Jimmy Buffett hails pet adoption in posthumous 'Like My Dog' video

The late Jimmy Buffett, a longtime North Haven resident, encourages animal-shelter pet adoption in a newly released music video the beloved singer-songwriter made in collaboration with the ASPCA.

“Hi! This is Jim, with Jim’s Dogs!” Buffett announces in a mock commercial pitch that opens the 2-minute, 47-second video released Saturday. “We’re back in business here,” he continues, dressed for winter and holding up a tennis ball as two dogs cavort around him. “When you got dogs out there, I'm your guy. Just remember: We don’t do cats, we don't do frogs. Here at Jim’s, we just do dogs. Jim’s Dogs!”

Following that intro, recorded with two of his dogs at a friend’s house in Colorado in 2014, the video cuts to Kingston, one of Buffett’s Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, seated on a chair before a home audio-mixing console. In a close-up, a paw slides a fader control forward.

Then the song “Like My Dog”— composed by Scotty Emerick and Harley Allen for country artist Billy Currington’s 2010 album “Enjoy Yourself,” and covered by Buffett on this month’s posthumously released “Equal Strain on All Parts” — comes on in split screen. Lyrics appear on the right, a parade of video clips on the left. Some snippets show Buffett with dogs in various locales, including a nautically themed front porch and a rowboat, while most of the footage depicts ordinary people with their dogs — collected from social media videos uploaded at the ASPCA’s behest using the hashtag #likemydog.

Directed by North Carolina-based Stan Kellam, who has helmed music videos and longform videos for Buffett since the early 2000s, the clip ends with an off-screen Kingston barking, and a graphical-text message from the 157-year-old American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals urging adoption of dogs from the ASPCA or from local shelters, and the link aspca.org/adopt for more information.

“Thank you everyone for sharing so many amazing #likemydog [videos]!” reads a message on Buffett’s social media posted Monday. “@ASPCA — thank you for everything you do.”

“The dedication and humanity Jimmy Buffett put into his music crossed over into his love for animals, especially pets and wildlife,” ASPCA president and CEO Matt Bershadker said in a statement. “This collaboration honors Jimmy’s legacy and animal advocacy and reflects our shared commitment to help vulnerable dogs find safe and loving homes.”

Buffett, who turned such hit songs as “Margaritaville,” “Cheeseburger in Paradise” and "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes" into a laid-back lifestyle empire, died Sept. 1 at age 76 of a rare form of skin cancer. One of his final public appearances was on Sag Harbor’s classic-rock station WLNG/92.1 FM on July 9, dropping the world premiere of his single “My Gummie Just Kicked In” on “Lunch on the Deck with Bill Evans & Jessica Ambrose.”