Pets of The Retaility
Meet our favorite furry family members…
At nearly every The Retaility photo shoot, we’ve found that each of our subject’s pets think they’re the real stars of the show. They must know the saying, “The dog stays in the picture,” because they all found their way into the frame without any prompting.
So without further ado, we present you with our favorite furry family members who are stars in their own minds and, of course, within their homes.
— Photography by Birdie Thompson, Kate Jones, Emily Malan, & The Retaility
Actress Jordana Brewster with her dog Endi
“She’s so sweet,” Brewster says. “She was supposed to be a boy. I was calling her Endicott and then she was a girl, but I still called her Endi. We got her in March of [2020]. We’d lost our lab when I was shooting ‘Fast’ in about 2019 and it was time.”
EF Collection founder Emily Faith Strauss’s dog Levi
“[Levi] is the love of our lives,” she says. “He comes to the office every day with the EF Collection team—that’s why he’s so good. He gets love from all of us. There is no stranger. He loves everybody.”
Actress/writer/producer Nikki DeLoach with her British lab, Windsor
“My favorite thing about him is how amazing he is with my two boys,” she has said. “He is so incredibly protective of them. If they get too far ahead on their scooters or too close to the ocean water, he gets very anxious and wants to go after them.”
Create & Cultivate founder Jaclyn Johnson’s pup Winnie
She's the sweetest love bug,” she says. “My husband teaches at Cal Poly. He's a professor of design. One of his students had posted that one of their siblings got her and couldn't keep her. He was like, ‘I think we should take her in and foster her,’ and we already had another dog, so I wasn’t sure. They thought she was a Maltipoo, which is hilarious. We took her in and fell in love and then we did a DNA test and found out she's a Chihuahua poodle.”
Doula and C & the Moon founder Carson Meyer with her dog Paulie
“We rescued him off Instagram,” Meyer jokes of the poodle mix she shares with her musician boyfriend Johnathan Rice. “We named him Paulie Walnuts after the Sopranos cab driver. My boyfriend is obsessed with ‘The Sopranos’ and we watched the whole thing in a week.” She adds, “Everyday, I’m like, ‘Can you believe we didn’t have Paulie before?’”
Hairstylists Ted Gibson & Jason Backe’s dog Spencer
In 2018, Gibson and Backe packed up everything they owned and moved from New York to Los Angeles with their now–twelve-year-old Norwich terrier, Spencer. The pup also attended their wedding in 2014, which took place along the Hudson River in New York City.
Azione and LDMA co-founder Leland Drummond’s pup
Drummond has two dogs: Oscar and Otis —although one was more camera shy than the other.
Fitness guru and Maison Goldblum founder Emilie Goldblum with her dog Woody
Goldblum shares her red-haired poodle Woody with her actor-husband Jeff Goldblum and their two sons Charlie and River. Their pup predates the kids.
Screenwriter Kirsten “Kiwi” Smith’s pups: Trudie and the late Pippin
“Trudie arrived in the pandemic,” Smith says. “I had a pit bull named Pippin who is fawn colored. Pippin passed away in January and so I saw some pictures of dogs online and Trudie looked like a little Chihuahua version of Pippin. So I went from pit bull to Chihuahua and it’s quite a change.” The illustration of Pippin is by her friend Sasha Spielberg. “She does incredible dog portraits,” Smith explains. “So she did this of Pippin and she captured Pippin’s vulnerability so beautifully. Pippin had megaesophagus, so she had to be fed upright in a chair for like three years. This journey of having a special needs dog, it just makes you love your baby even more.”
Hatmaker and accessories designer Janessa Leone’s dog Wallace
“Wallace is three,” Leone says of her golden retriever. “He’s an angel puppy. He kind of helped save my life because I lost my dad and then I lost my dog right after. It was a really, really dark time and they were both sudden and so Wallace came in and brought joy back to our life. He’s a good guy.” She found him in Toronto. “That’s where they’re reviving the golden breed,” she explains. “They’re helping them become cancer free. It’s a longevity project that I became involved in. I had a golden retriever who passed away from cancer. Goldens are dying of cancer often, so I went down a long road of trying to find a breeder that was reviving the golden breed.”
Make-up artist Rachel Goodwin’s cat
Goodwin lives with four rescue cats: Ripley, Mr. Lickers, Dashiell, and Madame Leota. “[My seven-year-old son] Lonan’s favorite kitty is Ripley,” she says with a laugh. “She wants attention all the time. And Mr. Lickers is a celebrity. Everybody in this neighborhood knows him. He comes and goes. Everyone’s like, ‘Is Mr. Lickers here?’ He’s got a fan club. I said to my son, ‘I think we need to start a Mr. Lickers Instagram account.’”
Artist Alexandra Nechita’s dog Tofu
Nechita has three dogs, but Tofu was the first to capture her heart. “She’s 100 percent a human stuck in a dog’s body,” she says. “She’s my favorite. Don’t tell the other two.” Nechita says she always wanted a Weimaraner. “My husband entertained the idea, but subconsciously was like, ‘We’re not getting a horse-sized dog in this 1,500-square-foot house.’ I actually always had a repulsion to small dogs.” She laughs. “The things you run away from are the things that chase you. Always.” Nechita’s father found Tofu abandoned at a home he was flipping at the time. “They ambushed me into taking a dog,” she says. “They knew me seeing the dog in person it would be a no-brainer. Even now, there’s this deep-seeded, profound gratitude that she has for us. … She turned into this child that we took everywhere. I’d sneak her into the Arclight. For my husband’s birthday, we always go to Chateau Marmont for lunch. So we took her with us. My dad’s favorite thing is to say, ‘From Arleta to Chateau.’ That’s her tagline.” She also has pups named Lenny and Dasha. “Dasha is of Russian origins, so she’s difficult and she uses her beauty as an excuse for everything,” Nechita jokes. “[My husband] Dima has a special bond with her.” Lenny has a nickname. “My six-year-old introduces her as Jennifer Lopez to everyone,” she says. “She looks like Pinky and the Brain.”
Jewelry designer Adina Reyter with her pup Archie
Reyter’s five-year-old pup is named Archie. The jewelry designer insists her dog was named before Meghan Markle’s first son. “The day that she had her baby and named it Archie, I got a hundred texts that said, ‘She named her baby after your dog,’” she laughs. “We named him after Archie Comics, which my daughter is obsessed with. When we got him, he had orange eyebrows, so she named him Archie.”
Costume designer Janie Bryant’s rescue standard poodle Prince Valiant
Prince Valiant accompanies Bryant everywhere she goes — including to set. “Twenty-five years ago, I got my first little toy poodle and I’ve been getting poodles ever since,” she explains. “I’ve since graduated to standard poodles. They’re my spirit animal.”
Designer Cynthia Vincent’s dog Niko
“Is she not posing?” Vincent says, as her pup Niko cheeses for the camera. “She’s just a big ‘old ham. She wants to be in all the shots. She does this at every single photo shoot. You want to dance? Okay, show off! She’s pretty delightful.”