basketball Association for the Los Angeles Lakers. She's also a sports broadcaster and just shot a pilot for ESPN, a sports TV show, with Jerry Rice of the 49ers. She's working on a sports radio show, Angels on the Airwaves, which features three women talking sports with a little Hollywood entertainment thrown in. Her business interests include a clothing line she started with her friend Charla Braun, called Double Play Sportswear, an NBA clothing line for women.
"I hate talking about myself," said Bonnie-Jill when I pressed her to talk about her accomplishments. "People always doubt women in a man's world. It's a lot of hard work being the only female but it's something I'm proud of because I've worked my butt off to be where I'm at. It's a man's world and it's grinding and I've proven a lot of people wrong who doubted me."
Bonnie-Jill has always been ambitious. "A lot of what I wanted to do when I was little, I've achieved, " she says. "In middle school, I said I was going to be a cheerleader for the Dallas Cowboys. I said I was going to run my own team and now I am." One aspect of her life she is most proud of is her support of our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. "I've been to Iraq and Afghanistan six times on USO tours," says Bonnie-Jill. She has combined that effort with her love of dogs who are suffering in the war zone by supporting an organization called Operation Baghdad Pups. "There are so many stray dogs over there," she explains, "and service men and women get attached to these dogs because they're a reminder of home. This program gets these dogs and brings them back."
Bonnie-Jill is disappointed that the Armed Services don't fully support this type of activism. "The high ranking brass in the Armed Services think they [soldiers] should focus on their work, not the dogs," says Bonnie-Jill. "I've gone to certain bases where the soldiers have dogs and they've told me they really want to bring a dog back and I tell them about this program. Around three hundred dogs have been saved and they have people who volunteer to foster the dogs until they get back. It's a really neat program."
Millions of dogs are suffering and dying in our shelters here in the U.S. and it's hard to imagine that circumstances could be any worse for dogs in Iraq and Afghanistan, but they are. Many of the local dogs and cats there are starving because culturally, they are not loved as pets and are considered dirty and a nuisance. "Mostly, the people over there don't have the compassion for animals that we do," Bonnie-Jill says. "Little boys would be throwing rocks at dogs. "˜Dogs are monsters,' a little boy told me. We'll stop for a starving dog and give him food but they [local people] want the worst for the dog.
What's horrible is that the animals are not being spayed or neutered, so there are tons of them. That's why it's so great when these dogs get to come here to America," continues Bonnie-Jill. "They're in heaven. They're used to fending for themselves and now they've got a warm bed and a soldier who loves them."
Bonnie-Jill is about to unveil her third PETA ad campaign. This one is to educate people on adopting a vegetarian lifestyle. "It's a healthier lifestyle," Bonnie-Jill says. "I've been a vegetarian for eight years and I've never eaten beef or pork because I was raised with cows and pigs, so they were my pets. People don't realize it"”It's like eating your dog to me." Bonnie-Jill's three dogs aren't impressed with all of her achievements"”they know her as the person who saved their lives.
Game enough to kick off her high heels, Bonnie-Jill put in long hours assisting a difficult and heart-wrenching rescue we worked on together last spring. Over sixty Miniature Pinschers were saved from a horrific puppy mill in Riverside, California, and she volunteered, doing intake and triage at the hospital. These breeding dogs had been exposed to brutal conditions and Bonnie-Jill fostered ten of the abused Min Pins while they waited to be adopted. She fell in love with one and her mom took in another. Bonnie-Jill named her rescued Min Pin Norma-Jean (after Marilyn Monroe) and has been helping her adjust. Though Norma-Jean is still afraid of men, she is gaining confidence and has even begun to play with Bonnie-Jill's two other rescued dogs.
Wilt Chamberlain, who is named after the famously lusty basketball player (he's fixed), is a little Pug and French Bulldog mix who had been red-listed at the Downey shelter. "He has the cutest little smushed face. I call him Smushy," says Bonnie-Jill. Diamond Chanel is a Chihuahua and Boston Terrier mix that Bonnie-Jill rescued from a shelter in Los Angeles. "She's the love of my life and she's taken over my personality," says Bonnie-Jill, laughing.
"When we're in the car and I get road rage, she gets road rage too! She barks and growls when I'm getting mad." "You know how they say diamonds are a girl's best friend?" asks Bonnie Jill, "Well, my dog Diamond is my best friend." If Diamond could talk, she'd tell us that Bonnie-Jill is a gem.
