Unless you live in a cave, you have heard of The Big Bang Theory, CBS’s hit sitcom, airing on Thursdays at 8/7c.
The show is centered on five characters: roommates Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki) and Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons – Emmy and Golden Globe award winner); Penny (Kaley Cuoco), a waitress and aspiring actress who lives across the hall; and Leonard and Sheldon’s equally geeky and socially awkward friends and co-workers, aerospace engineer Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg) and astrophysicist Raj Koothrappali (Kunal Nayyar). The geekiness and intellect of the four guys is contrasted for comic effect with Penny’s social skills and common sense.
Kaley Cuoco first gained recognition playing the role of Bridget Hennessy on ABC’s 8 Simple Rules For Dating My Teenage Daughter, the Emmy Award-winning sitcom that ran from 2002 to 2005. Cuoco then played the role of Billie Jenkins on the last season of Charmed, the supernatural drama series that ran from 2005 to 2006. Cuoco also has a sizable film repertoire with appearances in movies like To Be Fat Like Me, The Last Ride, Hop, The Penthouse and Lucky 13. An enthusiast horseback rider and a gifted tennis player, Cuoco enjoys working-out, hiking and playing with her dogs. She is also involved with various charities and causes including PETA, Animal Avengers, the Epidermolysis Bullosa Medical Research Foundation and the Elisabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. The actress describes herself as an actress, animal lover, avid spinner, ping-pong champion, technology obsessed, and reality TV enthusiast – although she apologizes for it!
The lovely Kaley Cuoco is not only perky and extremely funny in The Big Bang Theory; she is also a very committed animal rescue advocate. She has always had dogs, since she was a child. When she grew up, she started to think of where her family got their dogs. “A few years ago, something just hit me. I had never felt so connected to animals in my life. All of a sudden, I woke up and realized that I have to rescue dogs,” she says. Her first adopted dog was called Petey, and was a Dashchund-Chihuahua mix that she saw in a shelter when she was 16 years old. Her parents had told she couldn’t keep him, but instead of bringing him back to the shelter, she hid the dog for a couple of days at their house. When the parents eventually found out Petey, and told her they would have to take the dog back, she did everything she could to convince them otherwise. “I begged them, ‘I promise I’ll take care of him.’ At sixteen, I was completely irresponsible, so they didn’t think I could care for him properly,” Kaley says. “But my parents fell in love with him, and I have adopted a handful of dogs since then. Petey changed my whole life.” She then rescued many other dogs and even converted her mom to animal rescue! Together they rescued two other dogs, Lucy, an Atika mix puppy, and Zeus, a German Shepherd Kaley found in the street. She took it the local shelter, put signs everywhere. After two weeks, when no one had come to claim Zeus, Kaley and her mom adopted him for good and he know lives at the family home.
In Kaley’s perfect world, there would be no abandoned animals. “I want to rescue every dog I can. I want to buy a huge house and fill it dogs and hire people to live there and take care of them,” she tells. She also says that she can’t walk in an animal shelter anymore because she feels like she has to take all the dogs home with her.
Kaley now has 3 rescued Pit Bull dogs. “I love them so much, and I think they are the most amazing dogs in the world,” she says. Concerned about the bad rap Pitbull dogs always get, she recently appeared in I Love My Pit Bull, Angel City Pit Bulls‘ first PSA Campaign, where they featured pit bull parents who just love their Pit Bulls and wanted to tell the world.
When asked about her dogs funny quirks, she tells this story of one of her dogs, Shirley, who loves to go in the Jacuzzi. When she’s too hot, she takes a dip to cool down and then goes back to the Jacuzzi! Shirley was also featured in a book: ComPAWssion: portraits of rescued dogs, by Frank Bruynbroek, a collection of moving, black and white portraits of rescued dogs.
Always ready to have fun and to defend a cause, one of host Kaley Cuoco’s bits during the 2013 People’s Choice Awards, which she was hosting for the second time, was a pre-taped public service announcement about dog-shaming (the new trend of posting photos online with your dog wearing a sign about something naughty he or she did). It was over top pictures of dogs with signs that said things like, “I licked the turkey” and “It’s all fun and games until someone ends up with a cone.” Then live in the studio, Kaley had on a sign that read, “I can’t throw a stick to save my life.” All along, her dog Shirley was sitting in the front row, and watching her mom rather judgingly! Vengeance is a meal best served cold! Although we are pretty sure Shirley was only using her acting talents, since there’s no one less vengeful than a dog!
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