Most celebrities aren't known for being happy to share the limelight. Except, it seems, when it comes to showing off their pets.

"People ask me, 'How were you able to get people to do this?'" says Dallas Morning News photographer David Woo, co-author of Top Dogs and Their Pets (Parapet Press, $29.95). "It surprised me, too. But it wasn’t about them. It was about their pet."

David Woo

Jimmy Johnson, FOX Sports analyst and former Dallas Cowboys head coach, and Buttercup

Woo, along with former News photographer Richard Michael Pruitt, got 91 people, from musicians to models to ex-presidents, to pose with their dogs, cats, snakes and birds for the project. A portion of the book's sales, and all the money raised from the sale of photographic prints, will benefit animal-related charities.

Stars from across the country volunteered; radio host Diane Rehm wrote the introduction. But the collection has a definite Texas flavor, and some of the state's best-known faces – and their friends – are shown here. Because you don't have to be famous to appreciate the bond humans have with their animals.

Michael Merschel

Plan your life

David Woo will appear at 4 p.m. Nov. 7 at Legacy Books, 7300 Dallas Parkway, Plano. Book sales and a silent auction of prints that day will benefit Operation Kindness.

The Cesar & Ilusion Millan Foundation, which rescues and rehabilitates abused and abandoned dogs, will hold a Top Dogs party 6 p.m. Nov. 14 at the Dallas World Aquarium. $150; details at www.millanfoundation.org/tickets.

For a listing of other events, visit www.topdogspets.com.