FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
What do you give a couple who's half an inch tall?

(Portland, OR.) It's a world first for a comic strip bride-to-be -- Cathy and fiancé Irving are registered online at TheBigDay.com, but their gift requests are anything but ordinary.

Cathy Guisewite, cartoonist of "Cathy", the comic strip that runs in more than 1200 newspapers nationwide, explains that Cathy and Irving are not unlike a lot of "older" individuals marrying either for the first time or multiple times. "Let's just say they haven't exactly deprived themselves over the years. In spite of Cathy's fantasy of 'wedding gift payback time', the truth is that she and Irving have already bought everything they could possibly need for their wedding and honeymoon themselves. TheBigDay.com is helping them do something fun and wonderful for their other true loves: homeless dogs and cats."

The items listed on Cathy and Irving's gift registry site at www.TheBigDay.com/Cathy will all go to benefit Pet Orphans of Southern California, a not-for-profit rescue organization for dogs and cats. Visitors to the site can choose among several gift items, such as "Happily Ever After Flea and Tick Baths", "Here Comes the Dinner Bowl Meals", and "In Sickness and In Health Veterinary Checkups", which can be charged to their credit cards. "Cathy and Irving are adding a wonderful new dimension to TheBigDay.com," says Michael Cottam, co-founder of TheBigDay.com, the largest honeymoon gift registry on the Web. "Our honeymoon registry offers many advantages for couples, including the registry, a free email account and the ability for brides to create their own free wedding web page." Guisewite and TheBigDay.com are getting things started with their own donation of $1,000. At the end of the 3 month campaign (Dec. 1 - Feb. 28), the money for the gift items will be presented to the Pet Orphans of Southern California. (Gifts are tax deductible as allowed by law.)

Having been raised by the "Queen of the Proper Thank You Note", Guisewite promises that each contributor will receive a thank you from the happy couple, including an autographed copy of their wedding photo.

Cathy and Irving's dogs, Electra and Vivian, will be the ring bearers in the wedding, scheduled for February 5, 2005. "In the comic strip, both dogs were adopted from shelters. Cathy adopted Electra as a puppy, and Irving rescued Vivian as an older dog," Guisewite noted. "The gift registry will raise money to help many other homeless dogs and cats find loving new homes. In real life my daughter and I volunteer at Pet Orphans of Southern California and know first hand about the wonderful work they do, and the lives they save."

Guisewite, who lives in Southern California with her husband, daughter, stepson, two cats and three dogs, sometimes tackles pet protection and animal rights issues in the strip. She has received awards from several animal rights organizations, including the Genesis Award in 2001 for her anti-fur cartoons. "Cathy" comic strip can be found at www.ucomics.com.

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Interviews with TheBigDay.com Travel management team and couples using TheBigDay.com Honeymoon Gift Registry service are available on request. TheBigDay.com carries the BBBOnLine Reliability Seal and endorsements of industry standards such as the TRUSTe Privacy Program so honeymooners can feel secure in trusting their dreams to the service.

Contact: Media interviews with Cathy Guisewite should be directed to Kathie Kerr, director of communications, at Universal Press Syndicate, kkerr@amuniversal.com, (816) 360-6945.

Contact: Media interviews with TheBigDay Travel should be directed to Will Anderson, will@obidicut.net, (503) 452-7621.

Contact: Media interviews with Pet Orphans of Southern California should be directed to Jan Brown, JBJasper@aol.com, (818) 785-5624.