LADY LAKE, Fla. - Displaced residents slept in shelters and officials enacted curfews after violent thunderstorms, including at least one tornado, left a swath of central Florida in shambles and killed 19 people or more.

A wildlife shelter just outside Scottsdale is to be the new home for mountain lions the state is trying to capture and remove from a popular wilderness recreation area near Tucson.

Some dogs jump in greeting as people walk down the long hallways of the Maricopa County Animal Care & Control East Valley shelter. Others glance up as children look into the cages. Some dogs sleep soundly while their neighbors bark excitedly.

Maricopa County Animal Care and Control announced that it has hit a crisis stage, as have its rescue partners. Care centers are filled to capacity with dogs and cats of all ages and breeds.

SCOTTSDALE - Bridle in hand, 12-year-old Madison Marino guides Sassy out for an afternoon stroll in the corral at Horse Rescue of North Scottsdale. They’ve been together for two weeks now, and Sassy has become a favorite as the shelter tries to find the mare a new owner.

Maricopa County Sheriff’s deputies braved snow flurries, rain and freezing temperatures Monday to rescue four hikers stranded in the Upper Sycamore Creek area near Sunflower.

Last week, Piggie Poo, Arizona's Small Animal Rescue picked up about 100 guinea pigs that will be in need of homes in the coming weeks. The guinea pigs, many of them sick or pregnant, were dumped at a California shelter by a local hoarder. They were transported from San Diego to Yuma and then to the PETCO at Tatum and Bell in Phoenix. Most survived and are on the mend toward healthy, happy lives.

Hundreds of people and their golden retrievers attended the sixth annual Bark in the Park on Sunday in Tempe.

What started as a hobby for former major league baseball player Shea Hillenbrand has turned into a nonprofit organization at his Marley Farms animal rescue ranch in Gilbert, saving the lives of animals slated to be euthanized by Valley shelters.

April 16, 2005

Some people are finding it impossible to keep their horses as the economy worsens, leaving owners scrambling to sell or find shelters for their animals. They occasionally wind up setting horses free to fend for themselves.

PHOENIX - People who face foreclosure and have to get rid of pets are contributing to an increase in the number of animals at shelters across metropolitan Phoenix.

The cold weather is prompting more of Arizona's homeless to bring in the new year safe and warm inside shelters across the Phoenix and Tucson areas.

TAMPA, Fla. -- Lady Di is a lovely purebred collie with a pleasant disposition, just like lots of other dogs dumped at shelters in areas that lack anywhere near enough would-be owners. Unlike all but a lucky few of those animals, she got a plane ride away from death row.

Gilbert’s Friends for Life Animal Rescue will host its annual fundraising dinner and silent auction March 2 at The Buttes resort in Tempe.

Caught in a feline frenzy, pet shelters across the Valley and even a Mesa couple are hoping to find the “purr-fect” home for cats and kittens at affordable rates as the amount of homeless cats continues to increase.

As people have suffered in a dire economy, so have pets, and shelters are struggling with a supply that far outstrips demand.

Phoenix police officers brought a puppy to the Arizona Animal Welfare League & Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (AAWL & SPCA) over the weekend that had been left in a car with the windows rolled up in a parking lot in central Phoenix.

When a wild animal is hit by a car and injured, the Southwest Wildlife Rehabilitation and Educational Foundation comes to the rescue.

Cindy, a rambunctious 10-year-old Maine coon cat, is expected to get a home soon — after being taken in by a Gilbert animal shelter more than a year ago. If adopted, she’ll leave behind 17 other cats and dogs that have been at the Friends for Life shelter for more than a year.

LOS ANGELES — There will be a winner and a loser every Super Bowl Sunday. But at the "Puppy Bowl," it's always a win for animal shelters.