And for the holiday season, Sawyer and his clinic are selling Christmas tree ornaments to raise money to buy food for sheltered animals who need homes.

Sawyer, owner of the Sunnyvale clinic, is helping raise money for Pets In Need--a non-profit, "no-kill" animal shelter in Redwood City. He's selling Christmas ornaments for $5 to $15, including snowflake picture frames and pewter pieces.

Hill's Pet Nutrition--creators of Science Diet pet food--has donated several hundred ornaments to Sawyer's clinic. All the money made from the ornaments is given back to Hill's and put into an account, which Pets In Need uses to buy food. And Hill's only charges Pets In Need a nominal 25 cents a pound for the food. Last year, the clinic raised almost $1,000 for dog and cat food.

After his first fundraiser last year, Sawyer said he was able to pay for more than a ton of food for Pets in Need. In one month, the shelter's animals munch through 200 pounds of adult dog good, 125 pounds of adult cat food, 200 pounds of kitten food and 100 pounds of puppy food.

Pets In Need Associate Director Lisa Simmons said the first fundraiser Sawyer and his clinic did helped greatly, and they hope for more this year.

"They're so concerned with animals in the community, its just awesome that they're thinking about shelters," Simmons said. "It enables us to provide the best possible care for the largest number of animals possible."

Simmons said Pets In Need was the first no-kill shelter in Silicon Valley when it started in 1965. What began as a small operation has grown, and in the past three years, the shelter has adopted out more than 1000 animals a year. At any given time, the shelter has as many as 40 cats and 15 to 20 dogs available for adoption, many of them rescued from public shelters.

"Many of [the shelters] don't have the funding or the space to care for the animals, so that's where we come in. We take as many as we can from them, but we're still limited by size," Simmons said.

Sawyer said he likes working with Pets In Need because they keep animals until they are adopted. Simmons said one cat was with them for two years before "the right human came around."

"I think it's a little drastic to kill an animal because it hasn't been adopted in a few weeks," Sawyer said.

Sawyer himself has rescued a number of animals and welcomed them into his home, including his pit bull and his three three-legged cats.

"People will come in and pay for the surgery, but then they say they don't want a 'handicapped' pet," Sawyer said. "So I take them in, and then if people come in and say they can't have a pet like that, I tell them 'I have three.' "

To order ornament or for more information about the clinic, call the Murphy Avenue Pet Clinic at 408.733.7387. For more information on Pets In Need, visit www.petsinneed.org.