Jill Rappaport is an award-winning animal advocate and best-selling author, known nationwide as a popular, longtime correspondent on NBC-TV. She launched her award-winning Bow to Wow on NBC-TV’s Today Show, a rescue-dog segment that ran for 7 years with a 100 percent adoption record. In 2015, she created, produced, and hosted Best in Shelter with Jill Rappaport, a show focused on the underdogs of the shelter world. She is currently working on Rappaport to the Rescue, an offshoot of Best in Shelter, and recently wrapped up filming Animal Planet’s popular Puppy Bowl. Jill has received coveted awards, including six Genesis Awards from the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), considered the Oscars of the animal world; the first Voice for the Animals award from the HSUS; and the president’s Service Awards for Media Excellence from the ASPCA. She has written four books, including the bestselling People We Know, Horses They Love, and has a line of leashes, collars, dog beds, and toys, the sale of which benefits shelter animals.
Tucson, Arizona, for all of our vacations, and we would stay on dude ranches.” She loves the whole Western lifestyle, extolling the appeal of Western riding, Navaho jewelry, cowboy hats, and boots. “I just love that whole feeling, and I tried to accomplish the authentic West with my house.”
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he main house, known as Last Buck Ranch, was actually built in Montana by Pioneer Log Homes, but, Jill explains, “I actually drew it on a napkin. I had different pictures of country houses, and then I would elaborate with additional drawings on notepad paper. I would send the builder all these pieces of paper, and they would just laugh at me because I said, ‘You do thousands of log cabins; I don’t want this to look like a ski lodge. I want it to look like a country log home.’ I think I achieved it, and I’m very proud
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of it. I was involved in every element and did everything from designing to decorating,” Jill beams. The sprawling main house possesses a welcoming roundup of Ralph Lauren’s nod-to-the-West furnishings, rich layers of Western art and iconography, and a light touch of tongue-in-cheek cowboy kitsch. It’s inviting, beautifully crafted— right down to the intricate twig and branch railings—and boldly unique. Jill appreciates the Ralph Lauren aesthetic. She says, “He’s the one designer that has always stayed true to the authentic Americana image. So yes, of course, the house has a lot of Ralph Lauren influence and Ralph Lauren Home furniture, combined with Pendleton, which also does authentic West with beautiful fabrics.” Two particularly unique rooms include a guest room designed to be a cabin within a cabin, which might have been hokey but instead was dreamily