Finding Love Through an Animal Attraction

(onlinedatingmagazine.com - July 29, 2005) Heather McLean and Chris Murphy can't wait to see "Must Love Dogs" this weekend, the major motion picture starring Diane Lane and John Cusack. Like Sarah Nolan (Lane's character) and Jake Anderson (Cusack's character), Heather and Chris were brought together by the seemingly unlikely combination of dogs and online dating.

Heather, a 36-year-old divorced woman from St. Louis with two dogs, had never even considered trying online dating before she read a local newspaper article that mentioned AnimalAttraction.com, an online dating site created specifically for pet lovers.

She immediately thought, "Wouldn't it be nice to meet some guys who LOVE dogs, instead of guys who ARE dogs!"

A few days after joining, she met Chris, a 37-year-old single guy from the Raleigh/Durham area in North Carolina. Like Heather, Chris had also read about AnimalAttraction.com in a local paper. He had given up on other dating sites, thinking that they simply didn't deliver on their promises, but decided that meeting other pet lovers could be different.

"I spent a few months making friends in the chat rooms, but didn't uncover any romantic prospects, until one day Heather popped up in there and we chatted until the wee hours of the morning. A few weeks, phone calls and emails later, we decided to actually meet so I flew to St. Louis to meet Heather, Toby (Heather's 7-year-old Rottweiler) and Tootsie (Heather's 4-year old-mutt)," Murphy stated.

"Toby approached Chris barking, like he usually does with men, but Chris just stood there and in the nicest voice kept saying hi to him and telling him it was ok," said Heather. "Within a few minutes Toby went into 'pet me' mode and seemed to fall in love with Chris. That Chris was both confident and kind with Toby immediately told me he was a strong and caring man, which was very attractive to me. After a wonderful four-day weekend, we decided to move in together. Since June, Chris, and I, and his dog Yuki, and my dogs have been living happily together and we're all looking forward to a long, healthy relationship, thanks to AnimalAttraction.com."

This type of happy ending is exactly what Dan Cohen, Founder of AnimalAttraction.com envisioned when he launched the site in May of 2004. Cohen, 36, is an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and former vice president of sales for the Washington Redskins football team. He's also the proud owner of Buddy, a 1 and 1/2 year old Shepherd/Rottweiler mix, and knows firsthand the passion of pet lovers.

"Pet lovers are warm, caring and responsible people and whether you're looking for a friend, a date, or a long term relationship, those are great qualities to have," says Cohen. "We're thrilled to see 'Must Love Dogs' bringing to the national spotlight what we, and our tens of thousands of members, have been preaching for more than a year now: that pet lovers are a special breed and they deserve a place to connect with one another that was created especially for them."

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