This was truly my pet project — literally. Combining a lifelong love of dogs with a passion for music, I teamed up with a high school friend to create TORU — a charitable line of vintage-style rock ‘n’ roll apparel for dogs, named after our pups Tony and Rudy.

THE "SPINAL TAP" APPROACH TO LAUNCHING

To promote the line and create intrigue, Toru launched a fictitious all dog band, LIXX. LIXX promoted Toru's first charitable line benefiting The Good Dog Foundation at SuperZoo in Las Vegas. The band was comprised of certified therapy dogs. The lead singer, Tony (the "to" in Toru), appeared on The Today Show modeling his Good Dog hoodie and gained quite the following on his band's microsite.

RESCUES ROCK THE RUNWAY

In 2009, our rock-inspired dog apparel line took center stage as the proud sponsor and creator of Rescues Rock the Runway — a fashion event benefiting Paws 4 You Rescue Inc. at the Mayfair Hotel in Miami, FL.

The night marked the debut of our Rescue Wear collection, designed to raise awareness for rescue groups, adoption, and spay/neuter programs nationwide, with 15% of retail sales donated to Paws 4 You Rescue. Local rescue dogs became the night’s supermodels, strutting the runway in style.

The results were inspiring: thousands of dollars raised, every dog adopted into a forever home, and national media attention from outlets including Rachael Ray, Martha Stewart, Animal Planet, FOX News, Modern Dog, The Daily Candy, and Ladies’ Home Journal.

A booklet featuring adoption success stories were given out to all the guests at the benefit.

One year later we published a charitable calendar on Amazon which sold out and raised more funds for our rescues.