How Jennifer Aniston ‘Just Fell in Love’ With First Dog Norman During Joey and Chandler Friends Scene (Exclusive)

The actress, producer and entrepreneur is releasing her first children's book 'Clydeo Takes a Bite Out of Life,' inspired by her rescue dog Clyde

Jennifer Aniston is now a children's book author.

The Friends alum, 55, who first introduced an animated dog named Clydeo — inspired by one of her rescue dogs, Clyde — on her Instagram account in 2021, is releasing the first in her four-book children's series, Clydeo Takes a Bite Out of Life on Oct. 1 with HarperCollins.

"When they came to me with the idea, it was like, ‘Obviously I’ll make it about something that I fully love and adore, which is my rescue animals,’” she explains.

Aniston, who was just nominated for another Emmy for her role on The Morning Show, which she also executive-produces, wrote her new picture book to help motivate kids to explore their interests. “They're so focused on these phones and just disappear into this void of scrolling,” she says. “They don’t really spend time being stimulated by the world and figuring out what they want to do.”

Related: Jennifer Aniston Starts Fund to Help Animal Rescues, Hopes to Inspire People to 'Throw in a Dollar' (Exclusive)

The book launches concurrently with her new Clydeo Fund, which will help raise money and awareness for rescue organizations, as well. "We can get awareness out and help the shelters that are in desperate need," she says. "They can't keep up. And all you see is that we're euthanizing innocent, beautiful, perfectly fine two-year-old dogs, or a puppy, or a litter. I can't. It's too much. It's too many."

Along with Clyde, Aniston also has another rescue dog, Lord Chesterfield. The two follow Aniston's first two dogs, Norman, who died in 2011, and Dolly, who died in 2019 and remain deeply meaningful to her still. "You mention them, and I get a lump in my throat," she says.

But despite her love for them today, The Morning Show star did not grow up with dogs. "Norman was my first. And it was just a fluke. He was in a scene with Joey and Chandler on Friends when they left baby Ben on the bus," Aniston recalls. "They were running through the streets and ran into a dog walker that had all these dogs. Norman was one of them, and I just fell in love."

On the set, the dog trainers told the actress, "'Well, he’s not getting hired because he doesn’t really hit his mark,'" she says. "So I jokingly said, 'I’ll take him.' And they said, 'Absolutely.' And then I kind of had that moment of, 'Oh God, am I really?' And then that was it. I got the addiction to dogs and what they bring to you. Cut to now wanting to rescue all shelter puppies in the world."

For more information and to donate, visit www.theclydeofund.org.

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