Department of Public Safety

Perhaps you saw the story on FOX2News last month about the City's efforts to rescue strays from the cold. Mentioned in the story was the fact that the wife and daughters of Public Safety Director Charles Bryson had found a dog between the front doors of the Bryson residence after they returned home from sledding on Jan. 11.

The cute dog was not wearing tags, did not have an identification chip and so her owner was not readily identifiable. After tweeting her picture on Twitter, sharing it on Facebook and airing the information on television, no one has come forward to claim her. That's just fine with the Bryson family. They have named her Avery and plan to take good care of her.

The second stray dog that has found a new "leash" on life is "Flori." You may have first read about her in December of 2010 in the St. Louis-Post Dispatch when two St. Louis firefighters crawled onto ice partly covering a lake at O'Fallon Park to rescue the 9-month-old Labrador mix. 

When St. Louis Fire Department Captain Mark Chrun heard that the Humane Society was offering the puppy for adoption, with preference to a firefighter, the Chrun family talked it over and decided to adopt her. Flori is named in honor of St. Florian, patron saint of firefighters.

If this item has inspired you to adopt a stray dog or cat, or to provide a foster home for a pet, or to volunteer at an animal shelter, Stray Rescue, the City's animal shelter, would like to hear from you. Visit them online at http://strayrescue.org/ .