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Families, pets can meet Santa
Proceeds help animal shelter
Photo 1
Diesel the dog met Santa Claus last year during the PawParazzi Pet Boutiques event. Animals and their families can come meet Santa Claus and get their photos taken this year, too. All proceeds will go toward the local animal shelter. - photo by Photo provided.

It might be normal to hear, “ruff ruff ruff” when walking past PawParazzi Pet Boutique, but soon people will also hear, “Ho ho ho.”
Santa Claus is coming to the grooming pet boutique from 12-4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 6. The grooming spa, at 11360 Ford Avenue, is hosting a fundraising event to support Bryan County Animal Control. The community’s families and their pets are invited to the boutique to meet and get their photos taken with Santa.
For $20, families will receive a copy of their photo as a festive printed card. Digital copies are also available for an extra $5. All proceeds will go to the animal shelter.
“Our Santa photographs are always popular and make wonderful holiday cards,” PawParazzi  owner Jane Honnor said. “We are encouraging people to bring along donations of food, treats, toys or any other dog-related items to donate to the shelter.”
This event will help raise funds for equipment needed for the shelter, including new puppy pens for the small dogs, which are set up to create a type of play pen for the animals.
“A lot of people in the county are not even aware that we have an animal shelter in the area,” Honnor said.  “Many other shelters have a lot of community support with people donating many items, including food. We need to raise awareness and encourage people to help. The shelter really needs to be updated, and I would love to eventually raise enough money to help refurbish the facility. We are a community of dog lovers, and I am sure people would be happy to donate items to give these babies waiting for adoption a happy Christmas.”
According to animal control caregiver Beth Murray, the shelter needs canned dog food and puppy food.
“Canned dog food helps put weight on animals that are underweight,” Murray explained. “They can eat that because it is double the calories. You can take a starved dog and give them that canned food and it helps them put on weight quicker.”
The animal shelter, which has an estimated 25 animals right now, also needs donations of towels, blankets not made with polyfill, toys, small dog collars and cleaning supplies.
“I would love to find a way to have people sponsor a specific animal, which would cover the cost of the animal’s rabies shot,” Murray said.
At the event, which was started in 2007 by the original owner of PawParazzi, children can get their faces painted between 12-1 p.m. PawParazzi will provide treats for dogs to sample for free.
Last year, 35 dogs came to the event, and according to Honnor, two cats came to meet Santa in 2012.
The Bryan County Animal Control and Carpathia Paws will bring animals currently awaiting adoption to the event for the community to meet, play with and consider adopting.
All pet photos taken with Santa will be entered into the cutest photo with Santa competition on PawParazzi’s Facebook page. The photo with the most “likes” will receive a gift basket and grooming coupon for PawParazzi Pet Boutique and Grooming Spa.
“We are thankful to Angela Hopper of the Canvas Dog Studio, who is once again our photographer and is donating her time to this fundraising event,” Honnor said.
Murray said events like this one are good for the animal shelter, not only for the donations, but also because it reminds people that there are animals that need adopting.
“We are out here in the woods, and a lot of people don’t know we are out here or that these animals exist,” Murray said. “These events put our shelter in the public eye, so that maybe people will decide to adopt a dog. I’m proud of what this shelter does.”
The photographer will have 10-minute slots available throughout the day from noon-4 p.m. Families can make appointments to keep from waiting in line.
For more information or to set up a time slot with the photographer, call 756-8807.

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