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The 2010 Roanoke Valley SPCA calendars are on sale. Alas, there are no Nelson pets in this year's edition because I was too lazy too busy to send in a photo, but there are hundreds of other local sweeties on these pages.

It's a good desk calendar, but the true value in my opinion is in the wonderful family portraits and stories. The proceeds help adoptable pets in Roanoke, Vinton and Botetourt have a second chance at a great life.

Since its founding in 2004, the RVSPCA has helped almost 10,000 homeless pets find a loving family, including my dog Stormy.

Click here for more details.

(The title of this blog post probably only makes sense if you follow the blog LOLcats, where black cats are called Basement Kitty and white cats are called Ceiling Kitty. This may only be funny to me. Carry on.)

Black cats are always special and this weekend they are available at a specially discounted adoption fee at the Roanoke Valley SPCA.
Today through Sunday, you can add a coal-colored kitty to your family for $20 off the normal adoption fee. 

Cats older than 6-months can be adopted for $45 dollars and little kittens can be adopted for $65. All pets adopted from the RVSPCA are spayed/neutered and up-to-date on all their shots.

That's a bargain for a purring little bundle that will love you, not ruin your black pants with hair, and boss you around for years to come.

Angels of Assisi will celebrate the fall season by hosting an adoption day this Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Birkenstock Shoes at Valley View.

The no-kill shelter is promoting its MasCat program which places customer-friendly kitties in businesses and offices. The kitties can either become permanent employees (they work for kibble and chin rubs) or can meet eligible families that may be interested in adopting.

The no-kill shelter's adoption center is open daily from 2 to 6 p.m. at its downtown location, 415 Campbell Avenue.

Who doesn't love puppies! And who doesn't want to see a picture of adorable puppies on an overcast Friday morning? I'm guessing no one who reads this blog would be raising their hands.

Monday's Happy Wag column is all about Sara Orrick and the dogs of Star City Greyhound Adoptions, a group that is very close to my heart.

Yesterday Sara e-mailed a picture of a litter of greyhound puppies that will be ready for adoption soon. The pups were an "oops" litter belonging to a sweet greyhound named Welch who was on her was slotted to go to adoption at a racing greyhound farm when apparently there was a romantic encounter. The result are three black and three brindle pups, five girls and one boy. Sara told me one of the girls and the only boy are already spoken for, so that leaves four little bundles of love looking for a home.

Interested families should contact Star City Greyhound Adoptions at www.starcitygreyhounds.org.

Southside pet lovers: Here's a schedule of fun things to do from the Martinsville-Henry County SPCA:

Free pet parenting class, Saturday from 1 to 2 p.m

This class is for the two-legged family members to learn the basics of pet parenthood and how to make your family's adjustment as smooth as possible.  This one hour orientation is purrrfect for new pet parents and those experiencing training issues.  To register call Alice Ann Blevins at 276-632-7424

Lancome hosts silent auction for M-HCSPCA, Thursday, Aug. 27, 1 to 4 p.m

The silent auction will benefit the M-HCSPCA. There also will be a red carpet event with makeup artist Ricardo, who will do professional makeovers.  Reservations must be made in advance.  For more information or to reserve your space, contact Darlee, counter manager for Lancome at Belk, 276-638-2471, ext. 268. 

Cruise In Car Show, Saturday, Aug. 29, 4 to 8 p.m.

Meet the adoptable animals at the Cruise In Car Show at Advance Auto, located in front of Big Lots.  In addition to music and free food there will be pets available for adoption from the M-HCSPCA.  For more information contact the M-HCSPCA or Bob Norris at 276-340-9144 or go to the Virginia Car club Web site.

Last month I wrote a column about the Franklin County Humane Society and how the work of volunteers there, working with the county's animal control, have made a huge difference in lowering the euthanaisa rate there.

