'It's the greatest thing,' Pelphrey says in a new interview.
Being a parent means everything to Tom Pelphrey and Kaley Cuoco.
In a new interview on SiriusXM's The Jess Cagle Show With Julia Cunningham, Pelphrey chatted about raising their daughter, Matilda, alongside their multiple rescue dogs.
Pelphrey, 41, said that people always told him and Cuoco, 38, that becoming a parent is life-changing in the best way, but it wasn't until their now 1-year-old daughter was born that they knew exactly what they meant.
"You realize there's no way to understand what it'll feel like until you get to feel it. It's wild," he shared. "It's the greatest thing I've ever got to experience. I know Kaley feels the same way."
"It's also hilarious," Pelphrey continued. "It can be exhausting at times. It's all the good things."
The Ozark actor added that becoming a dad has changed everything for him.
"The baby comes and suddenly without putting any conscious thought into it, you check back in with yourself and you realize your entire list of priorities has been completely rearranged and suddenly you're thinking and concerned about things that maybe never really concerned you before," he said. "And it's all about them and it's a really beautiful experience."
And if raising a baby wasn't hard enough, there's also her multitude of animal siblings.
"There's usually a pretty high volume," Pelphrey said of how many rescue dogs he and Cuoco have at once. "Around the time, literally two or three weeks before Matilda was born, Kaley came to me and said, 'We have to get this dog.' And this happens a lot. I usually only pay attention if the dog is mentioned more than twice, then I know that the dog is coming regardless of what I say."
The couple adopted a puppy, Opal, right before welcoming Matilda in March 2023.
"Opal, I think, is gonna be Matilda's sort of companion for a long time," Pelphrey shared.
Meanwhile, for first-time mom Cuoco, raising rescue dogs alongside her child was a no-brainer.
"I am a girl who loves dogs," the Based on a True Story star and longtime animal advocate told ET in an exclusive interview back in October, noting that Matilda doesn't mind having four-legged family members.
"She is obsessed," Cuoco said.
The Flight Attendant alum also described raising a kid surrounded by animals 24/7 as "a beautiful thing."
Along with dogs, her ranch in Thousand Oaks (northwest of Los Angeles) is full of horses, donkeys, chickens, goats, cows and pigs. But the pups have a special affinity for Matilda.
"They love her, they kiss her," the actress shared. "I mean, from week two, they were kissing her on the mouth. I was like, 'Is this OK?' And our pediatrician was like, 'It's totally fine'... They're kind of being raised together and it's so beautiful and very natural, you know?"
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