By Jeff White

Virginia Jess and Louise Lank have a love affair with dogs.

The two Newtown residents have just gotten approval from the town to start their own nonprofit group focused on bettering the quality of life, safety and health of the dogs in Newtown’s pound.

“I think people are unaware that there are so many dogs abandoned and looking for homes in Newtown,” says Virginia Jess. “We started out as a small group of citizens who became aware of the plight of so many abandoned dogs in our town.”

The group the two founded, Canine Advocates of Newtown, Inc., makes daily trips to the pound to visit and walk the dogs. Ideally, Mrs Jess says, each dog should get an hour’s worth of attention a day from a volunteer; sadly, with only 12 active volunteers in the new group, walking each dog for an hour is not possible sometimes.

Besides dog walking, volunteers put up posters around town whenever a new dog is admitted into the pound. Dogs’ pictures are placed in flyers and distributed to storefronts and town notice boards.

Through an extensive network of area and out-of-state dog lovers, volunteers spend hours tracking down happy and loving homes for the canines in the pound. “We want to see these dogs get [not only] loving homes, but the right homes,” explains Mrs Lank.

Canine Advocates also offer their services as consultants, offering to give advice to residents who have recently adopted a dog. “We don’t want people to get frustrated and take dogs back to the pound,” explains Mrs Jess.

The group has an agenda that they would like to see become reality in the relatively near future. Besides desiring more volunteers to spend time with dogs, they would like to see all dogs at the get screened and given shots, along with being neutered. They also want to see residents follow-up on the process of adopting a dog.

Ultimately, the group would like to relocate the dog pound away from its current location behind the town dump.

Anyone wishing to become an active member in Canine Advocates must donate $10. For more information, call 426-5327.