The New York Post is reporting that Ellen DeGeneres is trying to revamp her image after Iggy-gate - teaming up with fellow animal lover and former Meow Mix owner Richard Thompson to rebuild shabby animal shelters across the United States.

DeGeneres has featured Thompson on her show to talk about the campaign and the first project - a makeover of a sanctuary in Monkey Run, Ark. - is currently under way, with Thompson footing the bill.

“We’re halfway done now,” Thompson told Page Six. “We’ve been redoing it for a woman named Janice Wolf, who was found by Ellen. We bulldozed the place, and we’re building a new hay barn and a new barn. She’s got almost 60 animals, including a zebra, some Watusi cattle and 20 dogs, some that are three-legged, blind and deaf.”

DeGeneres and Thompson became friends because they are both “pet nuts,” said Thompson, who added that he doesn’t mind his pal basking in the spotlight while he does the hard labor and foots the bill.

“She can be the celebrity. She wanted to do something good. I’m proud of her, she believes in this,” said Thompson, who sold Meow Mix to Del Monte and now runs the animal-based Web site ZooToo.com.

“These pets are bringing the community together. Ellen’s one of the best rescue people I’ve ever met, she got a bad rap over Iggy,” he added.

Thompson will unveil his project tomorrow, and The Ellen DeGeneres Show will be there to tape it for a future airing. DeGeneres’ rep declined to comment.

Those of you still thinking and wondering about Ellen DeGeneres‘ former dog Iggy can breathe a sigh of relief: The little guy is doing just fine and in a safe and loving home according to Keith A. Fink, an attorney for Mutts and Moms.

The 5-month-old Affenpinscher mix is returning to the spotlight, shooting a new Public Service Announcement for pet adoption awareness — and appears to be very happy.

The dog first made headlines in October after DeGeneres, with the best of intentions, gave the adopted dog away to her hairdresser. Because the move was against the Mutts and Moms pet adoption agency’s policy, the dog was taken back.

Fink would not reveal the dog’s whereabouts “for the safety of the adoptive family,” but stressed that Iggy has been placed “with a family that is a loving and takes great care of him.”

Added Fink, “Iggy likes to play with overstuffed animals and has a special preference for a stuffed turtle.”

For more footage of Iggy, watch Monday’s Entertainment Tonight. The PSA will debut on ET Tuesday.

[Source]

The New York Post is reporting that Ellen DeGeneres‘ doggy dealings have been a positive thing for the talk queen after all. Ratings for The Ellen DeGeneres Show were up almost 10 percent in the overnight Nielsens for the two days following her emotional breakdown over her adopted mutt, Iggy.

Those are just the preliminary numbers - the actual number of viewers may be much, much higher.

Update: The Huffington Post interviews Mutts and Moms for even more insight into the story.

People.com ran a story today detailing emails laid out by The Smoking Gun between Ellen DeGeneres, Portia De Rossi and Marina Baktis, one of the owners of Mutts and Moms.

The correspondence, reveals the couple’s initial love for dog, their decision to give him away, and the shock expressed by pet-rescue agency Mutts & Moms at that development.

A partner at Mutts & Moms, Marina Baktis, tells the couple that Iggy’s relocation constitutes “a betrayal of our trust” and a violation of the contract, to which de Rossi replies, “Your email is truly heartbreaking to many people.”

There is also one e-mail from DeGeneres’s hair stylist, Cheryl Marks, who pleads that after two weeks, Iggy is “bonded and loved by our family.” Baktis insists he must be returned.

So after reading the emails, we have to wonder, what happened that kept the adoption from happening!? Did Cheryl not return the dog as requested and this is what spurred Mutts and Moms to get Iggy themselves?

The New York Post is reporting that Ellen DeGeneres‘ latest doggy debacle wasn’t the first time she’d passed along a pup she’d adopted.

A Los Angeles producer, Kerri Randles, says she gave DeGeneres a male mutt named Stormy two years ago who the talk-show queen quickly gave away to a member of her staff less than two months later.

She may have had it for much less time than that. I only say two months because that’s when I called to check on the dog and found out she no longer had it. I was totally shocked. I thought she was out of her mind.”

DeGeneres may have passed along several other dogs over the years. Howard Stern said on his Sirius show that he’d heard she had done this nine times before. Joking maybe? Who knows.

Viewers were shocked Tuesday when DeGeneres tearfully told her viewers that the Mutts & Moms agency had gone to her hairdresser’s house and confiscated the dog Ellen had adopted from the stylist. Mutts & Moms said she had signed a contract agreeing to return the dog only to the agency if she no longer wanted to care for it.

Randles said DeGeneres seemed a perfect pet owner at first, but she quickly discovered the daytime TV hostess was “neurotic and crazy.”

When Randles took Stormy to NBC studios to meet DeGeneres, she was “drilled” for four hours by the star, her assistants and the crew.

“Everyone on the show and in her entourage got themselves all involved,” Randles told Page Six’s Marianne Garvey. “They were all coming into the dressing room, playing with the dog as if it were a new extension of Ellen.”

DeGeneres finally decided to keep the dog for a few nights to see if he’d fit into her home. She suggested that Randles take the dressing room next door to “tell the dog privately that she’d be going home with Ellen.”

“I told her I’d already had a talk with the dog. She didn’t get my jokes,” said Randles.

When she called to check on the pup a few days later, DeGeneres told her she’d decided to keep it. “She acted like she was keeping it for life,” Randles recalled.

DeGeneres’ rep did not return calls by the NY Post.

Interesting! The last we checked/read, Ellen had two dogs, Pig and Wolf - has anyone heard her mention these two dogs on her show? Did she mention how well (or not) Iggy got along with her dogs? If what’s been reported is true, does this change your opinion about the Mutts and Moms situation?

Update: According to Ellen’s publicist, Kelly Bush, the comedienne was told Stormy was living in a car at the time Ellen rescued him. Bush claims Ellen offered to find a safe home for the dog. The following day, Ellen helped place Stormy in a better home.