Lights, Camera, Action... Bark!

A group of homeless cats and dogs from Palm Harbor were in the national spotlight Thursday when they modeled a new line of pet collars on live TV during a segment on St. Petersburg-based Home Shopping Network (HSN).

One of the models, a shepherd-mix named Rocky, wound up finding a new owner at the HSN studio. Rocky went home with his new pal Erin, an employee at HSN. The pair posed for a photo together at the company's St. Petersburg headquarters.

Rocky was one of a group of homeless pets brought to the studio by Rick Chaboudy, Executive Director of the Suncoast Animal League. The models included five cocker spaniel puppies who were recently found outside Island Outfitters pet supply store at Clearwater Beach, a pomeranian puppy, another dog and two cats.

HSN wanted pets of a wide variety of sizes to serve as models for the show, according to Rick Chaboudy's mother Joan, who works with her son at the Suncoast Animal League.

When the segment was broadcast live on TV, the phones at the Suncoast Animal League lit up with calls from TV viewers who wanted to adopt the pets.

"We've been getting lots of calls from across the country," said a volunteer. People from New York, California, Michigan and even Hawaii called, wanting to adopt the pets and have them shipped to their homes.

"It was crazy," said Joan Chaboudy. "Sounds like a few people missed the collars and wanted the dogs instead," she said.

Rick Chaboudy says the event was a success off-camera as well, Suncoast Animal League might end up holding an adopt-a-thon for employees at HSN sometime in the future.

"Its was so cool, we had the staff so involved in it," he said.