Celebrity chef and TV host Rachael Ray was bitten by a dog in Union Square Park in New York City earlier this month when she tried to defend her mutt Isaboo from being attacked by another dog, her representative says.
“This dog came up – there was no owner in sight – and became aggressive,” says Ray’s publicist in a statement. “Rachael and some others shooed him away, but he came back and attacked Isaboo. Other dogs were involved, and Rachael jumped in and was bit by one of the dogs on the leg. A nurse was in the park and checked her out. She’s fine.”
Fans of Ray, the host of a daily talk show and “30-Minute Meals,” are familiar with Isaboo, a frequent topic on Ray’s TV shows and in her magazine, “Every Day with Rachael Ray.”
Ray got Isaboo, a pit bull-type dog, after the death of Boo, also a pit bull. “When [Boo] passed away suddenly, I became obsessed with finding her again,” Ray wrote in her magazine. “My husband John posted open letters on the Web, asking breeders if they had any red-nosed pit bulls like Boo, dogs born after she had passed on. We spent weeks looking at thousands of puppies. All were precious, but none were ‘Boo-like.’”
Then Ray says they found her: a young female with a similarly “wrinkled, worried look” on her face, and born just after Ray’s beloved dog had died. “Who knows? Maybe Boo is in there. At the very least, Boo is giving our puppy a lot of pointers from Up Above, because we are putty in her paws.”