Well, it seems that all you have to do in the blogosphere is ask and ye shall receive.

Yesterday I posted about a star-studded press conference in the legislative office building in Albany for Animal Advocacy Day. In it, I mentioned that A) I wanted a picture of some of the stars and B) I wanted to know how Saratoga County District Attorney James A. Murphy III felt about being in the presence of the stars, who included:

"Prince Lorenzo Borghese, an entrepreneur and New York City-based animal advocate who is best known as the featured Bachelor from season 9 of the hit ABC reality show, The Bachelor, Laura LaFrate an animal advocate from Scotia who was the runner-up on this season of America’s Next Top Model, and acting dog Bocker the Labradoodle, who has appeared in Men in Black 3, Eat Pray Love and War of the Worlds"

Well today, I got both. Here is a picture Murphy sent me:

And the following is his account of his day in the Capital that he wrote while on a train on the way to New York City (this may be this blog's best post ever):

Upon arriving at the Legislative Office Bldg (LOB) for Animal Advocacy Day, I was shown into a private room just off the cavernous 3 story lobby of the LOB (aka "the well") where they had a VIP room of sorts. I wondered if they had mistaken me for someone else and I was accidentally being shown into this room, after all there were about 100 assembly-persons and senators just down the hall. Inside this room, there were 3 people. A woman I had only met "virtually" on-line, Julie Ann, a tireless advocate for animal rights, who volunteers her time for Assemblyman Jim Tedisco. We have Facebooked, and emailed each other about animal rights legislative issues and a bit about Animal Advocacy Day; a woman Marie Shelto, handler for the famous dog Bocker, who appeared in Men in Black 3, Eat Pray Love and War of the Worlds ( Bocker is a Labradoodle, probably the smartest guy in the room and the most well behaved. Bocker has an agent, and a whole entourage who he had given the day off) , and then of course, the Prince.

He is a handsome guy who you couldn't take a bad picture of if you tried. Royal, wealthy and reeked "coolness." I was definitely in the wrong room. Although having lived with royalty for 16 years (two teenage daughters) I was still quite ill at ease. Do you say "Good morning Your Highness", "Hi Prince Borghesi," "How do you do Prince Lorenzo?" I settled on a firm hand shake and good eye contact and a "Good Morning, I'm Jim Murphy"... he saved the day, he said "Hi, I'm Lorenzo."

What followed was a half hour conversation with one of the nicest most down to earth guys you'd ever want to meet. No pretense, no airs, no affectation. He was just like you and me, except Pope Paul V gave his family most everything south of Rome for 200 miles in 1600 and bestowed royal titles on them. Who doesn't have their coat of arms emblazoned on the front of St. Peter's Basilica? I discovered in the time we chatted that he is a true animal advocate first and willing to work to make a difference. He had followed the case of Ann Arnold through the press; the Greenfield woman who had been convicted of failing to provide sustenance for her 17 horses and he was glad of the outcome. He was curious about the state of NY's laws. Lorenzo was astonished that under our current law we could not bar someone from having pets in the future if they were convicted of animal abuse and he wants to make that a priority in NY, with stiff jail sentences too.

It is clear he is an animal lover and deeply committed to this cause. I applaud him for his outstanding work by assisting us with his name and influence to get Albany to understand the importance of tough penalties for animal abusers.

Lorenzo has teamed with Animal Aids’ veterinary partners for low-cost spay and neuter services in low income areas throughout the United States and uses his business, Borghese’s Royal Pet Club to donate $2 from every new customer purchase and five percent of profits from Royal Treatment pet care products to support a spay/neuter program throughout the country .

Borghese said, "I was compelled to join the Animal Advocacy event to help bring awareness to the plight of abused animals … and to be … a voice for the voiceless. We must come together to end all abuse of our innocent and loving animal friends. I am continually shocked that our great nation hasn't implemented strict, uniform laws to stop the horrific abuse occurring daily. It is my intention to bring awareness to this issue and help get tougher laws implemented.”

At that it was time for us to go to the "well," the press event had begun. I know that animals are better off because of his work and his support. I know it was a pleasure meeting him and animal rights advocates are lucky to have him on our side.

James A. Murphy, III