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I got this e-mail from an editor here yesterday. A friend of his has taken in this 6-month-old kitten and would like to find the little guy a home.

The temporary foster parent wrote that the kitten "needs to see the vet and to be neutered. Very cute as you can see, has somewhat long hair and a nice long bushy tail. I have 2 cats and a dog, can't add another."

This guy looks a lot like my cat Thai, except with long hair.  Clearly he's computer savvy, or at least he can hunt for a mouse (Very bad pun, I know. Sometimes I can't help myself.)

If I could take in another feline, he'd be living large at Chez Nelson tonight.

If you know someone who is looking for a kitty, please post a comment and let me know. I can get you in touch with the foster mom.

Here's a story from Sunday's Roanoke Times about 63 dogs seized from a breeder in Hillsville. The dogs are now being cared for by volunteers at Angels of Assisi. If you want to help, please contact Angels about volunteering or making a donation of money or food.

Please keep in mind that these dogs will likely not be available for adoption for a while, if at all, and since Angels is caring for these newcomers, that may limit their ability to take in other homeless pooches. 

The best way to remedy the potential space problem is to look at the great dogs and cats available and ready for adoption now at Angels.

By Laurence Hammack

A state trooper holding a clipboard stood guard at the back of a truck, which was slowly filling up with Yorkshire terriers, dachshunds, poodles, Boston terriers and schnauzers.

The dogs watched apprehensively from behind the metal grates of their carriers, which were being loaded one-by-one into the truck Saturday afternoon by volunteers at Angels of Assisi, a Roanoke animal shelter.

"Number 38," volunteer Elizabeth Sweet said as she carted a piece of canine cargo, a white Lhasa apso. "10-4," Senior Trooper Gary Chafin said, making a note on his clipboard.

The reason for all the security and record-keeping: Two days earlier, these dogs had been seized from a Carroll County business, where they were being kept in kennels so cramped and filthy that authorities decided to rescue them. All 63 dogs were taken to Angels of Assisi.

No charges have been filed against the dogs' owner, David Winesett of Hillsville.

Read more »

If you happen to be at the Stocked Market, the Junior League's annual shopping fundraiser, at the Roanoke Civic Center tomorrow, stop by Roanoke Area Ministries/Roanoke Times booth and say hello to some of your favorite RT bloggers/columnists, including me.

On Saturday, the newspaper's editor, Carole Tarrant, and Jenny Kincaid Boone, retail reporter and The Storefront blogger will be on hand from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. I will be there from 1 to 3 p.m.

On Sunday, meet Stephanie Ogilvie, editor of our Thursday entertainment section Inside Out, and Lindsey Nair, food columnist and Fridge Magnet blogger, from noon to 2 p.m. Then say hello to Shanna Flowers, metro columnist and In the Flow blogger, from 2 to 4 p.m.

The Roanoke Times support Roanoke Area Ministries' emergency financial relief fund for needy people each year through the Good Neighbors Fund drive. At the Stock Market booth, you can donate to the fund or pick up a copy of RAM's 35th annual cookbook.

Have a great weekend!

By now you may have heard how Boomer, a Labrador retriever and a member of the Virginia Tech police department, helped solve the mystery of the suspicious noises on campus yesterday. Click here to read today's story. Below is a profile of Boomer published last Wednesday.

By Shawna Morrison/The Roanoke Times

BLACKSBURG -- For Boomer, days when the Hokies play at home are some of the best days of all.

Those are the days when Boomer gets to work for hours, sniffing the concession stands, luxury suites, trash cans and bathrooms at Lane Stadium.

Boomer's job -- and the job of several other police dogs brought into Virginia Tech's football stadium on game days -- is to sniff for explosives.

"This is play time for him," said Virginia Tech police Officer Larry Wooddell, Boomer's handler, as he watched Boomer sniff a Hawaiian Shave Ice stand, a Reddy Ice machine, a Three Little Pigs stand and a Suntrust ATM on Oct. 4, hours before the Hokies were scheduled to play Western Kentucky University.

He'll do the same Thursday before the Hokies take on Maryland in a 7:30 p.m. game.

The stadium is too big to be searched by one dog, so a handful of bomb-sniffing dogs converge on game days and their handlers split up the stadium.

"We just start at one end and come all the way through and check all the little doors and everything," Wooddell said.

When Wooddell says he has the 66-pound, 2-year-old yellow Labrador retriever check everything, he means it. Water fountains, fire extinguishers, wall-mounted TVs, bathroom sinks. If Boomer starts to walk by an item, Wooddell taps on it to get his attention.

"Find it," he tells him. After Boomer checks an area, he gets a hearty "Atta boy."

