Hollywood notables like Nicolette Sheradin and Linda Blair will gather at the hotel with “Eatables” brand dog food spokesman and former “Eight Is Enough” actor Dick Van Patton to do just that: dine with their dogs.

The celebrities will be participating in dog-food eating contests along with other canine-related activities, like chats with dog psychics. A best-dressed dog contest is also on the agenda, which begs the question, who makes this stuff up?

While vets have suspected that the sugar substitute xylitol can make dogs sick, the American Veterinary Medical Associations says there is now further clinical evidence of an association between the product and possible liver failure in dogs.

A clinical report that appeared in the October 1st Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association discusses the sometimes fatal conditions developed by dogs that have ingested xylitol. Xylitol is sweetener found in many sugar-free chewing gums, candies, baked goods and toothpastes.

Veterinary toxicologist Sharon Gwaltney-Brant and veterinarian Eric K. Dunayer gathered information on eight dogs that were treated between 2003 and 2005 after eating products containing xylitol. Each dog became ill and five either died or had to be euthanized because of liver failure.

One dog in the study that had to be euthanized because of its condition had eaten four large, chocolate-frosted muffins that contained about 1 pound of xylitol.

The number of xylitol-related pet exposures is on the rise, according to Dr. Gwaltney-Brant, partly because of increased awareness, but more so because xylitol is being used in more products.

“This is the tip of the iceberg now,” she said. “Anything that is sugar-free could potentially have substituted xylitol for the original sweetener,” said Gwaltney-Brant.

Some sugar-free chewing gums, she said, are as much as 70 percent xylitol, depending on the brand and whether the product is used as a primary sweetener.

“A 22-pound dog who consumes 1 gram of xylitol should be treated,” she said. “This can equate to 3 to 4 pieces of some gum products.”

There is no information on whether severe xylitol poisoning has occurred in cats.

The letters said the Sausalito, California company was not accepting new orders for clones because it was “unable to develop the technology to the point that cloning pets is commercially viable.”

Company chief executive Lou Hawthorne did not immediately return telephone calls Wednesday. A message on the company’s answering machine said it was no longer taking orders and referred customers interested in freezing their pets genetic material to the Austin, Texas-based biotechnology company ViaGen.

A ViaGen spokeswoman confirmed that Genetic Savings & Clone had closed and had refunded cloning fees.

The company was launched by billionaire and University of Phoenix founder John Sperling, who had hoped to have his hunting dog, Missy, cloned… a feat that was never accomplished.

Since the company opened for business in 2000, it was behind the creation of five cloned cats, but sold only two to paying customers. The first commercially cloned cat was named Little Nicky and was delivered to a Texas woman saddened by the loss of a cat she owned for 17 years.

The kitten cost its owner $50,000 and was created from DNA from her beloved cat, Nicky, who died the previous year. That kitten’s creation and sale reignited fierce ethical and scientific debate over cloning technology, which is rapidly advancing.

Aside from human cloning, which has not been achieved even at the microscopic embryo stage, no cloning project has fueled more debate than the marketing plans of Genetic Savings & Clone.

Animals rights activists complained that new feline production systems aren’t needed because thousands of stray cats are euthanized each year for want of homes. Those groups were elated Wednesday at news of the company’s demise.

“It’s no surprise the demand for cloned pets is basically nonexistent, and we’re very pleased that Genetics Savings & Clone’s attempt to run a cloning pet store was a spectacular flop,” said Wayne Pacelle, head of the Humane Society of the United States. “It’s not just a bad business venture, but also an operation grounded on the misuse of animals.”

Pacelle and other groups argue that cloning is still primitive and fails more often than it succeeds.

“For every successful clone, dozens fail and die prematurely, have physical abnormalities, and face chronic pain and suffering,” Pacelle said. “Cloning is at odds with basic animal welfare considerations.”

“She got me outside and then she heard the cat upstairs and she went up there to get the cat and she wouldn’t come back to me,” Hanson, 49, said at a news conference Monday at Aurora Sheboygan Memorial Medical Center where she was being treated for her injuries.

She received third-degree burns to an arm in the fire Sunday night at her home in the town of Rhine south of Elkhart Lake, the Sheboygan County Sheriff’s Department said, adding that both pets died in the fire.

Hanson, who lost a leg in a car accident three years ago, said she was on the couch watching television when the cat ran over the back of the couch.

“And he jumped onto a table that had a candle on it and tipped it over and lighted the artificial plants on fire,” she said.

Hanson said she fell off the couch and was unable to get her artificial leg from the table, “so my dog got my leg for me and went and got the phone and brought the phone to me so I could call 911.”

She said she tried to put the prosthetic leg on, but it was too hot, and the dog, a golden retriever-German shepherd mix, came to her aid again before going back inside for the cat.

When rescuers arrived, the house was fully engulfed in flames, the sheriff’s department said. Hanson was in the doorway and was assisted by a deputy.

Wade Pilloud, who resigned as principal of the K-12 Indus school, 40 miles west of International Falls, said he shot the kittens to spare them from starving to death after their mother was killed in an animal trap.

Pilloud said the shooting, which occurred on school grounds, endangered no one.

“I have bred cats, and I currently own two myself,” he wrote Friday in an e-mail to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “I am not a cat hater. I did not want the animals to suffer.”

The incident happened Sept. 21, and several students still on the grounds for after-school activities heard the shots.

“There were parents who felt, apparently some rather strongly, that there were concerns about the safety of their children,” said Joseph Flynn, an attorney for the South Koochiching/Rainy River School District. “The district’s position is that safety was not compromised.”

John Mastin, acting sheriff in Koochiching County, said Pilloud could be charged with felony possession of a firearm on school property and reckless discharge of a firearm, a misdemeanor.

County Attorney Jennifer Hasbargen said Friday that the case was under review.

Mastin said the shooting put no one in danger but said Pilloud used “poor discretion and poor timing,” especially amid the growing fear of gun violence in schools.

The district put Pilloud on administrative leave after the incident. Flynn said Pilloud agreed to an undisclosed settlement and resigned.

It’s thought Timmy, who was adopted from an animal shelter, has always been large and is simply “big-boned”.

His owner Sean Langley said it was hard for Timmy to make friends: “He doesn’t have any other animal friends - I think they’re scared of him.” Luckily for Timmy he gets loads of care and attention from his loving family instead.