pet connection

It was 8:30 a.m. ET on Thursday, January 4, and I was on the Times Square set of “Good Morning America” getting ready to do my “Puppies 101″ segment with GMA co-host, Chris Cuomo. Also on GMA that day was Jennifer Hudson, one of the stars of the hit movie “Dreamgirls” and a front-runner for best-supporting-actress Oscar. The way morning TV works is that you tease upcoming segments — to get people to stay tuned or contact others to tell them to watch — by showing snippets of what people will see, hear, learn in the next 30 minutes.

Step-by-step here’s the sequence: At 8:30 a.m., Jennifer would sing a snippet of her hit song, then they’d show the puppies I was going to have in my upcoming segment. Then after a commercial break, and another segment on “Healthy Snacking,” I’d do my “Puppies 101″ followed by Jennifer’s soulful singing with a live band. At this time, approximately 4 million people are watching.

Here’s the funny thing that you probably didn’t hear (you can go back to your DVR and listen again). When Jennifer’s band lit it up and she started singing the promo piece, all the puppies ran to the stage side of the their plexiglass enclosure, raised up on their back feet side-by-side, threw their heads back and started howling. So Dreamgirls Jennifer Hudson had a most unusual group of background singers: Four 3 1/2 month old Chihuahua-poodle mixes. Those of us in the studio witnessed something truly special — Dreamdogs accompanying a Dreamgirl.