May 2008 Archives

I believe this is our first foray into the world of mollusks. And what an introduction it is. Check these sea slugs courtesy of National Geographic. They're absolutely gorgeous. Some of them remind me of the Yellow Submarine the Beatles cartoon. 

After losing its offspring, a monkey in India has started looking after a puppy.

The pair look quite happy together, but it's not they are not the first animals to make unusual companions.

In September last  year a 12-week-old macaque monkey made best friends with a pigeon in an animal sanctuary in China.

Also in 2007 a pig adopted a tiger cub and raised him along with her piglets when his mother could not feed him.

Honestly, the puppy doesn't look thrilled by the arrangement.

This is probably the best looking cat I've ever seen. And I'm not just saying that because it belongs to my boss. No, it has nothing to do with the fact that it's almost time for my annual performance review.

I'd say it no matter what.

The cat's name is Fiorella, which is probably the nicest name for a cat I've ever heard. Like I said, she belongs to my boss Toni, who is the bestest boss a guy could ever ask for.

Fiorella is still a tiny little kitten. This is what Toni wrote about getting her:

 My aunt found a stray cat. My aunt is a nurse. her boyfriend is a cow vet. But somehow, they thought this cat was a neutered male cat and they named it "Bob."

So a few months later, Bob was looking a little fat and John, the vet, discovered that "Bob" is a girl! And then Fiorella was born. My aunt named her Peaches because her ears are peach.

 But that was not nearly formal enough for our family.

Fiorella means "little flower" in Italian. It also sounds like "feline" and "Cinderella" mixed together, which my 5-year-old daughter likes. My 3-year-old son thinks we should have named her "little shark" because she bites and has sharp teeth. And he thinks sharks are cooler than princesses.

She was born Feb. 7, so she is almost 4 months old.

Big dog doings in Pasadena this weekend.

  It's the 100th anniversary dog show sponsored by the Kennel Club of Pasadena, with proceeds going to the Pasadena Humane Society.

Fellow bloggers at Valley of the Dogs report that some 2,000 dogs will be put through their paces as they are judged in conformation, obedience, rally and agility.

It's all taking place at Brookside Park, both Saturday and Sunday. Admission is $5 for adults and $2 for seniors over 62. Kids under 12 are free. (But gas to get there from the South Bay = $40)

Simone Schramm Trimm's post  includes hours and directions.

A posting on craigslist is looking for dog and cat owners to take part in a Web show discussion on pet food and other issues. The post says it will take about 15 minutes and they will pay $30 for your trouble.

The Web show will appear on petside.com, a site I'm not familiar with, but it looks like it has lots of good stuff on it.

I don't vouch for the validity of the post; just passing the info along.

When people ask me how old Rocket is, I say, "oh, about a year."

When he's acting particularly childish, I say he's "almost a year."

In fact, he's almost two. But I've discovered that people are far more forgiving with obnoxious puppies than they are with grown-up dogs that don't act their age.

"He just likes to play," I constantly have to explain.

Sure, he's still young, but people think it's adorable when a 7-month old pup with muddy paws jumps on them or steals their toys. Not so much when  the dog is 21 months old and weighs 72 pounds.

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I got an e-mail today from my sister Darlene, or as she's known in the family, "The Crazy Dog Lady of Torrance."

She had a third dog, another samoyed named Piper, but Piper died last year :(

But she's talking about getting another one. Those dogs shed enough to cover the city in white fur.

Here they are. Happy birthday you guys. How old are you in human years?

And here's a video of Rocket and Jenny playing. Cosmo doesn't like to play.

Don't forget:

 Rover Rescue and Village Runner are taking signups for the 4th of July 5K Run/Walk to benefit the dog rescue group. It's a great way to spend the holiday morning and benefit a good cause, all at the same time.

Call Rover Rescue at 310-379-0154 or stop in at Village Runner at 1811 S. Catalina Ave., #A, Redondo Beach.

Here's our earlier post on the event.

Bar flies and bar hounds. ........ 

More than 50 canines and their owners show up at the Minneapolis bar to sniff, drool, and howl. And that's just the people.

 

K9-Connection's owner, Angie Gwiazdon, said she created the event to bring dog lovers together. By day she is a licensed marriage and family therapist.                                                                              (Jerry Holt, Star Tribune)

 

"Dog people tend to be kind, caring, compassionate and fun," Gwiazdon said. "Just like their canine counterparts."

 

Sometimes I get responses for posts I wrote days earlier. I figure the three people who read this blog --including, but not limited to my sister, Darlene -- looked at my post when I write it and moved on without reading the letters.

I got this letter today, which is attached to the original post about a beach in Rancho Palos Verdes. People like to take their dogs there, a fact that annoys people who live in the gated community next door. I wanted to make sure you all see it:

It was only a matter of time before savvy auto makers would figure this one out.

A recent pet boom in Japan  --  where people now have more dogs and cats than they do children under 15 -- Honda figured out there was money to be made.

