Remember Bea, the extremely cute dog we told you about last month?

After we featured her on this blog and on our Facebook page, a kind woman spotted her irresistible mug and, well, couldn't resist it. But what really sealed the deal was the fact that Bea was the woman's grandmother's name, so she figured that adopting this winsome little gal was "meant to Bea."

The only hitch in the plan? The adoptive family lives in Massachusetts, 550 miles from Bea's foster home near PETA's headquarters, the Sam Simon Center in Norfolk, Virginia. But PETA fieldworker Kelly Kercheval rose to the challenge and volunteered to make the 12-hour drive to Bea's new home. Fortunately, the pup proved to be an eager traveler and seemed to relish the chance to relax and see the sights.

Bea now has a spacious new 1-acre fenced yard that she enjoys running around in. She has three canine siblings to play with and has already claimed the prime real estate on the couch. Her family reports that she loves having her tummy scratched more than just about anything else in the world.

What You Can Do

If you are interested in adopting an animal, visit your local shelter or keep an eye on this blog for available animals. E-mail Adopt@peta.org if you would like to be added to our list of potential adopters.

Poor little Olivia was a 5-pound skeleton with fur when a man found her wandering outside the warehouse where he works, just a few miles from PETA's headquarters at the Sam Simon Center in Norfolk, Virginia. She was suffering from an apparent sinus infection, which had caused her cheeks to balloon to the point that her eyes were just slits and she could barely see. On top of that, she was so weakened and anemic from prolonged, severe malnutrition that she was only a day or two away from needing a blood transfusion.

PETA rushed her to a veterinarian, and with round-the-clock care, she beat the odds and pulled through. She's now recuperating at PETA's Sam Simon Center, where she is already feeling well enough to display a natural aptitude for the Cat Charmer.

If you are interested in opening your home to a feline companion, Olivia comes highly recommended: PETA staffers bill her as a 3- to 4-year-old sweetie pie who gets along well with other friendly cats. No one claimed Olivia through the lost-and-found report that we filed, even though she obviously once had a home (she has been spayed and declawed), and she will be vaccinated and microchipped before she is adopted out.

Does Olivia sound like she could be your new best friend? Send an e-mail to Adopt@peta.org to find out more or to fill out an adoption application.

We can now add Suffolk, Virginia, to the growing list of cities that recognize that dogs deserve better than life on a chain—something that PETA has been advocating for a long time.

In January, when Suffolk Council Member Mike Duman initially proposed a tethering ban, he met with resistance. But two short months later, the council voted to ban chaining completely. How did this reversal occur?

PETA wrote to council members and got our friend the comedian Wanda Sykes, who is from Virginia, to do the same. Daphna Nachminovitch, our vice president of cruelty investigations, raised awareness about the issue by writing a blog for a local website.

And we asked Alice Conner to share with the council the story of her 2-year-old cousin who was killed by dogs in Suffolk who became aggressive after being chained for years.

Local PETA members and residents also weighed in. And our message got through loud and clear.

PETA's Community Animal Project staff members receive more calls about abused and neglected chained dogs in Suffolk than in any other area surrounding the Sam Simon Center, our Virginia headquarters. As of September 1, 2013, Suffolk residents who do this to their dogs will face fines!

We thank Mike Duman, Alice Conner, Wanda Sykes, and all the other compassionate people who helped make the Suffolk tethering ban a reality. Now, with the help of Sykes and actor Patton Oswalt, we are working with Newport News, one of the two remaining cities in the region that still don't restrict or ban chaining, to improve living conditions for its dog population.

If you would like to help get a chaining ban passed in your hometown, we offer a wealth of resources. 

As the BP oil-spill civil case unfolds in New Orleans, we thought this would be a good time to update you on some of the companion animals PETA rescued as people fled the region in the wake of the catastrophe. 

Disasters such as the one in the Gulf flood animal shelters with dogs and cats whose families lose their jobs or see their businesses go bust. With support from the fabulous Pamela Anderson, PETA workers drove a Winnebago carrying more than 40 homeless dogs and nearly 30 special-needs cats from New Orleans–area shelters to Virginia, where they were placed in permanent homes, including three who live in PETA's Norfolk headquarters, the Sam Simon Center. 

