On their way to the theater one night, George McClellan and his wife, Harriet, came across a stray puppy, trembling in the cold. The couple took the dog in immediately, named him Francis and decided that they must do something to help other dogs like him. In 1909, the McClellans founded Francisvale Home for Smaller Animals, a nonprofit, no-kill pet shelter that still exists today, not far from Villanova’s campus.