Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette Marilyn Micknowski holds a dirty and frightened terrier named MacBeth shortly after it had been rescued by Animal Friends in Ohio Township yesterday. Click photo for larger image.

Nineteen dogs and three cats scheduled to die before the start of the new year received highly publicized 11th-hour reprieves yesterday. The dogs were plucked from three animal control facilities and taken to the Ohio Township shelter operated by Animal Friends.

The Animal Friends staff and more than 50 volunteers were on hand to give the animals veterinary checkups, inoculations, baths and names. The event was billed as the 10th Annual New Year's Eve Rescue.

Most of the dogs pranced and wagged their tails as they were unloaded from trucks and vans and leashed for a brief walk around the shelter grounds. They seemed to enjoy the attention -- and the petting and the treats -- lavished on them.

A hush fell as one painfully thin dog was led to the check-in table. His head hung down nearly to his knees. His short, stubby tail drooped downward and never wagged. He didn't bark or growl or snap, but he avoided eye contact with people and didn't seek pats or attention. His long, curly coat was matted and caked with dirt, urine and feces. It was impossible to guess his color.

No amount of combing or brushing could smooth out that coat. It would take volunteers Marilyn Micknowski of Beechview and Chrissy Chapla, a Holiday Park beautician, more than two hours to cut out the mats with scissors.

It took another hour of bathing and drying for the dog's true colors to emerge. He was white with grey and beige patches. He appeared to be some kind of terrier or terrier mix, perhaps a wire-haired fox terrier.

Longtime volunteer Shane Stevick of Wilkinsburg petted the dog and fed him dog treats and cheese throughout the lengthy grooming process. Mr. Stevick also held the dog as veterinary staff examined him and gave him intravenous fluids because he was dehydrated.

The veterinary staff said he was very underweight at 20 pounds and is probably elderly.

The staff named him Macbeth, in keeping with this year's Shakespeare theme.

The New Year's rescue dogs had been picked up by dogcatchers. None had ID tags, licenses or microchips. In past years, a few of the year-end rescue dogs have been reclaimed by owners who saw them on television or in newspaper stories.

Macbeth was picked up, running loose, by employees of Feree Kennels in McKeesport. Animal Friends Humane Agent Kathy Hecker said Macbeth was only at Ferees for a couple of days.

"He did not get in this condition at that facility," Ms. Hecker said. She also said it looked like the dog had been confined for a long time, in a cage or small area where he lay in his own urine and feces. Macbeth's teeth were worn down, possibly from chewing on metal rungs of a cage. Humane agents would like to receive information about the dog's former owner to investigate and possibly prosecute.

A beautiful white Samoyed was named King Lear. Other literary rescues included Horatio, a soft-coated Wheaten terrier, and Ophelia, a small half-grown dog who may be a beagle mix.

Animal Friends is a no-kill shelter. The New Year's dogs and cats will live there until new owners adopt them. Volunteer foster families in recent weeks have taken shelter dogs into their own homes, temporarily, to make room for the New Year's Eve rescue animals, said Jolene Miklas, marketing and communications coordinator.

By day's end yesterday, Macbeth was moving his stumpy tail in what appeared to be a tentative wagging motion as he nestled down in a soft quilt and took a nap.