So they launched a pet-friendly "Honda Dog" Web site (downside: It's in Japanese). Japan's No. 2 automaker also is configuring the dimensions of car cargo spaces to accommodate crates and providing more pet hair-resistant seat fabrics.

Way back in 2005 Honda has come up the W.O.W. concept car designed especially for dogs, with detachable, easy-to-clean seats, wooden floors and a netted, built-in pup crate in the dashboard. Tokio Isono, a chief engineer of Honda's cars, said the company's new Freed minivan, launched in Japan on May 22, is a perfect example of Honda's new dog-conscious mindset. From a Reuters story:

(The Freed) has the lowest floor yet among Honda's minivans ... "It's low enough even for my dog, May," Isono said, commanding his short-legged, three-year-old corgi to jump in juring a demonstration for reporters.

See the video on Yahoo.news.

And there's another Web site, www.dogcars.com, that gives "paw" ratings and reviews for pet pleasing cars such as those made with special backseat restraints.

The Web site's 2007 Car of the Year? The Honda Element.  

Today's office pet comes courtesy of Sandy Mazza, who covers Gardena and Hawthorne and Lawndale for the Daily Breeze..

A native of somewhere back east, Sandy enjoys walks on the beach, Sue Grafton novels, shopping with her friends and driving her editors crazy.

Actually, I made all that up, I have no idea what Sandy does in her spare time. But today I learned that her family cat bears a striking resemblance to my own cat. She says her cat is cuter thought.

Her name is Katherine, or Kat for short.

Bring your dogs to the Top Dog's Show this Saturday in Rolling Hills Estates.

Events include a parade, a costume contest, best trick contest, along with a dog and owner lookalike contest.

 It's all part of the PV Street Fair.

Registration is at 9 a.m. (It costs $5 per dog). The dog show runs from 10 a.m. to noon.

It's being held under the tent in the parking lot ext to Spectrum Club at Crossfield and Deep Valley drives in RHE.

Sponsors inlcude Aussie Pet Mobile, Point Vicente Pet Hospital (Rocket's favorite vet!), Animal Emergency Referrral Center, All Pets Veterinary Hospital and South Bay Critter Sitter.

Click here for more info.

Dogs must be on leash.

Oh, and there's going to be a carnival too in case you want to bring any of those "children" things.

This can't turn out well.

Monkeys embedded with some kind of trasmitters can move objects with their minds!

Didn't these people see "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes"?

Two monkeys with tiny sensors in their brains have learned to control a mechanical arm with just their thoughts, using it to reach for and grab food and even to adjust for the size and stickiness of morsels when necessary, scientists reported on Wednesday.

I hereby pledge my undying loyalty to our monkey overlords.

My colleagure Larry Atman has written this update on a police dog that died last week. Readers, animal lovers and police supporters have rallied to help the Gardena Police Department get a new dog.

Larry, who has his own South Bay crime blog, writes:

An anonymous donor, South Bay companies and a group of residents have donated thousands of dollars to the Gardena Police Department to help officers pay for a new police dog.
The donations followed last week's death of Sammy, who tracked down criminals and sniffed out drugs. Sammy died following an illness.
Gardena police Sgt. Steve Prendergast said employees at Toyota Financial Services and Toyota Motor Sales in Torrance provided about $5,000 while Sammy was still alive to help pay for medical bills.
Following a Daily Breeze article on Friday about Sammy's passing, readers made donations, including a man who responded with $10,000. He wished to remain anonymous.
"He's just a very generous person," Prendergast said. "It's just a man who has a passion for animals and believes in giving back to the community. We are very appreciative."
Officers estimate it costs $10,000 to $12,000 to buy a new dog and train an officer.
Police dogs are funded by public donations.
A new dog is expected to be working in about two months, Prendergast said. Another dog currently is in training.

While popularity of the South Bay Pets blog continues to grow (we're up to three hits a month!), people inside the office scoff at mere notion of clicking on a blog devoted to animals.

So I came up with the ingenious plan of posting pictures of my co-workers' pets. That'll be worth a few clicks.

First up is Tucker, one of the coolest dogs ever. Some dogs just have greatness in them and Tucker is one of them.

Photographer Brad Graverson rescued Tucker a few years ago from the shelter. Now the two are are virtually inseparable. Brad even takes Tucker on family vacations to Mexico, where he romps on the sandy beaches for days at a time.

I just asked Brad what kind of dog Tucker was and Brad just shrugged and said, "probably some Australian Shepherd."

TUXTLA GUTIERREZ, Mexico (AP) -- A Mexican donkey has been freed from jail after doing time for assault and battery. The Televisa network on Wednesday showed "Blacky" gobbling food from a bucket after spending three days in a jail that normally holds people for public drunkenness and other disturbances.

Blacky was jailed for biting and kicking two men near a ranch outside Tuxtla Gutierrez, the capital of Chiapas state.

Officials freed the donkey after its owner paid a fine of $36 and the $115 hospital bill of the men, who suffered bites to the chest and a broken ankle. Authorities say he also must pay $480 to each man for missed work days.

