The Bigbee Humane Society will open its thrift shop at 104 S. Walnut Ave. today from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

As part of the “grand opening,” hot dogs and other refreshments will be offered. Dogs of the four-legged variety will also be available for adoption. The group will also be selling Bigbee Humane Society T-shirts.

Located in the Grand Gallery across the street from the Rosenbush Building, the thrift shop will offer a variety of used items, including furniture, toys, books and many other household items.

“We went out on a mission and decided we needed something besides the local pound,” said Cindy McDonald, who serves on the Bigbee board of directors. “A group of us got together and decided that we would have a Humane Society. We thought we would try to be affiliated and work with the pound and help her move the dogs, so we’ve adopted her dogs during the month of May. We bought all of them from the city.

“We have a place in Linden where we keep them — our ‘Bigbee dogs,’ as we call them. Ms. Lucille (Carpenter, the city’s animal control officer) works with us, and what she can’t get rid of, we take so she doesn’t have to put them to sleep. And that was our mission, mainly, to have a no-kill animal shelter.”

McDonald said she hopes to gain more members and more support in the area. The group plans to have an Adopt-a-Thon soon.

The group plans to open the thrift shop on the first Saturday of the month.

“Any money that is donated to us or that we raise goes to spaying and neutering unwanted dogs,” McDonald said. “A lot of them come from individuals. We got one dog from a lady who said she couldn’t take care of her dog any more and asked us to come get it. We had it spayed — all of our animals are spayed or neutered, or we do not adopt them out.”

The dogs that Bigbee has are also trained by Rosemary Shows to obey basic commands.

“That makes the dogs a little better so they can be adopted,” McDonald said. “We’re just doing our part, trying to save some of the animals. If people would just spay or neuter their animals, that would help us so much.”

To donate items to the thrift store or to get more information about the Bigbee Humane Society, call (334) 289-4557 or (334) 289-4764.