Fashion: Designer Pugs for Charity

Worryingly, too many of my friends can envision me winding up as a crazy cat lady in my old age. There was a period in my life when it seemed all cats within a 2 mile radius of my house turned up at my bedroom window. What can I say? It's a gift.... Ironically, my own cat abandoned me a couple of years ago and, despite tracking him down and cat-napping him back, he wandered off again never to return. I've actually really been missing the presence of a pet in my home recently, but with plans to move away soon, it's just not feasible that I can buy one. I try and fulfil my wish for a pet (cat or dog, I'm not fussy) by either 'borrowing' the neighbours' cat or visiting my local jeweller who owns a whole troop of dachshunds (my favourite breed of dog). However, fashion, as if often the case, has come to my rescue with the launch of the charity fundraiser 'Pug Dogs for Happy Kids'. The campaign sees top fashion houses including Valentino, Balmain and Versace collaborate with Luisa Viaroma to give toy  pugs a style-over - quite possibly as close as I'm going to get to the real thing! The toys will then be auctioned on eBay to raise funds for UNICEF to help children living in impoverished conditions in Bangladesh. There are 20 pug toys to bid for altogether and my bid will be going to Giambattista Valli's quite fabulous creation:

To see all the dog creations including the designs of Mary Katrantzou and David Koma, and to learn how to bid, click here.