Jackson Free Press

Community Animal Rescue & Adoption (960 N. Flag Chapel Road), a nonprofit "no-kill" animal rescue group in Jackson, will host its 12th annual Dog Days of Summer fundraiser on Saturday, Aug. 24, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Pelahatchie Shore Park at the Reservoir.

The event will include $5 chicken, hamburger or hot dog box lunches from Outback Steakhouse or pizza by the slice for $5 from Pizza Shack. Dog Days will also have a children's carnival with face painting, Home Depot building projects and games.

Visitors will also be able to take part in a silent auction and a pet parade, listen to live music, browse wares from local arts and crafts vendors, meet adoptable CARA dogs, and observe dog agility, obedience and K-9 demonstrations from the Richland Police Department.

The Brandon Kennel Club will offer micro-chipping services for $35 while supplies last, and Y101.7 and Mix 98.7 will broadcast live from the event throughout the day.

A donation of a bag of dry dog food serves as the admission fee, and the children's carnival is $5. Guests must keep their dogs on a leash throughout the event. For more information, call 601-842-4404 or visit carams.org/dds.

Big Donations for Big Fix Clinic

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals recently gave Mississippi Spay and Neuter a $38,000 grant for medical equipment at its new Big Fix Clinic in Richland.

MS SPAN, an organization that spays and neuters both pets and feral cats and dogs in an effort to end euthanasia and mistreatment of stray animals, MS SPAN's website says, originally opened in 2005. The current Big Fix Clinic, which opened in 2008, is located at 100 Business Center Parkway in Pearl, while the new, larger location will be at 657 Highway 49 in Richland, next door to Mississippi Title Loans. The current Big Fix Clinic will remain open until the new location opens.

"We currently only have about 2,000 square feet to work in and only one doctor a day in performing surgeries, but we also have a month-long waiting list," Shelby Parsons, communications manager for MS SPAN, told the Jackson Free Press. "We realized we needed a much bigger building to address the need to do a lot more surgeries to get control of the overpopulation problem. With this, we plan to double the number of surgeries per year to 10,000."

MS SPAN also plans to move its thrift store, Big Thrift (2785 Highway 49 S., Florence), into the new building after it opens. The store, which has been open since 2014, sells clothes, housewares, books, pet products and more.

The Big Fix Clinic is scheduled to open in September 2019 and will provide low-cost spay-and-neuter services and basic wellness services such as vaccines and deworming. MS SPAN also has a special van equipped with kennels that drives out once per month to Meridian, McComb and Vicksburg to pick up animals on behalf of owners to take them to the clinic and back at no additional charge.

The Petco Foundation also donated $17,500 to MS SPAN for renovations on the new Big Fix Clinic. Pennyfix, a Harrisburg, Pa.,-based spay and neuter initiative, donated $1,000 to provide neuter surgeries, rabies shots and feline viral rhinotracheitis, calicivirus and panleukopenia, or FVRCP, vaccinations to 40 male cats at the Big Fix Clinic on Aug. 6.

For more information on Mississippi Spay and Neuter and its programs, call 601-420-2438 or visit msspan.org.

UMMC Partnering with Merit Health Madison

University of Mississippi Medical Center is partnering with Merit Health Madison (161 River Oaks Drive, Canton) to have UMMC personnel provide inpatient post-operative care—which refers to treatment that requires being admitted to a hospital for less than 24 hours—at Merit Health's hospital in Canton.

The partnership is part of the Healthier Mississippi Collaborative, a UMMC-affiliated nonprofit company that the Institutions of Higher Learning approved. UMMC established the company after the state legislature signed the Health Care Collaboration Act into law in 2017. The act allows the hospital to partner with both public and private health-care providers.

UMMC physicians' will use Merit Health Madison's operating room space for some short-stay surgical procedures, while doctors at its main campus in Jackson can focus on specialty procedures and care of patients with life-threatening or serious medical issues, a release from UMMC says.