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With market research showing that more households have pets than have children, we know that we're not alone in considering the needs of our dogs when shopping for a car. So we decided to start reviewing dog-friendly vehicles and pet products designed for traveling. Nearly every week we get a wagon, crossover, truck minivan, SUV or other dog-friendly vehicle to drive, poke around in and write about from a dog-lover's point of view.
The DogCars.com reviews of vehicle and pet-friendly are carried in the newspapers through the Pet Connection syndicated feature as well as on this Web site and on the popular Pet Connection Web log.
The team
Dr. Marty Becker
Dr. Marty Becker serves as veterinary advisor to DogCars.com and provides tips for traveling safely with pets.
"America's Best-Loved Family Doctor For Pets," Dr. Becker is the popular veterinary contributor to ABC-TV's "Good Morning America," a top-selling author and the host of "The Pet Doctor With Marty Becker" on PBS. He has appeared on Animal Planet, and is a frequent guest on national network and cable television, and radio shows.
Dr. Becker the co-creator with Gina Spadafori of the Pet Connection feature for the Universal Press Syndicate. The feature appears in newspapers throughout the United States and Canada, as well as on many Web sites. Dr. Becker's family lives in Northern Idaho on the Almost Heaven horse ranch.
Gina Spadafori
Gina Spadafori is is the lead vehicle reviewer for DogCars.com. She is an award-winning pet-care writer and author or co-author of more than a half-dozen top-selling pet-care books, including the New York Times best-seller, "Why Do Dogs Drink Out fo the Toilet?," which was written with her writing parter, Dr. Becker. She has also authored or co-authored the first three books in the "... For Dummies" pet-care series, including "Dogs For Dummies," which was given the President's Award for the best writing on dogs and the Maxwell Medallion for the best general reference work, both by the Dog Writers Association of America. Her books have been translated into many languages, including French, Serbian, Danish, Japanese and Russian.
Gina has also headed one of the first and largest online pet care sites, the Pet Care Forum, America Online's founding source of pet-care information. She also worked as an editor and reporter for The Sacramento Bee. She lives in Northern California, but loves to get on the road with her four dogs -- Heather, Woody and McKenzie (retrievers) and Drew (Sheltie). Fortunately, she has the world's best pet-sitter for Clara (cat), Eddie (parrot) and Velocity (rabbit).
Keith Turner
Keith Turner is editor of the DogCars.com site and adds his "Car Guy" perspective to each vehicle review. He is a veteran journalist who has been writing his self-syndicated auto review column “The Family Car” since 1994 for parenting publications nationwide. Keith worked as a reporter and editor for newspapers in Michigan, California and Alaska. In 1989, Keith was a member of the Anchorage Daily News staff that was awarded the Pultizer Prize for Meritorious Public Service for its “A People In Peril” series of articles.
Keith, his teenaged children and the family's two cats live in Northern California.
> More on Keith Turner on his Web site, TheFamilyCar.com
Kim Campbell Thornton
Kim Campbell Thornton is pet travel products reviewer for DogCars.com. She has been writing about dogs and cats for more than 20 years. She is the Creature Comforts columnist for MSNBC.com, and she writes frequently for Catnip, Dog World, Popular Dogs and other pet publications. She is enslaved by two Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, Bella and Twyla, and caters to Larry Bird, an African ringneck parakeet who meows. She and her husband Jerry are avid world travelers.