One of our sister blogs, Out in Hollywood, gets 18 billion hits a month. It's one of those fawning, gossipy showbiz nonsense things, but the writer often posts pictures of sexy looking men.

While I have no interest in that sort of thing -- and even have a certain amount of contempt for it -- I recognize the value of success. So in an effort to increase clicks on my own site, take a gander of this hot number:

There are anywhere from 400,000 to 800,000 dogs in the city of Los Angeles.

Know how many of them have dog licenses? About 123,000.

That's just one of the eye-openers revealed in an audit that was released today by Los Angeles City Controller Laura Chick.

While the cost of a dog license in L.A. is modest ($15 a year for altered dogs, free for seniors 62 and older), the registration fees are a big piece of the fincancial support for the city's Department of Animal Services. Chick's audit concludes that the department has lost "at least" $2 million over the last two and a half years in missed license fees.

There's a lot more to read in Chick's 36-page audit that takes a look at the department's operations. The audit will also be the subject of a story by Rick Orlov in Wednesday's Daily Breeze.

There are benefits to licensing your dog, including boosting your chances of being reunited with your pet if he or she is lost. The license renewal process every year also provides helpful reminders to dog owners on when rabies vaccinations come due. And from the city's standpoint, the funds are crucial in helping our shelters do a better job of providing for the city's many homeless animals.

If you don't live in the city of Los Angeles, check with your local city hall for dog license information.  

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Some dogs just seem to have an impact that goes beyond their immediate circle. Skippy was one of those dogs.

I first met Skippy and his owner, Amy Myers, at the Redondo Beach Dog Park nearly 11 years ago. I had just moved from Long Beach to San Pedro and began driving my dogs to the Redondo off-leash dog park on weekends since my new hometown didn't have an off-leash park yet.

I guess Amy and I both had an affinity for shaggy dogs -- Skippy was an Old English sheepdog. One of my dogs, Ellie, was a medium-sized terrier-sheepdog + who-knows-what mixed breed with long hair. We were immediately drawn to each others' dogs.  

We lost touch after a while, but then Amy moved to San Pedro and we reconnected. An artist, Amy joined the staff of Harbor View House, a board and care for some 200 mentally ill residents in San Pedro. An artist who once was a toy designer for Mattel, she soon took over as coordinator of the home's Living Museum Art Center, helping residents discover their "inner artist."

And Skippy? Well, he joined the staff, too. A certified therapy dog, Skippy went to work with Amy, endearing himself to Harbor View House residents who were quickly drawn to Skippy's ability to give out unconditional love.

I was heartbroken to hear last week that Skippy, who was about 12 years old, died earlier this year. I was Skippy's dog sitter from time to time. He was such a happy dog. Our paths would also cross on neighborhood dog walks through the years when Amy and I would inevitably tangle leashes so we could greet our favorite "other" dogs.

Skippy died after a short bout with lymphoma -- the same fatal disease that took the life of my 13-year-old dog Ellie earlier this year.

But how special it was that Amy could share her beloved pet with so many who needed a friend so badly. Dogs are always a unique blessing to their owners. Skippy was a blessing to dozens of others besides. 

"He makes me feel like a real artist," remarked HVH resident Daniel Robinson in a 2007 story about Skippy written by Shanna Thompson for More San Pedro. "I love Skippy. He is my best friend."

Monkey and dogs, nature's best friends. Don't beleive me? See for yourself. This pair has been in commercials and all over the Internet. Ride 'em cowboy!

Just north of the Trump golf course is a very nice, very pricey and very private housing community. It's called the Portuguese Bend Club.

Its well guarded and unnaccesable to outsiders. I've been invited over a couple of times and the people I've met there are have all been very hospitable.

The community has its own private beach. It's a law I don't agree with -- I think beaches should be community property -- but those are the rules.

What bugs me is people who think they don't have enough private beach and try to extend their property lines by tricking or bullying people. The Los Angeles Times writes about this from time to time up in Malibu, where movie moguls like David Geffen like to chase the masses off their pretend property.

I should remind my four readers that while the sandy part of the beach is private property, below the water line is as public as the corner library. I think you should all go there immediately. Your ankles will get wet, but what fun you'll have standing there!

I should also remind my four readers that they should always be polite, pick up their trash, follow rules and keep their unfriendly dogs at home. I think it's OK to have them bark though.

I've received a few amusing e-mails from people complaining about my discussing a secluded beach near there (connected to a public parking lot at the Trump course -- its a splendid, but difficult walk. You should go there after you finished standing in the waves).

Or maybe it's the same person, I don't know. But here's the point they always make: Stop talking about that secret beach. It's nobody's business. And it's about 500 feet away from our private beach and we don't want regular people going there.

Except that regular people actually own said beach. It's a public beach. And, because of the rock formations, you can't really see one beach from the other.

After calling me a poser and an attention seeker, one person actually wrote this:

... Publishing a blog ... destroys private communities by giving the public a new place to go and populate, leave trash, bring their loud untamed children as well as their unruly dogs ... .

Hey, I hate children as much as the next guy, but they have as much right to go to enjoy the ocean as any jerk who doesn't want to share it with them.

