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.  

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 Album was written about his pet sheep dog. 

An AP story describes how animal shelters have developed personality tests for cats and dogs, although the article focuses mostly on cats.

"People come in and say, I had a black and white tuxedo cat before, so that's what I want," says Jim Monsma of the Washington Animal Rescue League in Washington, D.C. "But cats are not all the same. They have widely divergent personalities."

That's why the shelter is now using the Feline-ality program, developed by behaviorist Dr. Emily Weiss of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Part of the ASPCA's Meet Your Match program, which also includes Canine-ality for dogs, the program assesses a variety of behaviors in individual cats.

It rates the animals on confidence and sociability, which Weiss' research has shown are independent of each other. The program then tallies those assessments to place the cat into nine personality categories, which can be matched with a family's situation and desires.

It just so happens that my cat has a tuxedo pattern on his belly. But I thought cats only come in one personality: Annoying.

Ready for the next throw ... and the next, and the next. There can never be too many for Tess, my border collie who is obsessed with playing fetch at the San Pedro Dog Park. 

Unless, of course, there are busy, disorganized little dogs on the small dog park side that she must supervise and herd.

The setting: An old western saloon. Unwashed men in cowboy hats sit around playing cards. Others stand hunched over the old wooden bar.

Suddenly a dog pushes open the swinging front doors and steps inside. He's dressed in a black vest, chaps and has a six-shooter strapped to his mid section. One of his legs is wrapped in a white bandage.

Walking on two legs, the dog saunters over to the bar. The room grows quiet as everybody watches him.

The dog turns to the bartender and says, "I'm looking for the man who shot my paw."

An article this month in one of our Daily Breeze sister papers, the Palos Verdes Peninsula News, reports that the idea of an off-leash dog park to serve all of the cities on the peninsula is being raised during planning sessions for the area's so-called Coast Vision Plan for Rancho Palos Verdes.

The Vision Plan, to be completed in June or July, could include a variety of uses, from a pool to land for farming to a high-end companion animal center, according to the story by reporter Ashley Ratcliff..

But one thing residents, many from the city of Palos Verdes Estates, said was missing from the Vision Plan was a dog park that would serve the entire peninsula. Clark said City Manager Carolyn Lehr currently is exploring the venture with officials in the sister cities on the hill. "Stay tuned, because we're not going to let that item go away," Clark said.

His name is Raleigh and he's all chubby-wobbly legs, fat paws and soft-as-down puppy fuzz. Raleigh's the newest member of the San Pedro Dog Park and is the third Burmese Mountain Dog his owner, Kak, has raised.

Kak tells us that Raleigh will probably reach at least 120 pounds, maybe more, by the time he grows up. 

But we hope that doesn't happen too soon.

We're having too much fun watching him bounce and gallop around all the other dogs playing ball, trying to figure out what the game is. 

Wow, those Brits are getting serious about pet owners who don't clean up. Our Daily Breeze colleague Denise Nix links to a story about it on our newspaper's Crime & Courts blog.

 It's been a few months since I lost my dog, Ellie. I'd gotten her out of the Long Beach shelter in 1996, when she was already 2 years old. One of my co-workers at the time said she had to be the cutest dog she'd ever seen. She soon was dubbed "The Cutest Dog in the World."

Through the years, we became especially bonded. She was healthy as a horse all her life, but was diagnosed with lymphoma early this year and lived only 2 weeks. She was nearly 14 and had a great life.

The other day I received a card in the mail at work from the SPCA-LA. Herb and Arlene Zimmer (and their 3-legged rescue dog Tripod) had made a donation in the memory of "Ellie" and the SPCA wanted me to know. What a touching and thoughtful tribute.

If you don't know about the SPCA memorial program, it's one of the best ways to honor a pet that has passed, either your own or others.' You can also call them at 888-SPCA-LA1, or go to their home page to find out more about the nonprofit group's programs and other donation opportunities.

You know what this country needs? More chimps in the military.

     A lizard and a lowly tadpole. Go figure. How these stories stick in my mind as childhood object lessons in compassion, I'll never know. But there they are.

So in honor of Mother's Day (and Father's Day, in advance), I share them here.

