First achieving fame as the oversexed daughter on Married With Children (1987-1997), later on Samantha Who? (2007-2009), as well as an intelligent spokeswoman for breast cancer, Christina Applegate loves her Chihuahua/Dachshund mix Tallulah, with whom she was caught napping in the photo above. "Tallulah was a stray I found in the street and took her home."

Tallulah is named after Jodie Foster's character in Bugsy Malone (1976), an artfully satiric gangster film with child actors playing adults.

That was the film that inspired Applegate to go into acting, She had once thought if she ever had a daughter, she'd name her Tallulah, so it goes without saying the dog has been a bit of a child substitute.

Yet Christina insists she never mistakes the chiweenie for a human being. On Christmas she does fill a stocking with goodies for the dog, and gets her winter outfits, but says, "I still know she's a dog. So I don't get her a bunch of gifts under the tree or anything."

Christina grew up in a Hollywood household with plenty of pets, mainly cats and dogs. When on the set of Married With Children she liked best to hang out with the show's lazy dog Buck, just sit and pet him between takes. Buck's shown in the picture at the right.

Before she had Tallulah, she had big dogs that she still misses. The photo below, taken in 2002, shows Christina with her elderly pals Jackson a ten year old white lab, and Sybil the eleven year old black shepherd who could no longer walk due to hip dysplasia, and had a doggie wheelchair. Her cats Kaanaloa and Natasha are in her lap.

As an animal lover, Christina is a vegetarian, and donates to animal charities such as the Brittany Foundation, from whom Christina's mom got her one-eyed dog Monte. "Animals really teach us about love. There are books and there are all sorts of things with which you can learn about love, but when you're with your animals you know what love is. You know what that feeling is. That's the greatest gift that my animals give to me."