Top Cats and Dogs of the 20th Century Take a Bow - Wow!
The Iams Company announces winners of online contest to name favorite famous pets of the past 100 years
Provided by The Iams Company

Dayton, Ohio - December 15, 1999 - A presidential pooch and a courageous kitty were named Top Dog and Top Cat of the 20th century today by the The Iams Company. Paws down, the favorite canine of the 20th century is Fala, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's trusted companion. And, www.iams.com survey participants agreed that Scarlett, the New York City cat who saved her kittens from a fire in 1996, is definitely the cat's meow.

"President Clinton recently acknowledged FDR as the most important man of this century, so it seems fitting that dog lovers voted to name Fala the Century's 'Top Dog,'" says Bryan Brown, communications director, The Iams Company. "It's also interesting to note that despite the well-known fictional pets represented in the list, survey participants chose to recognize a real dog and cat in the top spots."

Fala, a black Scottish Terrier, gained recognition as FDR's constant companion. Newspapers published photos of the presidential pooch riding in the limousine with FDR on the way to the president's 1941 inauguration. FDR also denounced the media for attacking his canine friend in a 1944 speech dubbed the "Fala Speech." Now, Fala is immortalized as FDR's beloved companion seated at the president's feet in a monument in the FDR memorial in Washington D.C.

Scarlett, a brave cat from Brooklyn, N.Y., captured the heart of the nation in 1996 when she rescued her five kittens from a burning building by carrying them across the street one by one. Scarlett, whose name reflects the burns she received in the blaze, and her four surviving kittens were adopted after the incident.

The next two favorite dogs are Togo and Snoopy. Togo, a lead sled dog in the 1925 serum run to Nome, Alaska, took second place. Togo made headlines in the journey to deliver critical medical serum during the diphtheria epidemic. He is remembered for traveling the longest distance in the tag-team effort to deliver medicine across the frozen ground - a journey that reportedly sidelined his dogsledding career.

Snoopy, Charlie Brown's capable canine buddy, earned third place. The lovable pooch has been warming people's hearts since 1950, when Charles Schulz's Peanuts cartoon strip first appeared. Since then, countless people young and old have enjoyed the cartoon beagle's antics.

In the top Cat category, Garfield and Tigger ranked in the top three. Garfield, an orange-striped cartoon character created by Jim Davis in 1978, took second. The cynical cat has elicited laughs from people around the globe. Winnie the Pooh's chum Tigger bounced into third place. Tigger was created by A.A. Milne and first appeared in 1928 in The House at Pooh Corner.

Cat- and dog-lovers chose the winners by casting online ballots at www.iams.com. Favorite cats and dogs were chosen from lists that included both fictional and real canines and felines, including presidential pups and kitties, storybook characters such as the Cat in the Hat and Clifford the Big Red Dog, famous canine and feline television celebrities and more. Participants cast 6,111 votes in the Top Dog contest, with Fala winning more than 2,000 votes. Scarlett earned more than 200 of the 964 votes cast in the Top Cat contest.