The critters down at the SPCA shelter in Roanoke are in for what their keepers say is a treat: Their daily rations of store-brand pet foods, a blend of donated bulk meal, will be replaced by a premium pet meal used in some veterinary teaching hospitals.

Hill's Pet Nutrition has agreed to donate its popular Science Diet dog and cat foods to the Roanoke Valley SPCA shelter in return for some free advertising, including placement of its logo on the SPCA Web site. The company, a unit of Colgate-Palmolive Co., has agreed to feed shelter animals for at least two years.

What's more, local charitable organizations might have a way to stretch the donation further.

It happens that low-income senior citizens sometimes struggle to feed their pets. When they run out of pet food, they sometimes share their own, a practice that concerns senior advocates worried about nutritional deficits.

"I don't think it's widespread, but we know it's happening to some extent," said Michele Daley, director of nutrition programs at the Roanoke-based Local Office on Aging.

Now in the offing is a plan to expand the LOA-led Meals on Wheels program to include a pouch of pet food delivered with the hot lunches that go to 600 area senior citizens five days a week.

The Roanoke Valley Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals expects to receive an initial shipment of 300 to 400 pounds of Science Diet on Monday and weekly deliveries of however much more it needs after that.

That will free up the shelter's ongoing supply of pet food donated by the public, said William Watson, executive director, who is prepared to share this food with Meals on Wheels.

The SPCA's mission, Watson noted, is to improve the lives of animals "and the people that they touch in the Roanoke Valley."

Free pet food "would be a godsend" for low-income seniors, said Shirley Reynolds of Roanoke, whose 90-year-old father shares table scraps with his dog, Bear, when he runs out of pet food and doesn't have money for more.

"He's an elderly person with an animal, and it is difficult for him time to time to provide food for the dog," Reynolds said.

To go forward, the LOA and SPCA say they'll need help adding a bonus for Fido or Fluffy to the meal delivery program for homebound senior citizens, a program already supported by scores of volunteer drivers who pay their own gasoline expenses to ensure clients have something to eat. More volunteers must be found to repackage bulk pet food into daily or weekly portions. In addition, the LOA needs a donation of plastic bags.

"We feel pretty hopeful, but we're still working things out," Daley said.

The SPCA's Watson emphasized that, for the project to work, donors need to continue dropping food at the SPCA or in SPCA collection boxes at area grocery stores.

In other words, just because the shelter will now have Science Diet, people are asked to continue donating Purina, Pedigree, Old Roy or whatever brand they like.

Meanwhile, shelter officials are excited to be able to soon scoop Science Diet into bowls. Watson noted that it is one of the pet foods served at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine in Blacksburg, a point confirmed by college spokesman Jeff Douglas, who said Hill's Pet Nutrition "was one of the pioneers, if not the pioneer, in the premium animal nutrition market."

Shelter veterinarian Jennifer McFarling heard about the free Science Diet program and passed on the idea of applying for some to Watson. Orphaned animals at the shelter are expected to do better on it than what they now receive, which is a blend of various donations. The shelter does have one expense in the program: paying shipping costs estimated at $1,000 to $2,000 a year.

"Many of the animals that arrive at the SPCA are young and often malnourished," she said. "This partnership allows us to provide a consistent premium quality diet that promotes appropriate weight gain and bone development."