Bring your dog and go for a run!

Big Lick Vet, located at 7777 Bent Mountain Road (Rt. 221), will hold their second annual Tails & Trails K9 5K Run on November 3rd at North Cross School at 10 a.m. The 5K run benefits the Virginia Canine Recovery Team(VCRT).  The VCRT unit is a canine unit that is deployed to help find missing loved ones. Last year, over $3000 was raised for the purchase of equipment and training for this all volunteer unit.

From the Big Lick Vet website:

The second annual Big Lick Vet Tails and Trails K9 5K Run will be held Saturday, November 3, 2011, at North Cross Cross-Country Course in Roanoke County. This event will be a one mile family walk and 5k run with your dog and is the only race that includes furry friends in our area. Having a dog is not necessary to participate. We are very excited that the race will benefit the Virginia Canine Recovery Team, based here in Roanoke.

The Virginia Canine Recovery Team (VCRT) is a volunteer team that works closely with federal, state, local and volunteer groups in an effort to reunite families and their missing loved ones. Their mission is to serve as a first responder team in local and national disasters, and to supply Law Enforcement and missing person agencies with highly skilled and professional human remains detection dog teams for the purpose of investigating missing persons and homicide cases.

Big Lick Veterinary Services is close to this cause as two of our K9 patients are on the team. Their handler is a close friend of the Harrington family whose daughter, a student at VT, was tragically abducted and murdered in October 2009 at UVA. She was inspired to donate her time in honor of Morgan Harrington. For further information regarding VCRT visit their website at www.virginiarecoverydogs.com.

We are asking for your support and participation for this worthy cause. All donations are tax deductible as VCRT is a non profit 501c3 organization.

For those interested in signing up to attend the run, you may register on-line by clicking here.  The 5k Race will start at 10 a.m. and the one mile walk will start at 10:10 a.m.

Please contact us if you have any questions at 540-776-0700.

To see some of the pictures from last year’s race, please click here.

Submitted by Jonathan Amos, DVM and Natalie McLaughlin, DVM