Animal Idol28,000 votes gives golden retriever top billing
DeKALB - She didn't have to sing any top 40 hits or get berated by Simon Cowell, but Callan is an American idol nonetheless. “DeKalb County's Animal Idol,” to be more exact. The 16-month-old golden retriever was the top vote-getter in the recently concluded “DeKalb County's Animal ldol” contest and will grace the cover of a 2006 pet calendar coming out next month. She also will be the featured animal for July while her housemate, 5-year-old McKenzie, also a golden retriever, got enough votes to win the October slot. “I love my dogs and I thought everyone else would too,” said Jan Sofranko, the dogs' owner. She was right. Callan got more than 28,000 votes in the contest. McKenzie got just over 18,000. A photo of Callan playing around a kiddie pool was one of 96 pet photos submitted to the Chronicle for the contest. All ran in the Oct. 3 paper, and after a week of voting, photos of the top 50 vote-getters ran on Oct. 13. More than 145,000 votes were cast - many for the price of a suggested donation of 25 cents each - during two rounds of voting. Nearly $9,400 was raised from the voting and from the calendar's 12 sponsors. After the cost of printing the calendar is covered, that means about $6,000 will be split 75-25 between the Chronicle's Newspapers In Education program and Taking Animals Into Loving Shelter (TAILS) Humane Society, a DeKalb-based animal shelter. The Chronicle NIE program is part of a larger, national effort to provide free newspapers, curriculum and teacher training to schools and adult literacy programs. “A lot of it was people voting for their pet,” said Inside Advertising Manager Christine Patrick, including one man who spent nearly $600 on votes to get his pet into the calendar. But there were plenty of unbiased folks who voted for one or more of the animals - a field primarily made up of dogs and cats but that also included one camel, two horses, a turtle named El Presidente and a sugar glider, which is a kind of marsupial native to Australia. Depending on how many of the 13-month calendars are purchased, there could be a lot more money going to NIE and TAILS, too. The calendars will be available for a suggested donation of $5 each at the Daily Chronicle and The MidWeek offices and Borders some time after Dec. 5. The initial order is for 2,000 calendars. Sofranko said McKenzie isn't jealous at being edged out by Callan. “McKenzie doesn't have a clue,” she said. Both dogs, who live on Sofranko's Malta farm, are awaiting certification as therapy dogs that can be taken into hospitals, nursing homes and other health facilities. Both also participate in advanced dog-obedience programs. Sofranko said her family has had golden retrievers before, and she likes them “because of their personalities. ... They're happy dogs. They smile all the time.” Patrick said she was surprised that nearly 100 people entered their pets in the contest, which was based on similar contests at other newspapers. Organizers would have been happy with 50, she said. That uncertainty about how many people would participate in the contest's first year may have led to the bit of controversy over how many rounds of voting there would be. Patrick said the Chronicle received two or three calls from people who complained there was no notice from the paper that there would be a second round of voting. “We had intended on having a second round all the while, but it was all dependent on the number of photos received,” she said. Despite a couple glitches, “We really don't think (the contest) could have gone much better than it did,” Patrick said. The calendar's sponsors are Prairie View Animal Hospital, Rake & Retrieve Canine Waste Removal, The Beach Club, Nancy Watson (Coldwell Banker), Rosita's Mexican Restaurant, Cooper's Diamond Jewelers, Women's Institute of Cosmetic & Laser Surgery, Spex Express, Ruth Ranieri (Coldwell Banker), Crown Point Realty, Kishwaukee Community Hospital and Virgil Veterinary Clinic. Chris Rickert can be reached at crickert@daily-chronicle.com.