A close-up indoor photograph by Jarrett Haas showing a brown-and-white puppy named Rockruff, from Friends of Strays, at the CL TV studio in Tampa, Florida on Sept. 10, 2026. Resting its chin on the edge of a dark wooden tabletop, the puppy looks directly into the camera with floppy brown ears, dark brown eyes, white facial fur covered in brown freckles, and light white whiskers. In the blurred background, a person wearing a black t-shirt featuring a rainbow logo sits behind the dog under warm indoor studio lighting.
Rockruff, from Friends of Strays, at the CL TV studio in Tampa, Florida on Sept. 10, 2026. Credit: Jarrett Haas/Palm Tree Content & CLTV / Creative Loafing Tampa Bay

With nearly half-a-century of service, Friends of Strays is a trusted Tampa Bay animal shelter that started as a cat rescue and now houses dogs, too. Helping more than 4,000 animals annually isn’t cheap and the nonprofit looks to close its “Love Unleashed” 30-day awareness fundraiser out strong.

“We are entirely reliant on our community to help us save these lives, and every single person can help be part of that,” Jessica Salmond, Communications & Marketing Director at Friends of Strays told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay in a recent episode of CLTV where puppy brothers Lucario and Rockruff also made an appearance. “You don’t have to adopt an animal if that’s not in your life plan right now. You can volunteer, you can foster, and of course you can donate, and that makes you part of that. That makes you part of saving one of these lives.”

If you like your philanthropy to be communal, there are quite a few options from Bayboro Brewing’s beer sales fundraiser (Sept. 25, 6 p.m.-8 p.m.), to cat yoga at The Cat Box (Sept. 26, 10 a.m.), a November “Catsino” night at Lealman Exchange, plus weekend BBQ sales (Foodie Labs, Sept. 26, 5 p.m.-9 p.m.), Tiki Docks Monday-Thursday sales share (through Sept. 30), and one last music bingo at St. Pete Beach’s Twisted Tiki.

See more Friends of Strays events, and chip in to “Love Unleashed” via friendsofstrays.org.

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This article appears in Sept. 24 – 30, 2026.

Read his 2016 intro letter and disclosures from 2022 and 2021. Ray Roa started freelancing for Creative Loafing Tampa in January 2011 and was hired as music editor in August 2016. He became Editor-In-Chief...