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Sam Dean | The Roanoke Times

Tara and Brandon West laugh as a Dalmatian handled by Roanoke firefighter Robert Reid jumps up to say hello during Friday night’s Christmas parade in downtown Roanoke. Click for more photos.

When it was finally time to join the parade, Roanoke Fire-EMS Lt. Dan Goodwin leaned over his Dalmatian, Skye, and adjusted the Santa hat atop her spotted head.

Once on Jefferson Street, ladder No. 1 and engine No. 1 blared horns and sirens behind Goodwin and a few other off-duty firefighters who were walking in Roanoke's Christmas parade with the Dalmatian Rescue of Southwest Virginia.

The fire department and the rescue group have formed a partnership, carrying on the historic relationship between firefighters and the firehouse dogs.

"I think both sides saw it as very good PR,' said Debi Smith, who founded the rescue in 2000.

The fire department has invited the dogs to the fire stations, where they run rampant greeting the firefighters.

Then, they climb up on the fire trucks with the firefighters and pose for pictures that end up in a calendar that benefits the rescue group.

"I don't know who has more fun: us, the dogs or the firefighters," Smith said.

One of the rescue dogs even helps teach children about fire safety.

Tiffany Bradbury, the department's public information officer (who also owns a Dalmatian with her husband, Lt. Kevin Bradbury), and Smith took Smith's dog, Dakota, to Hurt Park Elementary School.

Dakota demonstrated for the students how they should stop, drop and roll. She can also show children how to crawl to avoid the rising smoke.

Friday night, though, Dakota refused to roll on the blacktop and instead expended most of her energy barking and sniffing out children along the parade route.

"You tell 'em," one man shouted to Dakota as she strutted by, barking.

The dogs, about 20 of them, arrived at the parade's staging area in Smith's Jeep and an old white minivan spotted with black paw prints.

In the van, nine dogs waited somewhat anxiously inside, thumping their tails and leaving nose prints on every inch of window until it was time to get ready.

When the time came, Smith and her helpers put the dogs on leashes and let them jump out of the van, where Michele Moseley, 32 of Roanoke County, fitted them with Santa hats and scarves she made.

Moseley and her boyfriend, Chris Robinett, 35, are foster parents to two rescue dogs.

They are in the process of adopting one of those dogs, Sahra.

When Sahra hears fire trucks go by her house, she howls, Robinett said.

Goodwin has noticed the same thing about Skye, who was rescued after she was shot and dumped alongside U.S. 460.

"When the trucks go by, she goes nuts," Goodwin said. "She just howls."