Terri Stonehocker of Lemoore has a pet passion: she rescues stray dogs and keeps them until they can be adopted.
A family friend submitted her name to Animal Planet, the cable TV show, and now she is one of 10 finalists for its "Hero of the Year."
"I feel like I'm doing the right thing" by saving dogs from euthanasia, Stonehocker said. She gets dogs from SPCA shelters, and now has 60 dogs.
Stonehocker, 53, grew up on a dairy near Lemoore. In 2003, she and a friend started saving animals, and Stonecliffe Animal Rescue was born. The friend moved to Tennessee, but Stonehocker kept it going -- it's a nonprofit -- and keeps the dogs on her family's 10-acre farm outside of town.
She sets up adoption stations at PetSmart stores, and uses the revenue to buy dog food. All dogs are spayed, vaccinated and microchipped. She even microchips the animals herself.
Animal Planet's Hero of the Year will be announced Dec. 18. Voting starts Monday at http://animal.discovery.com/sweepstakes/hero/2009/ and ends Sept. 27.
WATER TRADERS: A plan by Visalia to pipe treated wastewater to farmers, who in exchange will give the city a share of river water for replenishing groundwater supplies, is being praised by city elected officials as innovative and green.
"In our own quiet little way, we're doing something about our water overdraft problem," Council Member Greg Collins said. "It's better than making speeches."
The city plans to upgrade its sewer plant in 2013, resulting in 5 million gallons per day of high-quality irrigation water usable on edible crops or golf links -- anything except drinking water.
"Water is valuable," said Andy Benelli, public works director. Rather than put it into a ponding basin well outside city limits, the city can trade it, he said.
The Visalia council last week authorized Dick Moss at Provost and Pritchard engineering company to negotiate a trade with Tulare Irrigation District. The city would build a pipe from the wastewater treatment plant to a T.I.D. ditch.
In turn, Tulare would release some of its Kaweah River water, or Friant-Kern Canal water, into Packwood Creek and other city waterways. The river water that would have gone to Tulare farmers will now get diverted to Visalia to seep into the ground and raise the water table. Household water in Visalia is pumped from the ground.
The carrot for T.I.D. is that it would get more water than it gives in trade, but the details are still to be negotiated.
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