A lifelong dog lover has created a CD meant just for Fido's ears

Vancouver movie costume set supervisor Debi Weldon grew up in Los Angeles, surrounded by show biz. Her dad was a script supervisor in the early days of Hollywood on the Jerry Lewis-Dean Martin comedies of the 1960s, and Weldon vividly remembers hanging out on those sets as a kid. At 16, she met Elvis Presley on one of his movie sets in Hawaii. She ended up in the business herself 32 years ago, working in costumes, first in Toronto and, since 1992, in Vancouver.

She costumed Gwyneth Paltrow in Duets, Destiny's Child's Kelly Rowland in Freddy vs. Jason and has worked with scores of big-time actors, including Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Glenda Jackson and Ann-Margret.

Her filmography includes Reefer Madness, Miracle, Ecks vs. Sever, White Chicks, The X-Files and Millennium. And for the past 19 years, Weldon has worked as personal costumer with her old family friend Lewis, on his annual Labour Day telethon for muscular dystrophy.

She's just returned home from his last event in Beverly Hills.

And Weldon has always been crazy about dogs. "I was an only child, and when I was about six, my mother asked, 'Do you want a brother or sister or a dog?' "And I said, 'a dog', and I've had them ever since, as much as I can. I'm sure I was a dog in my last life, and I hope to be one again," she says quite seriously. "I always said I wanted to be a dog that I owned but now I want to be a dog that Mary Tyler Moore owns." (Apparently Moore has a full-time dog sitter on staff.)

Debi Weldon and her dog
Charlie O'Shea

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Nine years ago, Weldon's beloved wheaton terrier, Mr. Kelly, died, and last January she decided it was time to bring another dog into her life. She decided to take a year off work to raise her puppy. "Because the first year is everything, and I want a dog that's going to listen to me." That very lucky puppy is now a gorgeous wheaton terrier-standard poodle cross named Charlie O'Shea, whom she clearly adores. And she's turned down work on at least ten movies over the past eight months, including the Robin Williams movie, RV, and Air Buddies, starring 36 darling puppies. "This was the wrong year to pick to stay home," she jokes. But it's all been worth it.

Although keeping up with the rambunctious Charlie has been pretty much a full-time job, Weldon decided she needed a project to work on while Charlie napped. When one of Weldon's friends, who has two standard French poodles, confessed that when she had to leave her dogs alone for a few hours, she turned on CBC French-language radio for them. And when she came home, they'd give her a quick kiss, and run back to listen to their program.
"I got the idea to make a CD for dogs because I know that dogs love classical music, and I like to write stories," says Weldon. But never having made a CD before, there was a lot to learn. She used classical music, including Bach, Beethoven and Mozart, wrote 12 stories on subjects that dogs love -- food, the beach, naps, and even a play about a first obedience class called Tails At The Fire Hydrant. And after much expense and fun, her first dog-sitter CD -- Soothing Stories And Music For The Solo Dog is available for $19.98 on her website, which can be found at www.dogstoriesandmusic.com.

"It's the best dog CD this side of Pluto," she says with a chuckle. But, she insists, you should never leave a puppy home alone. Before she'll take a day call in the movies, she books her pet sitter first and takes Charlie to a home where he'll be taken care of and walked. "It's very educational, especially for children. I wrote as a dog -- I believe I really understand them. This says what dogs like, what they don't like, what they think about things. It's very much an educational tool for children and their parents."

Some of the pieces on the CD are The Alphabet of Dog Breeds, listing almost every breed, A Day at the Beach and one of the shorter pieces, called My Favourite Toys, is in rhyme.

"I have new respect for Dr. Seuss," jokes Weldon. And I Love Naps "is so slow," she laughs, "I guarantee no one can stay awake, it just knocks you out!"