It's a testament to their resilient spirits that these animals have rebounded from abandonment and are now thriving in their new homes. Here's where some of them are now:

• Daisy: At 4 months old, this Chihuahua mix found her forever home in Washington, D.C., and will celebrate her third birthday next month. She instantly bonded with Chloe—another dog PETA rescued—and loves to play fetch and snuggle under the blankets.

• Duke and Buttercup: These Chihuahuas act like shadows of their new guardian, Amber, following her everywhere she goes and meeting her at the door every evening after work. Both dogs delight in the companionship of Amber's two children and Nikita, a mutt rescued by PETA during another disaster, Hurricane Irene. 

• Bubbles, Brandi, and Marshall: These three have become the beloved feline residents of the Sam Simon Center. Bubbles' expertise is in intercepting tossed balls of paper, while Brandi proudly carries around a rubber lizard. And although Marshall is missing a leg, that doesn't stop him from playing "King of the Castle" with the other two on their multistory cat tree.

PETA's rescue work is made possible by the support of kind people like you. To help PETA save animals in danger, become a member today.

Pro athletes don't do anything halfway. So studly New York Jets safety Bret Lockett wasn't content simply to pose with a strategically placed faux-leather football for his PETA anti-fur campaign. Instead, he decided to play spread offense and turn his ad unveiling into a whole weekend. First, he helped PETA dedicate our Norfolk, Virginia, headquarters to longtime supporter and Hollywood heavyweight Sam Simon. 

Later that evening, Bret hosted an unveiling party at Hampton Roads hotspot the Granby Theater, greeted fans, and talked about why fur should be sidelined. "What really hurt me was when I saw that an animal was still able to move and lift [his] head up after he was completely skinned," he said. "It brought tears to my eyes."

© Charles Long Photography/PETA

And the next night, he went with the PETA gang to laugh aloud as Bill Maher made fun of hunters and other animal abusers in his stand-up performance. All weekend, wherever he went, Bret dined on vegan food, sported PETA T-shirts, and enthusiastically discussed animal rights issues with fans who approached him.

It's easy to see why No. 26 is No. 1 for animals.

PETA's Norfolk, Virginia, headquarters has a new moniker—the Sam Simon Center—in honor of entertainment giant Sam Simon, the multiple Emmy Award–winning co-creator of The Simpsons and the writing genius behind hit shows like Taxi, Barney Miller, Cheers, The Tracey Ullman Show, The Drew Carey Show, and Charlie Sheen's new FX series, Anger Management. Accompanied by a Dixieland jazz band, Simon arrived by boat to cut the ribbon at a dedication ceremony today, which was also attended by New York Jets safety Bret Lockett and other luminaries, including the glamorous Jennifer Tilly, TV host and producer Mark Thompson, and World Series of Poker champion Phil Laak.

Simon, who serves on PETA's Executive Committee, has been a vegetarian since he was 19 and a vegan since joining PETA years later. He is known for his work with The Sam Simon Foundation, which rescues dogs from shelters and trains them to help soldiers who return from war with physical and mental trauma. He attacks animal homelessness at its roots by sponsoring spay and neuter surgeries in low-income areas of Los Angeles. He also helped PETA launch our newest mobile spay-and-neuter clinic and hosts annual PETA fundraisers at his home in L.A.

Perhaps because he works in the entertainment industry, the plight of animals in entertainment is especially close to Simon's heart. He is an outspoken opponent of cruelty in circuses, roadside zoos, and marine parks, and he recently attended a PETA news conference with Bob Barker to call attention to the plight of animals on TV and movie sets. "[I]f you can't afford the CGI [computer-generated imagery], either do a rewrite," he said, "or do a cartoon show like I did."

Simon once donated his fee for an episode of The Drew Carey Show to PETA because the plot involved greyhound racing, and he felt that he could not in good conscience keep the money. As if he's not busy enough, Simon also hosts a weekly Friday Internet radio show on Radioio.com in which he always keeps animal issues in the spotlight.

"Sam Simon may be a big Hollywood figure, but it's his big heart that makes him a PETA soulmate," said PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk.