Sunny, a 2-year-old female terrier mix rescued from Houston's Bureau of Animal Regulation and Care, was unveiled Thursday by award-winning animal trainer William Berloni. "The most talented animals are right there under your nose," said Berloni, who makes it a point of using shelter dogs in all his projects. The dog's sweet demeanor quickly won over the staff, who worked toward finding her a home after she had received medical attention, been groomed and had some behavioral training. Berloni, whose extensive Broadway credits include training animals for "Legally Blonde," "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," "Awake and Sing" and "The Wizard of Oz," began working as an animal trainer when he plucked the original Sandy in "Annie" from a shelter in 1976 for $7 the day before it was to be euthanized. The original Sandy, also a terrier mix, went on to play almost all 2,377 performances of "Annie," and Berloni supplied shelter dogs for all four national tours of the show, as well as the 10th-, 20th- and 30th-anniversary productions. The journeys of Sunny and Casey from life in shelters to the bright lights of Broadway will be documented in a 30-minute TV special, "Annie's Search for Sandy," set to air on NBC in October. Berloni won a special 2011 Tony Award for his contribution to the theater and is a behavior consultant to the Humane Society of New York. "I always say anybody could have gone into a shelter and adopted any one of the animals that I've turned into Broadway stars the day before I did," he said.
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