Before the camera, their forelegs jammed into kitschy costumes, these animals were made for fame: Zelda as a bumblebee Mr. Winkle, a five-pound mutt with a lolling tongue, and Sweetie, a terrier mix in a diamond choker, barely had to lift a paw to become marketing stars. Already legends in their owners' minds, pets with nothing on their rГ©sumГ©s but adorability are capturing a world audience. In today's post-Warhol world, animal celebrity - like its human equivalent - is more about image than action. It's a long leap from the heroics of Lassie and Rin Tin Tin, whose valor carried the day in the 1950's. There doesn't need to be more of a reason than that.'' Just looking at Zelda makes people smile. ''Zelda is the perfect icon for today,'' said Wendy Diamond, the editorial director of Animal Fair, a quarterly magazine covering glamorous quadrupeds Г la Vanity Fair. Zelda has her own agent, publicist and Web site (). Gardner said, are approaching $50 million from calendars, books, T-shirts, mugs and the like sold globally through stores and on the Internet. Sales for the privately held Zelda Wisdom Inc., Ms. ''And I came up with the idea of branding Zelda.'' Gardner, whose droopy-jowled pet could be someone's grandmother in dog drag. ''I saw instantly in her face that there was a little Zelda in all of us,'' said Ms.

CAROL GARDNER, a creative director in advertising, knew the moment she developed the first roll of film that Zelda, her English bulldog, would be a star.

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