For more than twenty years, Cypress Inn has been jointly owned by Doris Day and Dennis LeVett.   Doris’s deep devotion to animals helped put Cypress Inn on the map as the “pet friendliest” Inn in the “pet friendliest” town in America!

Doris Day, the quintessential all-American girl, continues to be revered by her fans, while the media still celebrate her as an actress and singer with a legendary Hollywood “girl next door” image.  Of her thirty-nine films, Calamity Jane, Love Me or Leave Me and Pillow Talk remain popular favorites, and still run frequently on cable television.  Paralleling her success in big-screen entertainment, a series of excellent albums recorded between 1956 and 1968 expanded her popularity, and are as relevant today as when they were first released.

Born Doris Mary Ann von Kappelhoff on April 3, 1924, Doris was the youngest of three: she had two brothers, Richard, who died before she was born, and Paul who was a few years older.  She was named after silent movie actress Doris Kenyon, whom her mother admired. 

Growing up in the 1930’s, Doris was attracted to music and dance, eventually forming part of a dance duo which performed locally until a car she was riding in was struck by a train, crushing her right leg, a severe injury that curtailed her ambition to become a professional dancer.  While recovering, her mother encouraged her to take singing lessons from vocal coach Grace Raine.  Doris credits Raine with impressing upon her the importance of delivering a lyric, and today Doris says that Raine had the greatest impact on her singing career. 

Among the many accolades attributed to Doris over the years, her leading role in Pillow Talk garnered her a Golden Globe and a Best Actress Nomination.  Her signature song “Que Sera, Sera” won the Oscar for Best Song for Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Man Who Knew Too Much” in 1956.  Doris was voted top Box Office Female Star for four years straight during the early 60’s and was among the Top Ten for ten years straight.  Her record has never been matched.  More recently, Doris received the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George W. Bush in 2004, and was awarded a Grammy for Lifetime Achievement in 2008.

Since leaving the Hollywood spotlight more than thirty years ago, Doris has turned her attention to a second career with the same enthusiasm and energy that put her at the top of the entertainment profession: the welfare of animals.   She worked tirelessly rescuing, healing and placing literally thousands of abused or neglected animals.  Eventually, she started her own organization: the Doris Day Animal League (www.ddal.org) and later Doris Day Animal Foundation (http://ddaf.org/dd/).    The League became a lobbying group on behalf of animal rights and is now a part of the Human Society of the United States.  Doris had no idea it would grow into one of the largest animal welfare organizations in the world.  The Doris Day Animal Foundation continues to operate under Doris’s guidance.   

Through a veterinarian friend, a beautiful Maltese named Duffy put behind him a life of abuse, neglect and found a home with Doris Day who had recently lost a little white dog.   Millions of dogs in the United States aren’t as lucky as Duffy Day.  Treating their special needs, whether they are medical, behavioral or social, requires a commitment of time, resources far surpassing what humane societies can currently afford.   Many animals don’t get the second chance at life they so richly deserve.   To spur change, Doris founded the Duffy Day Lifesaving Program, directing at turning our attention to saving senior animals that need medications for the rest of their lives.  This will ensure many more happy endings like Duffy’s.   Secure donations to Doris’s Foundations can be made at http://ddaf.org/dd/?page_id=107 .