Ecology professor Catherine Toft reported "a lot of positive things coming our way" as a result of a Jan. 13 Dateline article on her volunteer work on behalf of nearly six dozen dogs, all collies, rescued from horrible living conditions at an Esparto home. "We almost have enough foster homes now to see us through (not quite!), but we got a couple of great ones from your article," Toft wrote in an e-mail to writer Sylvia Wright. "We got three new volunteers who are working out well at the kennels." Toft also reported that a number of donors responded to the article. "The

generosity of the donors has allowed us to take the best possible care of these dogs,

and we are very touched by their helping

us in this way." ...

Cellos took center stage in more ways

than one at the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra's Feb. 12 concert. Cellist Susan Lamb Cook was the featured performer,

and Lou McNary's 254-year-old cello, Timothy, was a cause for celebration. The

celebration recognized something that McNary did in April last year: She donated Timothy and several bows to the Music Department. McNary is a former longtime cellist in the orchestra. McNary played Timothy as an undergraduate at Berkeley, where she majored in music. She continued playing when she and her husband, Don, moved to Davis in 1967, when he took a fundraising job with the university. ...

UC Television recently made many

of its programs available for online downloading. UCTV announced that it has made more than 1,000 hours of its programming available for free on Google Video. "We are so pleased to have forged this partnership with Google Video and look forward to making our programming accessible to its many users," UCTV Director Lynn Burnstan said. In addition to airing on Dish Network Channel 9412 and Channel 47 in UC-Davis residence halls, UCTV streams live programming at uctv.tv. ... UC Davis News Service has posted 140 "NewsWatch" videos on the same Google site, video.google.com; search for UC Davis. ...

Last week investigators from 40

Women's Health Initiative centers nationwide gathered in Washington, D.C., for a gala celebration. At the event were poster-sized photographs of a quilt that Sacramento-area women designed in honor of their participation in the WHI. The original quilt now hangs in the UC Davis Health Sciences Ticon 1 building. UC Davis WHI project manager Denise Macias and her staff sent letters to Sacramento-area study participants explaining how important their contributions have been to the success of WHI and asking if they would like to make a quilt. "The women also had a

variety of reasons for participating. One

said she made her block to honor her

sister who died of breast cancer,"

Macias said.