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12/25/2011 03:33 PM

Pets Alive delivers pre-adopted presents on Christmas morning

By: Beth Croughan

Santa had some help from staff at Pets Alive on Christmas morning. A few Orange County children received an extra present at their doorstep. Our Beth Croughan went along for the delivery.

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MIDDLETOWN, N.Y. -- Kerry Clair has her list and she's checked it twice.

"Well, according to Santa, you've both been very good all year," she said after knocking on the door of the Dunworth family in Washingtonville.

This Christmas morning, she helped surprise two sisters with something they asked Santa for.

"Merry Christmas Kyleigh and Kathryn from Pets Alive and Santa! That's your new dog," Clair announced.

"Yay, Kyleigh, we, I have a dog," exclaimed 4-year-old Kathryn.

Kyleigh and Kathryn's parents pre-approved and adopted the present delivered from staff at Pets Alive. They were two of three children in Orange County to receive a visit Sunday morning.

"Are you excited," our reporter asked their mother, Kimberly Dunworth. "Very excited. Now they can stop asking me," she said.

This is the first Christmas Pets Alive has enlisted staff to act as honorary elves. "This is very exciting. It was very exciting, I mean just to see their little faces," said Clair.

And they hope the program helps put to rest a stigma they said surrounds giving pets as gifts during the holidays.

"If the parents have agreed to bring a pet into their house, why should Christmas stop it? Christmas should be a joyous time to really bring an animal into your home as long as it's approved. We of course, don't approve of giving a gift of an animal to somebody that doesn't know they're getting one. Except if you're children. But for another adult, it wouldn't be appropriate," Clair explained.

Judging by the reactions of these children, it seems their parents made the right decision for them. "Now, is this the best Christmas ever," asked Kimberly to her children. "Yes," they responded.