Like I said, you should all go there immediately.

This moved a few days ago, but it's still interesting and scary.

A new breed of ants has come to America and they have strange appetites -- they enjoy eating electronics and are causing much concern in Texas.

The hairy, reddish-brown creatures are known as "crazy rasberry ants" -- crazy, because they wander erratically instead of marching in regimented lines, and "rasberry" after Tom Rasberry, an exterminator who did battle against them early on.

They have ruined pumps at sewage pumping stations, fouled computers and at least one homeowner's gas meter, and caused fire alarms to malfunction. They have been spotted at NASA's Johnson Space Center and close to Hobby Airport, though they haven't caused any major problems there yet.

Exterminators say calls from frustrated homeowners and businesses are increasing because the ants -- which are starting to emerge by the billions with the onset of the warm, humid season -- appear to be resistant to over-the-counter ant killers.

 

 photo from AP

It was a year ago Saturday -- on May 24, 2007 -- that Reggie the alligator was finally captured and carried away from his home of 2 years at Machado Lake in Harbor City.

Because this is L.A., Reggie is now a zoo exhibit.

But we miss Reggie. So we drove up to visit him this week at Griffith Park to check in and take some pictures.

He seemed well-adjusted, just hanging out and swimming leisurely in his little zoo pool.

Although who can really know with an alligator?

There will be a story and more pictures in Saturday's (May 24) Daily Breeze to mark the milestone.

The Hermosa Beach Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau is hosting its Fiesta Hermosa tomorrow (May 24)

In addition to the usual craft booths, food, entertainment and carnival rides, there will also be a dog costume contest.

The event runs Saturday and Sunday, but the costume contest is at 12:30 p.m. Saturday.

It's at Hermosa and Pier avenues

When search-and-rescue dog Molly needed a little rescuing herself, the people of Columbia, Missouri were there to help.

Molly, a 5-year-old chocolate Labrador retriever who had spent years helping local authorities look for murder victims and survivors of natural disasters, was diagnosed with a complete electrical heart blockage. Molly is pictured above in a photo from The Joplin Globe getting a goodnight whisper from Allison Brown, 5. 

From the AP story:  

Owners Allen and Alicia Brown of Saginaw were overwhelmed with offers to pay the more than $2,500 in surgery, vet and travel costs after The Joplin Globe reported on Molly's need for a pacemaker.

Read more about a pacemaker for Molly.

We were sad to hear that "Sammy," a Gardena police dog responsible for finding thousands of dollars in drugs -- and catching a few bad guys in the process -- died Tuesday.

The 6-year-old German shepherd from Germany had worked with Officer Bill McReynolds for the last three years, according to information compiled for us by Daily Breeze crime reporter Larry Altman.

Sammy became ill about a year ago after inhaling some kind of narcotic, possibly methamphetamine, while on a search, police said. He developed an unknown illness that put him out of action for the last three months.

Sammy found several suspects trying to flee from police in Gardena and other South Bay cities. Police said they'll try to replace him soon. But our hearts go out to Officer McReynolds who no doubt developed a special bond as he lived and worked with Sammy over the years. No dog, in that sense, can ever really be replaced.

Anyone wishing to donate to the K-9 fund should call Sgt. Steve Pendergast at 310-217-6188.

A California company  is planning online auctions next month to clone five dogs. Bidding starts at $100,000.

Just because we CAN do something doesn't mean we SHOULD.  

In recent years, breed-specific rescue groups have cropped up that work to release and foster those dogs they find in local shelters or come in from owners no longer able to keep them (so they don't wind up in shelters).

Justin Rudd, founder of haute dogs and all-around dog guy in Long Beach, publishes a notice in his newsletter this week from a new Golden Retriever Rescue that's been formed. Looks like they have several good adoptable dogs -- Check out Karma for example:   

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Now I have to say that some of my all-time best (& cutest!) dogs were mixed breeds that I found in city shelters. So don't underestimate the wonderful dogs that are in our shelters looking for new homes. (My vet once told me he thinks those are generally the healthiest dogs as well, a "mix," as it were, of good genes that have been passed on through the generations). So please consider looking there first. 

But the breed rescues are great options if you're looking for a specific kind of dog. And the volunteers who foster those dogs also can usually give you a pretty good rundown on the dog's history and temperament, a big advantage if you need a dog that is gentle with small children, for example. (Although, again, I have to say I've received sound advice and help from shelter volunteers as well.)

Take a look at the dogs (and cats) on the South Bay Pet Talk  page (click on adoptions at the top) provided through a feed from www.petfinder.com. We also have links to local rescue groups on this blog page. 

If you're set on a particular breed, you can find a list of some of the breed resues at this dog friendly site. But it's not exhaustive -- there is a new local border collie rescue site not listed there, Border Collies in Need, where I got Cowboy (who had been turned in to a shelter by his owner who was moving) and Tess (whose owners could no longer keep her).

Very good folks, super dogs. And a cool web site to boot.

Feel free to share your favorite rescue sites and advice in our comments for other readers who may be looking to adopt.  

Yes, it's from the Onion.

Well, sorta.......(but if you have a really unruly dog, you might just get some help here)............

If you can afford the gas, take a drive up to Woodley Park in Van Nuys on Saturday where Los Angeles City Councilman Tony Cardenas and the Department of Animal Services will be hosting the First Annual Pet Care Fair.

And guess who will be there?

Yep, Linda Blair AND "Dog Whisperer" Cesar Millan.

Get the details from our sister blog, Valley of the Dogs.

Hours are from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and the event includes a live show with the heroic dogs of the Los Angeles Fire Department, low-cost vet services, holistic vet care information and, of course, really cute pets to adopt.  

When Sen Ted Kennedy left the hospital today, along with his family members, he was greeted by his two dogs, Sunny and Splash.  And as soon as he arrived at his home, the first thing he did was take them out.

Along the way, he could be seen waving to nearby motorists from the front passenger seat of his SUV. He took a walk on the beach with his two Portuguese Water Dogs as soon as he arrived.

"Good to be back home," he told waiting reporters before heading off for a sail on his sloop, "Mya."

A story that ran a couple of years ago in the Washingtonian described what its like being the pets of one of the most powerful men in the country.

Senator Ted Kennedy's dogs, Sunny and Splash, have quite a life. They wander the halls of Congress most days, spend summers on Cape Cod, and play ball with one of the country's most powerful senators.

The Portuguese water dogs each have their own talents: Splash is the faster runner, while Sunny, pictured here, is a stronger swimmer.

"She can stay in the water longer than you can walk," the senator says.

The dogs often can be found under the senator's desk. Sunny mainly sleeps, although both dogs have been present at many important meetings.

 

My colleague Natalie N. gave her resignation today. This is bad news for the paper in general because she's a great page designer. It's also sad for me because she's my friend.

But it's especially bad news for my dog, Rocket. As many of my readers know (both of them), I sneak my dog into the office with me on Saturdays while my bosses are drinking pina coladas. They have absolutely no idea that I do this, so if you happen to see them at the yacht club, don't say anything!

Rocket always gets excited when he sees Natalie, but while she likes Rocket just fine, her heart belongs to somebody else: Bosco, her Boston terrier, who lives with her parents in Texas.

As a going-away gesture, here's his picture. He's pretty darn cute, but no coonhound.

I just got finished one post about a parrot and then found this. This isn't a political blog, so I'm posting it only because I think it's amusing, not because the bird is an Obama supporter. If you know any animals that can say 'McCain," "Clinton" or even "Barr," let me know.

We're generally all about dogs (and sometimes cats) here at South Bay Pets. But we're expanding. Here's a story about an animal that isn't even a mammal.

  A parrot in Japan got lost, but managed to tell his rescuers where he lived.

"I'm Mr. Yosuke Nakamura," the bird told the veterinarian, according to Uemura. The parrot also provided his full home address, down to the street number, and even entertained the hospital staff by singing songs.

If my dog or cat learned how to speak, well, I'd have to leave the state.

The days are getting longer. The weather getting warmer. That must mean one thing: It's Dog Bite Prevention Week.

I was once bitten by a very big and very mean dog. I was a kid and the thing chomped out a piece of my belly.

The problem hasn't gotten any better since I was six years old, said Katie Casey of the World Wide Pet Industry Association.

"It's an epidemic," she said.

There were 5 million dog bites last year, Casey said.

And the South Bay gets more than its share. A couple of years ago, I wrote a story about it and found out that the South Bay ranks in the Top 10 of dog bite areas.

The reason probably has something to do with the weather, Madeline Bernstein told me at the time. Bernstein is the president of the Los Angeles branch of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.  

"Even if you have as many dogs in a colder climate, they may not be out as many days of the year," she told me at the time.  "And of course, when you leave a dog outside, it becomes unsocialized and tends to become aggressive."

Socialization is the key, Casey said. Introduce your young dog to people and other animals.

"You should take it out in the neighborhood," she said. "Training is an important investment. Dogs that are trained know how to properly interact."

And here's something interesting: Pit bulls don't bite more than other breeds, she said. It's all in how they are raised.

Casey offered some tips, which I offer after the jump.

Torrance is hosting two vaccination clinics for dogs and cats in June.

The charge $14 for something called a "six-in-one" for dogs. But for the same price, cats only get a "four-in-one."

Haw haw on cats!

This is the press release I got: 

The clinics will be held from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 4^th and Wednesday June 18, 2008, at the Torrance Police Department Animal Control facility. The facility is located at 2200 Jefferson Street, in the northeast corner of Wilson Park, next to the tennis courts.

Prices for the vaccines are as follows:

Rabies (Dog or Cat) $ 6.00

Dog six-in-one (DHLPP) $14.00

Dog Bordatella $11.00

Cat four-in-one (FVRCP) $14.00

State mandated dog licenses can be purchased for the City of Torrance as well.

