Pets, too, visiting Santa

It was a doggy

Project Runway

at the Voorhees Town Center last week as owners whipped out bows, hats, sweaters, and leg warmers for their pooches' photo sessions in Santa's lap.

Dougie the Chihuahua sported a red parka with a fur-lined hood. Gizmo the Lhasa apso twirled in a pink Christmas dress, and Teddy the Pomeranian strutted in a bomber jacket.

"People will get a giant mastiff and decorate it like it's a tree," said Paul Nagy, a 20-year Santa scheduled to greet cats and dogs yesterday at the Cutter's Mill Pet Store in Cherry Hill.

Taking Fido and Fluffy to visit Santa has become a family tradition. For weeks before the holiday, Philadelphia-area pet stores and malls schedule dozens of Santa photo ops, many designed to raise money for charity.

"There's been this great humanization of pets," said Susan Parker, executive vice president of the Cutter's Mill chain. Parker first hosted Santa PAWS at her former store in 1991 and continues the tradition in Chalfont, Paoli, Princeton, and Cherry Hill.

"People take them everywhere - shopping, baseball games," she said. "They're just members of the family."

Most of Santa's visitors are cats and dogs, but an iguana joined the queue this month at Moorestown Mall, marketing director Lori Anzivino said.

A boa constrictor has wrapped around Nicholas Blassmann, a Santa from Mount Laurel, and a tarantula once perched on his head. He's tucked guinea pigs into his red coat and hugged kangaroos.

Many "pet parents," as they're known in the business, are after the perfect Christmas card photo, which often includes family.

Five-month-old Smidgen, a Cavalier King Charles spaniel, was at the Macy's court at the Voorhees Town Center on Tuesday for her second session with a Santa, the first having not gone so well. Owners Jeannie and Charlie Hubert of Berlin Borough had warmed her up by taking a couple dozen candids at home.

"She's so small she doesn't show up that well," Jeannie Hubert said.

All the fashion accessories can complicate a pet Santa's day.

"You're trying to hold their antlers on top of their heads or their little Santa hat. You're trying to keep them calm for that great shot. It's not easy," said Bill Lombardi, director of the Gloucester County Animal Shelter.

He'll be St. Nick at PetSmart in the Deptford Crossing Shopping Center. The store will give the shelter $5 from each $9.95 photo taken there Saturday, next Sunday and Dec. 19 and 20. Such charity events are common; other beneficiaries include animal-rescue organizations, dog parks, and spay/neuter projects.

The animals "are all over the top of you and licking you," Lombardi said. "Some get nervous. Normally you get urinated on."

Like most Santas, Lombardi always packs an extra suit just in case. Blassmann drapes a red plastic sheet across a shoulder or his lap. Nagy uses a red towel.

Birds are the worst, Blassmann said. "They just poop anywhere."

The Santas say they change suits after their pet gigs to keep animal hair and dander away from their human clients.

Owners will stand in line two or three hours, Parker said. And their pets "get antsy just like children," said Blassmann. Couples often take turns walking restless animals.

Cutter's Mill tried giving out numbers so folks could leave and come back later, but that was confusing and impersonal, Parker said.

After waiting about a half-hour in Voorhees, Rocky the golden Labrador retriever bounded up to Santa, catching photographer Lauren Nowak of Gloucester Township in his leash. Owner Jean Scornaienchi of Voorhees quickly settled Rocky with commands from his recent obedience training.

"This was the first time we were able to bring him," she said. She had been worried about her rambunctious 3-year-old, but once in his red chapeau and seated next to Santa, Rocky acted as if he had "been posing all his life," she said.

Nagy, of Burlington, recalled the year that three rabbits - fur dyed red and green - panicked when they saw the line of dogs. One leaped from his lap, leaving Santa to yell, "Lock the door! Lock the door!"

Santas disagree on what's more challenging: pets or children.

"These dogs see this man with a big beard, and they think, 'No way I'm going near him,' " Lombardi said.

But a canine "doesn't cry or kick or scream," pointed out the Voorhees Santa, who declined to be named because of a secrecy clause in his contract.

When in doubt, Nagy gets on the floor, nose to nose.

"You get on their level," he said. "A dog weighing 150 or 180 pounds you want to make happy."

Unlike children, pets rarely outgrow Santa. Sam, a 6-year-old spaniel - middle-aged in human years - has visited the old man since he was 7 months old.

"He runs right up to anyone dressed as Santa," said owner Ellen Jacobs of Farmingdale. Sam wore a Santa suit Tuesday, but he had too much dignity to allow anyone to put antlers on his head.

One thing the Santas and owners all agree on: Christmas secrets are easier to keep from pets.

"Whether my dog knows it or not, he's going to be sitting on his daddy's lap," Lombardi said. "We won't tell him."