In the story, I described Katie Bear, a big, beautiful Lab the color of a Hershey's Kiss.  She absolutely stole my heart. This was a sweet dog that was found wandering in Boone's Mill and her family, from Buchanan, could not be located. What may have looked like anxiety on her face I saw as heartbreak and confusion.

Get her out of the kennel and spend a little time with her, and she proved what a cuddle pup she really was. She had known me only  a few minutes when she began leaning on my legs and stretching her neck up to my hands so I could scratch her ears.

Katie Bear was a big lover. I would have taken this girl home if I could.

I asked Anita Scott, the volunteer who places so many of Franklin County's homeless pets with rescue groups across the mid-Atlantic region, to please let me know when Katie Bear found a home.

Last week she sent me an e-mail that Katie had been sent to a rescue group. This morning Anita forwarded this e-mail from Steffi, her contact with the group where Katie was placed:

"Good news, Katie has a home!

Hi Anita, just thought you’d like to know, Katie Bear went home to her forever family this afternoon. They are a lovely family with two quiet teen daughters. They said between them, Kate would never have to be alone again. They love her because their last dog was a choc. Lab and had many of Katies’ characteristics. They loved her faults and missed them! There is a dog for everyone! Katie took to them right away and lay across their laps while they signed her contract. It was a real love match! Btw, they had already purchased her three dog beds and had made a batch of grilled salmon and brown rice for her first meal at home. They brought smoked trout for her to eat as snacks. I wanted to go home with them! lol.  Thanks for sending me such a good dog.

Steffi"

Good luck to Katie Bear and her new family of gourmets.

I really enjoyed meeting young Abbey Ingram, the 8-year-old who unselfishly asked only for donations for Angels of Assisi for her birthday. Abbey has other like-minded kids in the Valley who want to help pets, and honestly, it makes me feel very good about the kids we are raising here.

Here's a link to the SWoCo blog here on roanoke.com about some dedicated kids who also helped raise money and collect supplies for Angels. (For those not from this area, SWoCo = Southwest Roanoke County.)

Danielle Elegy, Christa Madison and Molly Kwitny,all 11-year-old, SWoCo residents, and Corinne Kauermann, 12, and Kevin Kauermann, 14, both from Pennsylvania, held a fundraiser in front of the Kroger on Brambleton Avenue and raised $400 for the homeless pets at Angels.

I read in the last issue of Paw Prints, the Roanoke Valley SPCA's e-mail newsletter that Johnothan Ballard celebrated his ninth birthday the same way that Abbey did, by asking that the homeless pets at the RVSPCA receive the gifts.  Johnothan collected $175.
 
Emily Jones, 10, and Reagan Foster, 11, sold handcrafted jewelry at a family yard sale and donated their profit of $30.25 to the RVSPCA.
 
Zoe Arrington, 9, held a yard/bake sale and raised almost $100.  She and her mom will shop for food for the PET (Pets Eat Too) Program, which helps the elderly and low-income families feed their pets.

Thanks to all these generous kids for their compassion and hard work for animals and our community. Glad to have you all as neighbors.

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.

This letter was forwarded to me from the editorial department. It was such a lovely note I wanted to share it with you:

Kinda hard to start this letter-guess it began  last September when my wife and I got back from a Virginia Tech game.

Our 16-year-old dachshund, who was the love of our lives, was waiting for us to get home and feed him. His name was Ramsay and he had gotten to the age that he could barely walk in our mulch. Long story short, I let him out to do his business and I went inside to get his dinner. Much to our dismay, he went missing.

We spent half the night and most of the next day trying to find him without any luck. Well, we grieved for a while and decided we needed to find another dog-not just another dog, mind you, but a rescue dog.

I was a bit skeptical until she came home with this gorgoeous little labradoodle that was listed by the (Henry County) SPCA as a male. Because of her/his listing, I named him/her Buddy after Bud Foster.