License prices are as follows:

Unaltered dogs $40.00

Spay or neutered dogs $20.00

Pet owner need their pet's Certificate of Sterility for the spayed/neutered dog license fee, unless the altered rate is on their renewal notice. Bring one check for vaccinations and a separate check for licensing. All dogs must be on a leash adequate for safe control. Cat owners should bring cats in secure carriers.

For more information, please contact the Torrance Animal Control office at (310) 618-3850 between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Donna just wrote a post about local dog, Indi, but she couldn't get the photo to work. Well, Indi's picture was too cute, so I gave it a try. Here it is.

I bet Indi isn't worried about purse snatchers.

I love running into the readers of this blog. Yep, all three of them as my co-blogger Josh likes to point out.

I ran into Sanam, owner of Indi, at the San Pedro Dog Park this week. You may recall (or not) that Indi was featured here in earlier posts starring in her very own dog video!

Indi & family also maintain a blog  which, as of today, sports the cutest picture of Indi holding her new pink purse.

But Indi's no frou-frou dog. She's a genuine pit, in today's popular vernacular -- the kind of dog who, I'll admit it, makes most of us pause and carefully watch to make sure she's going to be OK around your own dogs.

Aside from a rather unnatural obsession with orange fetch balls, Indi seems pretty well adjusted from what I could tell.

I think the purse says it all.

I tried to steal the photo for our blog, but couldn't -- either I'm inept at photo theft or Sanam has brilliantly installed a lock-down of her material. But if you need a smile, you can see it by going to Indi's blog.

And congratulations in advance to Sanam who receives her master's degree in English this Thursday during graduation ceremonies at Cal State Dominguez Hills.

Thanks to Tony Barboza of the L.A. Times pet blog L.A. Unleashed for linking to my previos post about how to get to the illegal dog beach in Rancho Palos Verdes.

I'm pumping my fist at you Tony in a gesture of blog solidarity!  We pet bloggers need to stick together. We're like the dwarves and elves in the Lord of the Ring movies. We're competitors, but we stand together in the face of a common enemy: namely people who were mad at me for giving directions to the beach. Click here to see them again.

I've been speaking with some local dog beach experts. One of them is Justin Rudd, who was also kind enough to give my post a little boost by mentioning it in his newsletter.

Justin,  helped create the legal dog beach in Long Beach. It took three years for that location to get the OK.

Justin has some advice for people who want to create their own seaside animal oasis: Don't give up. Write letters to the editor, organize with your friends and keep track of which city officials have dogs.

"We tried to create a place where dogs can recreate and people could congregate and socialize."

And if they don't have legal beaches, people will just become scofflaws.

"It's going to happen," Rudd said. "Unless it's a dog that's going to go out and hurt somebody, I don't think it's a big deal. In the scheme of things, it's not a big deal."

There are already people who are trying to organize a South Bay dog beach. Their efforts have not been successful, but, well, we'll write about them later in the week.

UPDATE:

I just got this comment. I wanted to share it with everybody. I'll have more to say about this later -- LOTS more.

Josh Grossberg seems to have an attitude which is to remain immune to how he must have hurt the residents in the private community of this "secret beach". Mr. Grossberg has the mentality that negative publicity is still publicity, and he apparently needs something to make him feel worthy and important. If this is called being an author and a writer, but publishing a blog that destroys private communities by giving the public a new place to go and populate, leave trash, bring their loud untamed children as well as their unruly dogs, then Mr. Grossberg really needs to make an assessment of his career. There are so many others like him, they just aren't as rude as he is for publishing this "secret" news which most people brighter than him already knew about.

If you're a dog owner, the sight of one of these might make you shudder.

It's dreaded foxtail season in the South Bay. I've been seeing them sprout up all over my neighborhood in recent days. If you have dogs, you know to stay clear.

Foxtails -- spiked clusters of grasses -- are a serious hazard to dogs who can wind up with the nasty little weeds burrowing into paws, noses, ears, and even eyes. My former terrier mix Fritz once sniffed 2 of them up his nose, prompting a mad rush to the vet ER clinic in Torrance one night after he began sneezing uncontrollably and spraying blood all over the kitchen floor. (He was fine, but the surgery wasn't cheap).

The bottom line is to beware of walking your dog in tall, dry grasses -- and always give dogs a thorough once-over if they do go traipsing through the spring brush.

There's some good for information for dog owners online, and here is another helpful site.

Meanwhile, be careful out there.   

These are thousand dollars cheaper than the Segway, but even dorkier looking. See for yourself.

It's a scooter that is pulled by dogs.

The link comes courtesy of my co-worker Thom Wright.

I'm not sure what the point of this is. It probably annoys the dog and it doesn't get you much exercise.

I guess it's good for really lazy people who have dogs that like to pull things. Some dogs do in fact enjoy that. Or they're genetically complelled to do it. My sister has a Samoyed and she assures me the dog loves yanking sleds around.

Maybe I'll get one for my dog. I wonder how many seconds it will take before he pulls me right over a cliff.

Nathan Pereira of Long Beach has got to be one happy kid.

