Jackpot!

I just got back from a few days in New York City where I saw some shows, caught up with one of my sons who lives there and yes, bought lottery tickets for the big drawing. In fact, as my son walked into the store to purchase the tickets, a Fox radio reporter asked me if I so would comment on what I would do with the money if I won.

Now if I had been thinking fast, I would have said that I would build my dogs a swimming pool--that surely would have made it on air--but I gave the usual "I would take my family on a trip and buy a second home answer." Then I got to thinking if anyone had every spent their lottery winnings on dogs and sure enough they had.

Courtesy of Vetstreet.com:

An Iowa couple gave $350,000 of their $200 million prize to their local humane society in 2010, matching $1 for every $2 pledged to help fund a new animal shelter.

Tim and Kelly Guderian brought home $67 million after taxes when they hit the Powerball jackpot in 2006. When it came time to share the wealth, the Guderians wanted to take on a project that they could be proud of — and that would benefit the community.

“This is a project that has been 35 years in the making,” Humane Society of North Central Iowa director Laurie Hagey told KCCI-TV. “But it took a challenge gift like the one they made to make everyone believe we could actually do it.”

Don’t Forget the Goats
Not all lotto money has gone to the dogs (and cats).

A southern California couple who cashed in a $5 California Lottery Scratcher for a $2 million prize was relieved to have enough income to cover the cost of caring for their ever-expanding menagerie of rescued farm critters.

Jim and Beverly Evens started their animal rescue when they adopted a 2-day-old Alpine goat named Bucky. By the time the pair won the lotto in 2010, they'd taken in 35 goats, three horses and countless chickens.

They were “scrimping to feed all these animals,” Beverly Evens, who calls Bucky her good luck charm, told the Anderson Valley Post. “We are very low-maintenance people. The way we look at it, as long as the animals are happy, so are we.”


So what would you have done with the winnings?