It's been a rough ride for Ellen Degeneres these last few weeks. There was the Iggy the dog debacle, of course. Then she drew ire for not shuttering her studio during the writers' strike, causing the cancellation of planned tapings in New York over fears of a protest. But that's not going to get plucky Ellen down, now is it? In a bid to improve her flagging image, the dancing talk-show host decided to combat the criticism by flooding her airwaves with a host of endearing, needy mammals. Who doesn't love animals? (Apart from Ellen?)