After a thief snatched the 8-year-old's Yorkshire terrier named Joci off the street while Nathan was walking the pooch on Mother's Day, Long Beach detectives launched a full-scale doghunt.

They finally located the dognapped canine -- now sporting a patchwork haircut and shave -- at a home in Norwalk.

The boy and his dog were reunited Sunday night. That's Nathan and Joci, above, with Police Officers Bernardo Barajas, left, and Tim King..

"He missed me," Nathan told the Long Beach Press-Telegram. "As soon as he saw me, he started jumping up and down. I'm so glad he's home."

So are we.

The story by reporter Kristopher Hanson is a good read. Reports of the theft brought an outpouring of support from Press-Telegram readers last week, including a donation of a new dog named "Lucky" to Nathan and his family. 

"I hope Lucky doesn't bark at him," Nathan said.

With the hot weather this weekend, it was time to bathe the dogs. Cowboy = NOT happy.

Tess (right) = Putting on a good face, trying to make the best of one of the many indignities dogs must endure to remain man's best friend.

What happens when monkeys catch a cold? This is an actual video taken in the wild. It contains no funny sound effects or anything. These monkeys are really sneezing. And they really dress this way in the jungle.

I mention this to assuage the concerns of some our readers who find no amusment in human-induced monkey antics.

A power outage in Albania has been blamed on a cat chasing a mouse through a high-voltage area in the power plant.

The story ends badly for the cat and the mouse, but I keep imagining a cat running around with a giant mallet while the fast-talking mouse tricks it into running into electrical lines.

I guess I watch too many cartoons.

Don't forget that today -- Sunday May 18 -- is when the Redondo Beach Dog Park hosts its annual Spring Fling. On hand will be fun for dogs and their owners, including contests for the best dog hat and the best decorated pooper scooper. There will also be a photo booth, gamwes, food and drink (I don't know about the food, but I assume the drinks are for humans. There's always water there for the dogs).

 The park is at Flagler Lane and 190th Street in Redondo Beach

An endangered orangutan who escaped today from his
mesh enclosure at the Los Angeles Zoo prompted an evacuation, but no one was
injured and the ape was soon captured, a zoo spokeswoman said.
   Bruno, a 29-year-old, 300-pound male orangutan -- one of six at the zoo -
- got out of his wire mesh enclosure about 3:50 p.m. but was never in a
public area, said Gina Dart, promotions coordinator at the zoo.
   Instead, he headed into a holding area behind the cage where a handler
soon noticed him.
   She said Bruno was never aggressive and let a handler inject him with a
sedative about 4:15 p.m.
   He was secured by 4:30 p.m., she said.
   Dart said only visitors in the area of the Red Ape Rainforest Habitat,
which opened in 2000, were told to head to the entrance to the zoo.
   NBC4 reported that everyone they talked to at the zoo was told to leave.
   The zoo closed as usual at 5 p.m. and will be open Sunday, Dart said.
   Bruno got out through a hole in the wire mesh, but zoo officials weren't
sure whether the ape made the hole or the wire broke some other way, she said.
   The other apes were very active, hollering and jumping up and down after
Bruno got out of the cage, one zoo visitor told NBC4.
   Visitors were told to leave and they heard sirens and saw police cars
arrive, another zoo visitor told the TV station.
   Orangutans are very bright, crafty and have the ability to use tools,
zoo officials told the TV station.
   There were no injuries and zoo visitors were never in danger, Dart said.
   ``He was just in a place where he shouldn't have been,'' she said.
   Bruno was awake, in good condition and back in his holding area, Dart said.

Somebody left a bookmark on my desk for a novel called The Art of Racing in the Rain. I've never heard of it before, but the blurb on the bookmark says the story is told through a canine narrator.

This is from the Amazon.com desicription.

If you've ever wondered what your dog is thinking, Stein's third novel offers an answer. Enzo is a lab terrier mix plucked from a farm outside Seattle to ride shotgun with race car driver Denny Swift as he pursues success on the track and off. Denny meets and marries Eve, has a daughter, Zoë, and risks his savings and his life to make it on the professional racing circuit. Enzo, frustrated by his inability to speak and his lack of opposable thumbs, watches Denny's old racing videos, coins koanlike aphorisms that apply to both driving and life, and hopes for the day when his life as a dog will be over and he can be reborn a man.

First of all, why would a dog want to come back as a man? If I get to be reborn as anything, it would be dog. Not a bad dog or a neglected dog. But maybe some cool guy's cool dog. I bet it'd be fun to be George Clooney's dog. I'd trade a pair of thumbs for that. 

And secondly, I already know what dogs think. And it's nothing that interesting:

"Let's go for a walk. It's been three minutes since the last time we went for a walk."

Or "Hey, that smells good. Give it to me."

Or maybe "How come he's petting the cat instead of me? Get out of here, you stupid cat."

Linda Marinkovich, dedicated dog owner and Coastal San Pedro  Neighborhood Council member, says San Pedro animal lovers will have an opportunity to speak out in support of the community's new animal shelter due to open next month.

At 6:30 p.m. Monday (May 19), the Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council will take up a number of motions to allocate financial donations to community causes.

