"It's such a great personality shot," Levan says of the photo, which was once used in a dog calendar. "I'd been trying to think of a new dog toy for months, then one night I glanced at the photo. Then, it just came to me."

MOOD SWING: Michele Levan with her wares and Sweetie. : Michael T. Regan

Celebrities such as Bruce Springsteen, Chevy Chase and Paris Hilton own Humunga Tongues, which debuted in March 2003 and was named a Top 20 amazing animal invention by Animal Planet and "Best New Product of the Year" by Pet Age magazine. Levan's tongue has been the subject of a CNN feature, and appeared on The Tonight Show and MAD TV.

Yet from day one, Sweetie has been a noncompliant client: "She's never had one in her mouth," Levan says of the rubber toy that's a ball on one end and a giant, cartoonlike tongue on the other. "One time I rubbed Genoa salami on the ball, but all she did was lick it. I guess she doesn't do rubber toys."

Levan does. Since 1999, the 45-year-old president of Center City's Moody Pet, Inc. has invented and marketed clever pet products.

Moody Dog and Moody Cat mood collars were her debut release. Each is adorned with pewter-set moodstones riveted to a leather collar. Cutouts behind each stone allow them to touch the pet's fur. The moodstones are sensitive to body temperature and change color as the animals heat up and cool down.

"I'm not saying it works scientifically, but it does work," Levan says, explaining she had plenty of trendy toys, like mood rings, while growing up in Narberth and at Lower Merion High in the '70s.

With Humunga Tongue, most dogs naturally pick up the ball, leaving the tongue sticking out of their mouths. "Sometimes they bring it back by the tongue," she says, "but it gives an owner and a dog something to work on."

Growing up, Levan's family menagerie included dogs, cats, lizards, newts, frogs, chicks, turtles, fish, a rabbit and a snake. Now, she's saving for a farm she'll fill with strays.

"I have about as many animals as one could have [in the city]," she says. Besides Sweetie, Levan currently has two cats, Gritty Kitty and Otis. "I don't want to be branded "a crazy cat lady.' I've had three, but three's the cutoff."

Levan's first cat toy, Fling-ama-string ($24.95), is due out in September. "The lowest common denominator cat toy has always been a piece of string," she explains.

Battery-operated and designed to be hung from a doorknob, it rotates a silklike string that's attached to a flat elastic belt. When a cat catches the string, gets bored and lets go, the string starts wiggling again. Fling-ama-string was named "Best in Show" at the March 2005 Global Pet Expo. "Cats freak out because they love string so much," says Levan, who has a backlog of six toy ideas.

A psychology and French major at Tulane, she preferred studying the music and cultural scene in New Orleans. She worked at the university's progressive radio station and emerged with an interest in music promotions and public relations. It was an interest that ran in her family: Her father's brother, Henry Levan, whose songwriting and showbiz name was Bob Merrill, was most famous for writing, no joke, "How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?"

Moving to New York City, she began her career at TVT Records, then spent seven years as a marketing executive at Sony Music Entertainment. She was the creative energy behind marketing campaigns for Celine Dion, Luther Vandross and others. "Eventually, I wanted to do something creative for myself."

At 38, she returned to Philly. Six months later she found herself in Rittenhouse Square with "other dog people" barking about how moody pets can be—which was her "lightbulb moment."

That was February 1999. By August, she'd tapped her measly 401K from Sony to finance the collars. In October, she took 40 handmade collars to a trade show in Chicago. By December, she'd launched full-scale production and sales. Since then, she's sold 100,000 collars (at $15 each), and 450,000 tongues ($12 each, $10 each for two or more) online at Moodypet.com and through wholesale distributors that serve pet shops, boutiques, mom-and-pops, and pet store chains.

"There's a lot of competition with collars," Levan says of the market, "and some pets wear the same collar their whole lives. Toys will always work better because a dog chews them up, and owners want their dog to be happy, so they buy another one."

Eventually, she'd like to parlay her business success into an organization that furthers the "unparalleled benefits" pets provide the disabled and elderly.

"We who are blessed enough to have pets in our homes already know they can give us great comfort, relieve loneliness and generally add that joie de vivre to life," Levan says. "Sweetie's definitely my dog soulmate."