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Hello blog readers. Sorry that I disappeared on you for a few days. I won't bore you with details but let's just say I needed a bit of tender loving care. I am lucky to have a wonderful family that includes a caring hubby and daughter with cats and dogs, too, so I had lots of love to help me feel better.

People in hospitals and extended care facilities are often not so lucky. A visit from a pet can be just what the doctor can't order to lift the spirits and calm the soul.

And sometimes kids just need a friendly ear that will listen without interruption or judgment, and maybe offer a snuggle of encouragement, too.

That's what wonderful about TheraPets.

Click here to read yesterday's column about the dedicated group of volunteers that spans three generations and includes lots of sweet pooches that help other people feel good.

I also need to clear up an error I made: The phone number for TheraPets is 772-9542. I listed it incorrectly in the information box in the newspaper.

(Photo by  Kyle Green/The Roanoke Times)

Today's Happy Wag column was based on the blog entry I did last month about declawing cats.

I was talking about it with my husband this weekend and he knows I regret declawing Thai, but he pointed out that Thai still runs his front feet over every surface in our house. If Thai still had claws, we would have no rugs, carpets, furniture, bedding, window coverings or even doors that would be unscathed. How long could we have reasonably co-existed with him if he destroyed every flat surface in our home?

And believe me, Thai is virtually immune to behavior modification techniques. He's a sweet loving kitty with a Frank Sinatra attitude: He does it his way.

If I had it do over, I don't think I would have declawed him before at least trying to train him to channel his inner Shredder in a positive way. But if declawing keeps a cat from being turned in to animal control, it may be the best alternative.

The discussion continues.

Hello blog readers! I missed you while I was on vacation. It was a wonderful break, but it is also good to be home. I will have lots to post this week after I sift through the mountains of e-mails, voice mails and snail mails I had waiting for me this morning.

Click here to read today's Happy Wag column, all about my adventures in cooking my own dog food. The results were mixed: The recipes were easy, the dogs loved the food, but it is expensive and time consuming and I just don't think it's a practice I can sustain. And I worried a lot about proper nutrition.

But treats? Oh yeah, I can make those, the pooches go crazy for them, and they are actually less expensive than the pre-packaged stuff.

Click here for the recipe that turns the stuff in this photo into tasty frozen treats for dogs, or can be the base of a tasty smoothie for people.

Today's Happy Wag newspaper column is about making the decision to feed your pets a raw diet.

This is not a decision that should be made lightly, and I would encourage anyone considering it to do a lot of reading and research and talk to your vet. Be prepared to get push-back from your vet because most doctors are not supportive of it, but you need to know whether there are any medical conditions that would preclude your pet from being a good candidate for this diet, and your vet needs to know what your pet eats.

The evidence supporting a raw diet is anecdotal. People who feed raw rave about it. I leave it up to you to make the most informed decision and do what you think is right. As for my pack, we are not quiet there yet, but the next Wag column will feature my adventures in cooking my own dog food. Stay tuned.

I will tell you that the frozen treat recipe I posted last week was a HUGE hit with my dogs, and I sampled it before I froze it and it was very tasty. This is much less expensive than packaged doggy ice cream and it's all natural. Win-win, folks.

Please click here to read today's Happy Wag column about Star City Greyhound Adoptions, a group that is very close to my heart.

Also click on the amazing video that photographer John Adkisson filmed at the SCGA kennel, and listen to director Sara Orrick talk about her love and dedication to these dogs.

I want to thank photographer Eric Brady, who spent an hour photographing my two hounds, both SCGA alums, for the print version of the story. While my dogs are very sweet and easy going, they are certainly not the obedient types that sit and stay on command. Eric was very patient as they wandered all over the photo studio and he got several beautiful shots, including the almost-life-size picture of Coral on the front page of the Extra section.

Designer Gretchen Tipps, a pet mom to three greyhounds herself, did a fantastic job with the layout of the story and made my beautiful Coral into a supermodel.

Today's Happy Wag column was new territory for me: Away from the household critters and into the barn. I think of horses and ponies as companion animals, and if I had the room and the cash I would definitely like to have one myself.

I met Marcie Saunders through photographer Stephanie Klein-Davis. We spent a morning watching Marcie rub down two ponies at a farm in Fairfield in Rockbridge County. She was scheduled to do seven horses that day. Click here to read the column and see the video.

I admired Saunders honesty that some people aren't convinced it's beneficial to the animals. The pair we saw get her loving touch really seemed to enjoy it.