As nervous as I was about adopting a dog, I cannot express how happy I am with this beautiful lady, named Buddy, who will greet me at the door with so much love and excitement in her eyes to see me home!  We have a porch that overlooks our neighbors house and our Buddy will stick her head between the pickets to watch the children play or listen to the cardinals sing with her tail a-wagging.

She seldom barks at them but seems just to glorify in the day, happy to be alive and taking in all the sounds and smells. My message is, if you want a true challenge with much in return, adopt one of these beautiful animals that for some reason was given up on. If you are as lucky as us, you will be much surprised by the love they will give you back.

-Mark Sizemore

I was a little amazed, and confused, about the gender identificaion, so I asked Mark for a little more detail. Here's what he wrote back:

We adopted Buddy from the Henry County SPCA when she was, by their estimation, almost 6-weeks-old.  Her entire litter had been dropped off and was destined to be shipped off to the North Shore Animal [League] when they were a little older.  

Once we had checked out the puppy's 'plumbing' at the shelter we didnt bother to check it again, we simply told them we would foster the male puppy until we made up our mind or it was time to send them to North Shore. We filled out the paperwork, they presented us with a beautiful blonde furball, and we went home for a week. 

We didnt realize the mistaken gender for another week and a half when we took him/her to be neutured.   Our vet just laughed and pointed out that our furball had a "hoo-haw and not a wing-ding". 

What a hoot - Bud Foster was a girl!  By that time, Buddy already knew and responded to her name, and our hearts were already given over to her - there was no going back!

Two area animal shelters are having "Christmas in July" drives to put a little kibble in the bowls for hungry pets.

The Roanoke Valley SPCA has been participating in the month-long drive in conjunction with area senior services organizations. Donations can be dropped off at senior care centers all over Roanoke (for a list of drop off locations, click here) or at collection boxes at Kroger, Ukrop's, K-92 Radio Station, the Salem-Roanoke County Chamber of Commerce, and the RVSPCA.

Donations will benefit the animals at the RVSPCA and dry food will be repackaged for distribution to the pets of recipients of Meals on Wheels and for the Bethel Baptist Church, Botetourt and Manna Ministries food pantries.

To cap off the "holiday" season, Loyalton of Roanoke will host a cookout on Friday, July 31 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.  A bag of cat or dog food and a $5 donation will get you a hot dog lunch. Loyalton is located at 3585 Brambleton Avenue.

The Franklin County Humane Society is also celebrating Christmas in July and is looking for donations of Purina One kitten, cat, puppy and dog food, cans of Fancy Feast or Friskies kitty food, Iams dog/puppy food, bones and treats, or Wal-Mart or PetSmart gift cards.

(In case you wonder why sometimes shelters specify a particular type of food for a donation, it's because it's best to keep animals- especially ones in a shelter environment which, no matter how well maintained, is stressful for social critters- on a consistent diet. Much less chance for stomach and digestion problems.)

Donations can be dropped off at the adoption center on U.S. 220, the Pet Clinic of Rocky Mount, the Uttermost Company and Westlake Veterinary Medical Hospital.

I also got e-mails from Jenny Richardson and Anita Scott, two of the volunteers I interviewed for my column about the new adoption center. The FCHS took in seven dogs surrendered by a backyard breeder this week and they are hoping for cash donations to the shelter to cover the medical bills for these pooches.

The dogs are various toy breeds, including Pomeranian, Shih Tzu, a Pekingese, and range from 3- to 7-years-old.

All of the dogs have hookworms; two had to have teeth extracted and one had bladder stones. Another dog, Fiona, gave birth to two puppies after the shelter took her in. Each of the dogs had to be bathed several times and shaved because their fur was matted and crusted in dirt and feces.

Lloyd- before

Lloyd- after

Scott said all but the new mother and her litter have been committed to rescue groups. Fiona and her puppies will be in foster care until they can be adopted. If you want to donate, go the shelter's Web site for PayPal, or send a donation to the Franklin County Humane Society, P.O. Box 2118, Rocky Mount, Va., 24151