Among them is a proposal to give $2,500 to help sponsor the opening of the new Los Angeles Animal Services Harbor Animal Shelter at Gaffey Street and Miraflores.

Marinkovich urges San Pedro residents to attend and participate during the public comment time. The meeting will be at the Cabrillo marina Community Building at the plaza, Berth 28.

"We need the board to see that there are animal supporters out there," Linda said.

The city's current 50-year-old shelter, on Battery Street, has long been overcrowded and ready for replacement. Thanks to a bond measure passed by city voters several years ago, that's finally going to happen.

The new state-of-the-art facility, under construction for the past couple years, will offer not only a lot more space, but landscaping and amenities such as an onsite grooming facility, medical clinic, and a community room where pet education classes can be held. 

The move happens on June 2, when the shelter will be closed. It will re-open in its new digs on June 3. A grand opening ceremony is set for June 21. 

Others, including Girl Scout Troop 71, which we wrote about in an earlier post, have been stepping up to the plate to assist. A women's group in San Pedro called the Leave Your Hat On Society recently took up a collection at one of their gatherings and donated $955 to the new shelter.

"We all love pets and we wanted to support this wonderful shelter," said member Darka Klaric, owner of Drop-in Cards & Gifts at 385 W. Sixth St., in downtown San Pedro. "Pets are family, so when we got together everybody gave a little dontation for the animal shelter."

Those "little" donations added up to a substantial sum that was much appreciated.

With the city experiencing serious budget constraints this year, volunteer help and donations can go a long way toward helping the new shelter. 

Girl Scout Troop 71 from Long Beach showed up at San Pedro's Animal Shelter this afternoon with dozens of hand-painted dog bandannas ("Take me home!"), pet toys, homemade dog biscuits and five rabbit hutches. Bethany Graham, 10, above, carries one of the boxes filled with donations into the shelter.

The fifth-graders, who attend Bethany Lutheran School, then spent several hours cleaning the kennels and doing other chores.

It was all part of the troop's bronze award service project.

"It's lots of fun being with the animals," said Alyssa Migliaro, 10.

Bethany agreed. "I love animals," she said. That's an understatement, by the way. Bethany told me she has a lizard, two snakes, two dogs, two cats, a tortoise, frogs, and geckos.

The shelter is preparing to move to its new, much larger location on June 2, said Capt. Daniel Pantoja. A grand opening ceremony is scheduled for June 21 when Troop 71 will be given special recognition.

The Palos Verdes Library District will present "Life-Unleased: Canine Companions for Independence," with volunteer puppy-raiser Erin LaMonte, who will bring Zinca her "puppy in training."

The 10 a.m. Tuesday event  will take place at the Annex, at the Village Shopping Center, No. 210, at Deer Valley Drive and Silver Spur Road, Rolling Hills Estates.

The program is free and open to the public, and reservations are not required. Call 310-377-9584, Ext. 601, or go to here for more information.

Ever wish you could turn your love for pets into a weekly paycheck?

Then 101 Best Businesses for Pet Lovers may be for you.

The book by Joseph Nigro and Nicholas Nigro provides an overview of the wide variety of pet-related businesses that are out there today. They span the usual ones, like pet sitting and dog walking, but also the more elaborate, offering ideas you might not have thought about: Like what it takes to become a pet toy inventor, a pet artist, or a provider of pet memorials.

The authors give tips on how to start and market a pet business, what costs you can exptect to incur, and how to know if you and your plan will qualify for what you want to do. There also are ideas for how to find customers.

Faithful reader, Little Miss Sunscreen, sent me a link for a business called Flexpets.

It's a place for busy people, i.e., obnoxious yuppies, who are too busy to have pets, but still want to enjoy having a fuzzy companion from time to time.

Flexpets lets you rent them. Or maybe it's some kind of time sharing agreement, I'm not entirely sure because it sounds pretty silly to me.

FLEXPETZ members can spend from just a few hours to a number of days with each of our dogs. FLEXPETZ dogs are available in varied breed sizes to ensure compatibility with our member's individual lifestyles and unique circumstances. Local drop-off and collection to your home or office is available in some locations.

I'm not sure how much it costs, but whatever the fee is, it's overpriced. Heck, I'd pay somebody to take my dog out of my hair for a couple of hours.

And I'll throw in the cat for free.

But i still got my dog.

Those are the themes that run through most country songs. Or, that's the cliche anyway.

But one person, writing in Country Music Television's blog, has noticed that dogs are getting short shrift these days.

Alison Bonaguro recently got a dog and realized that dogs are alarmingly absent on country radio these days.

Is it because listeners would rather listen to songs about love gone wrong than songs about the unconditional love between man and beast? I highly doubt that. According to my amateur research, about 90 percent of country fans own dogs. So wouldn't it make sense to have some songs about the one thing artists and fans really have in common?

Beats me, Alison. They don't play a lot of dog songs on the old-fogey stations I listen to either. Although, "Martha My Dear," a Paul McCartney song on the Beatle's White