If you keep horses or ponies and had any experience with equine massage, post a comment and let us know what you think.

Abbey Ingram is a really sweet girl with a really big heart. About a month ago, her mother Chanda Ingram sent me an e-mail telling me that all her daughter wanted for her birthday was donations to help animals in a shelter, a pretty generous offer for an soon-to-be-8-year-old.

Needless to say Chanda and her partner Nikki were very proud of their daughter and wanted to share this nice story. I got to talk to Abbey, a very articulate young lady dedicated to helping animals, last week on the phone . So I wrote about her selfless act for part of today's Happy Wag newspaper column (click right here to read it.)

The Extra section for Mondays is designed on Fridays, and Abbey brought her donation to Angels of Assisi last Friday after we had already proofed the section, so unfortunately I could not include a picture with today's column. I went down there as she and her moms were unloading their car of all the donations Abbey collected from her birthday party guests. As you can see it was a nice haul.

Barbara Mason, director of Angels of Assisi, was there to thank Abbey and tell her how much the dogs and cats at the shelter would appreciate these gifts.

You did a very good thing, Abbey. Thanks to you, and other folks that make donations and all the volunteers who donate their time, homeless pets have that second chance to find forever families.

Click here to read today's Happy Wag newspaper column about the Franklin County Humane Society's Inglath and Mac Cooper adoption center.

The center has been the home to adoptable cats and kittens since May, but just last week adoptable dogs were able to move in as well. The adoption center is a big step in the right direction of reducing the number of homeless pets euthanized in the county.

For a long time, ending up at the municipal animal control shelter was practically a death sentence in Franklin County. The work of the volunteers at the humane society and the addition of an adoption specialist at the pound has made a world of difference. Where the euthanasia rate had once hovered between 80 and 90 percent, the municipal shelter puts down less than 60 percent of cats and only 25 percent of dogs now.

Most of the pets, however, will find their forever home somewhere outside of Franklin County. A majority of the adoptable dogs and cats are shipped out of the county to rescue groups as close as Roanoke and as far as New Hampshire. Those placements are made possible through the efforts Faye Hicks, the pound's adoption specialist, and an army of volunteers including Anita Scott, Jenny Richardson, Elizabeth Little who work tirelessly to move these pets so they can find their new families.

Hicks told me last week how much she appreciates the support of the FCHS, Angels of Assisiin Roanoke and groups in Martinsville-Henry County that help these kitties and pooches have a second chance at a loving home.

Pets can be adopted directly from the Franklin County municipal pound for only $10.

(Photo by Eric Brady, The Roanoke Times)

Please click here to read today's Happy Wag newspaper column all about the love of pugs.

While working on this story I met some great people who are dedicated to helping pugs find new homes. If you are thinking about adding a pug to your family, I would suggest looking at the Web site for Mid-Atlantic Pug Rescueas a first stop in your journey. Not only can you see photos of some pretty cute puggies looking for homes, like Coco Chanel pictured here,  but you can get a lot of good information about this breed to make sure it's right for your family.

Pugs are companion dogs. They need to be with the people in their lives and really become part of the family. While they are the polar opposite of my greyhounds in physcial appearance, their need to be with people and their low tolerance for outdoor life is nearly identical. Puggies, like greyhounds, are house pooches and they thrive on attention.

I thank photojournalist Stephanie Klein-Davis for introducing me to these dedicated pug people. Click here to see Stephanie's videoall about puggy love.

Here's a link  to today's Happy Wag column, where I lay down the law to Thai, my cat, once and for all, and tell him who is boss. Yeah, it went about as well as you would expect.

Speaking of cats, you may remember that June is Adopt-a-Cat-Month, as I mentioned it in Friday's blog entry. Please don't let my imaginary conversations with my tyrannical kitty sway you if you were thinking about adopting a feline. Cats are wonderful pets and true companions. 

And right now, there is a tremendous need for good homes for some rescued cats.

Besides the scores of litters that populate all the shelters this time of year anyway, today Angels of Assisi, the no-kill shelter in downtown Roanoke, is scheduled to take custody of as many as 80 cats surrendered by an owner in Giles County.

According to a news release sent to me from Lisa O'Neill, a volunteer at Angels, there are many nursing mothers in this colony of kitties.

If you are like me and just can't adopt another cat right now, Angels would gladly accept the following donations:

• Wire crates! (The type can fold down for easy storage)
• Purina Cat Food
• Purina Kitten Food
• Kitty Litter
• More wire crates!

Please visit the Web site or stop by the shelter on Campbell Avenue if you are able to help.