VIDEO: Celebrate National Pet Day With Karen Murphy, Fred Barton and Cole Porter

Did you know that April 11th is the 10th Annual National Pet Day? This day to honor the love and companionship to be cherished by adopting a pet was created by Pet and Family Lifestyle Expert and Animal Welfare Advocate Colleen Paige to celebrate the joy pets bring to our lives and to create public awareness about the plight of many different kinds of animals awaiting a forever home in shelters and rescues all around the globe.

For information about National Pet Day, visit petdayusa.com.

Broadway has always been wild about pets, of course. From ANNIE's Sandy to Franz Liebkind's birds in THE PRODUCERS to Andrew Lloyd Webber's clowder of CATS whom we can presume are all available for adoption.

But leave it to Cole Porter to come up with an anthem to cover all of them. For a time, his 1941 musical comedy LET'S FACE IT!, about young soldiers finding romance with society ladies at a Long Island milk farm, included a comedy song for Eve Arden titled "Pets." The number didn't quite make it to opening night, but like many Cole Porter songs that get cut in previews, its clever wordplay has helped it to enjoy a healthy life as a cabaret novelty.

When Fred Barton, producer, host, arranger and conductor of the Pace University series "American Showstoppers: Classic Show Tunes In Concert with The Fred Barton Orchestra" devoted an evening to Cole Porter, "Pets" made the cut. Barton is best known as the musical master behind the original FORBIDDEN BROADWAY and the composer/lyricist/star of MISS GULCH RETURNS!, knows clever when he hears it.

Supplying vocals is that musical theatre dynamo Karen Murphy, Drama Desk Award nominee for MY VAUDEVILLE MAN and Drama-Louge Award winner for ZOMBIE PROM.