By BILLY COX, staff writer
Answer: A long-haired Chihuahua. Named Lulu.
During a Monday night segment on weird things in print, The Tonight Show host Jay Leno held up a Herald-Tribune article about a successful home renovation. But the focus of his curiosity, perched atop the back of a couch, was a little dog with a grin so weird and unholy it looked Photoshopped.
"What is that?" Leno sputtered. "What kind of dog is that?"
Homeowners Jerry Rivera and Joey Panek in their fully renovated (inside and out) home. Lulu the chihuahua is behind them. Rivera bought the house, on the corner of busy Tuttle Avenue in Sarasota, eight years ago and turned it into a quiet and verdant oasis, just perfect for entertaining or just relaxing at the end of the work day. (Staff photo by Dan Wagner)
Additional info: Lulu, 7, lives in Sarasota's Southgate neighborhood with owners Joey Panek and Jerry Rivera. And there's the predictable irony:
"Lulu's very mean — or rather, she's not friendly to people she doesn't know," says Panek. "I think she's probably only smiled, like, one other time in her life."
Panek isn't sure exactly how Lulu went national Monday evening. The home renovations were featured in a recent edition of "At Home" magazine, and putting the dog in the cover portrait was apparently a photographer's afterthought. Panek says his cell phone began buzzing Monday night as he drove home from an appointment in St. Petersburg.
A producer for HubStudio's web series Saratopia, Panek is known locally for his HowBoutJoey.com local-scene narrative. Lulu makes frequent appearances on Panek's videos, but getting her to grin could be misleading.
"I'm a little disappointed she made it on Leno before me, but this is her 15 minutes," Panek says. "I know he sometimes does followups to the headline stories, and I've got lots of footage of Lulu growling and barking at other people."