Police have used dogs to sniff for explosives inside Lane Stadium before football games for years -- since so long ago that Wooddell can't recall when the practice started -- but Boomer is the first bomb-sniffing dog owned by Virginia Tech police.

"There aren't many explosive-detection dogs in the area," Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said. With the number of events on Tech's campus and the number of dignitaries who come to visit, "it just made sense for us to have that asset here on campus." Read more »

 This morning I had this great photo waiting for me in my e-mail:

GULFPORT, Fla. (AP) — A one-eyed, three-legged dog that won the title of world's ugliest pooch this summer has died. The St. Petersburg Times in Florida reports that Gus, a Chinese crested dog, had cancer. He was 9. Gus was rescued from a bad home and went on to win the annual World's Ugliest Dog contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair in northern California.

Gus came from humble origins. According to the fair, his adopted family in Gulfport, Fla., rescued him after learning he was being kept in a crate inside someone's garage.

He had one leg amputated because of a skin tumor and lost an eye in a cat fight.

Gus' owner had said the prize money from the contest would be put toward the dog's radiation treatment.

(Photo by Associated Press)

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Completely bald and older than the Incas, the Peruvian hairless dog seems like an odd fit for the White House.

But Peruvians are mindful of President-elect Barack Obama's preference for a hypoallergenic breed due to his daughter Malia's allergies — and say the dark, rough-skinned pooch with large ears and a pointy snout could be just the solution.

At his first postelection news conference on Friday, Obama said choosing a pet dog for his daughters is a "major issue."

"It has to be hypoallergenic. On the other hand, our preference would be to get a shelter dog, but a lot of shelter dogs are mutts like me," the president-elect said.

The Friends of the Peruvian Hairless Dog Association responded on Monday, sending a letter to the U.S. Embassy in Peru offering the Obama family a 4-month-old pup that responds to "Machu Picchu," the name of Peru's famed Inca citadel.

"My family also has suffered from ... not being able to have a pet because my son and I are asthmatic, so we thought it would be ideal for him (Obama) to have a dog like ours," said association president Claudia Galvez.

Galvez, who has lived with six dogs of the breed for eight years, says being hairless has its benefits: The dogs are flealess and relatively odorless, too.

They were kept as pets during the Inca empire and depictions of the breed appear in 1,200-year-old, pre-Inca artwork.

The hairless dog was long scorned for its appearance before it was recognized internationally as the official Peruvian dog.

(Photo from Associated Press)

When Marine Corporal Dustin Jerome Lee was fatally wounded by shrapnel from an IED in Karmah, Iraq in March of 2007, his fellow Marine, who was also injured, refused to leave a man behind.

The fellow Marine was Lex, a military trained, bomb-sniffing German Shepherd dog, and Lee was his handler.

Lee's parents were told that Lex had to be pulled away from their injured son.

"Lex did not want to leave Dustin because that was his partner," Jerome Lee, Dustin's father, is quoted in a news report from a Phoenix television station. "He was going to stay with him no matter what."

Today, Lex will be honored in Veteran's Day parade in Phoenix.

According to news reports, Lex attended Lee's funeral in Mississippi after receiving care for his own wounds at a veterinary hospital in North Carolina.

The dog, who had served eight years in the Marines and still had two years left on his tour, has since been retired from service and now lives with Lee's parents.

"When we lost Dustin, we knew we wanted a part of Lex to be with us," Jerome Lee is quoted. "No matter what."

Rachel Lee, Dustin's mother, said having Lex has helped her deal with the loss.

"It's like having the spirit within," she said.

(This was an unfortunate news story from the weekend with a happy ending.  Reminded me that what's important is not the things we have, but the people and the pets we love. Nona Nelson)

Mark Couch was at work last Friday when a neighbor called and told him his house was on fire. The first thing that sprang to Couch's mind: his 10-year-old Maltese dog, Keelee. The newspaper's Jordan Fifer was there to capture the story in this video:

Good Monday morning to you all. Hope everyone had a good weekend.

Today's Happy Wag print column is all about choosing a good kennel if you have to travel for the holidays. We have left Dexter at About Pets Center, one of the boarding places featured in the column. About Pets will also board kitties, but when we pack up and hit the road, we usually leave our two cats home alone.

As I wrote in the column, we are blessed to have a wonderful neighbor who will check on our independent felines to make sure they don't get themselves in any trouble in our absence. With plenty of food and extra litter pans, India and Thai have always done well having the run of the place while the people and pooches are gone.

But if we had to be gone for more than a few days, or if our neighbor isn't available, we may need to find a professional to see to their needs.

So, all you kitty pet parents out there, what do you do for your felines when you have to travel?

Do you trust them to watch the house for you, not to get into your liquor cabinet and not make overseas calls? Do you board them? Do you hire a pet sitter to check up on them, and if you do use a professional, who would you recommend?