First, the tale of the lizard.

When I was 9, I hated -- HATED -- lizards. But like most kids my age, I was also curious, in sort of a creepy way when it came to lizards, I suppose. They both repelled and fascinated me. Did their tails really keep twiching if they got cut off (Ewwww!)?

Spotting one of the repugnant creatures near the curb in front of our house one afternoon, I gathered up all the tomboy nerve I could muster and gently tapped my sneaker toe on the green scaly thing. 

EEEEEK.

I was driving to my parent's house last Mother's Day when I got this idea in my head that I needed to get a dog that minute.

So I stopped at a shelter, picked up a dog and brought him to her house. Boy was she mad at me! My sisters and other family members were there to celebrate Mother's Day and I showed up pulling a strange dog on a leash.

Mom has since grown to love Rocket more than she loves me, but then, he's pretty hard to resist.

Happy Mother's Day mom! I promise not to bring any new animals to your house this year.

My old dog Buck once ran straight through a plate-glass window. This dog would have saved me a lot of money.

In the cultural rush to view pets as "the new" kids, dog and cat names seem to be taking on a distinctly human sound these days, at least in San Francisco according to this article in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Max, Lucy, Samantha, Charlie -- all dogs.

So whatever happened to Fido? Or Rocket? Or Cowboy?

(A) computer review (of animal license records) showed that people are naming their pets like children. Seventeen out of the top 25 tags for dogs and cats are typical people names. Six pets were named Jennifer, seven Marcus and four Kevin.

Kevin??

There was even a papillon spaniel in San Francisco named .... William III.

Not a particularly new trend, really, but what do you think? What are your pets' names? And how did you choose them?  

Jenny the gorilla turned 55 today, which makes her older than me. It also makes her eligible for AARP discounts. She lives in the Dallas Zoo and is the oldest known gorilla to live in captivity.

The article says that Jenny suffers from joint issues. Welcome to my world, you big ape.

Here's a video from MSNBC about a pit bull that somehow crawled inside someone's car. to keep himself busy, the pooch ate halfway through the car's interior before he got out unharmed. The car wasn't so lucky.

I guess I'm the world's leading authority on such matters. I've written two stories about animals getting stuck in cars in my illustrious career. Yes, indeed, this is why I went to journalism school -- to write stories about animals who crawl into engine blocks.

One of them was a 'possum. The other was a kitty. Both cars happened to be Hondas. And the animals were safely extracted at Scott Robinson Honda in Torrance. Last I heard, they had my articles framed in their waiting room -- not exactly a Pulitzer, but better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

You can read them both after the jump

          If you've ever lost a pet .... you know how Augusta Aune feels.

Rowdy, her sister's 15-year-old cat that she agreed to take care of when her sister died two years ago, managed to get out of the building where she lives, Casa de los Amigos near South Catalina and Garnet streets, just above the Redondo Beach Pier.

"The cat loves her and she loves this cat," said Augusta's friend and neighbor, Susan.

The building has been undergoing renovation in recent weeks, causing more than a little angst for residents trying to cope with the upheaval, Susan said.

After an especially stressful day and evening on May 8, Augusta, who is 87, went to bed thinking Rowdy was under the bed. By morning, she realized the cat was missing.

A neighbor later said she'd spotted Rowdy the day before in an inside hallway of the building, but Susan believes the cat managed to get outside.

They've posted pictures and "Lost Cat" notices all over the neighborhood and have checked the shelters. Still no Rowdy. Professional lost pet organizations are too expensive for Augusta's limited budget.

The cat is part Siamese and has a thick (but not long) taupe-and-white coat. She has green eyes and is "very pretty, she's the Jackie O. of cats," Susan said. Rowdy, despite her name, also is very gentle and is used to living indoors.

If you think you know where she might be, call Susan at 310-937-1457.

Don't forget: The Redondo Beach Police K-9 Team is hosting its 21st annual Police Dog Competition that will include more than 30 police dog teams from all over the region competing for top honors in searching, obedience, agility and manwork (apprehrension).

The free event will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Redondo Union High School football field, 631 Vincent Park.

L.A. Unleashed blogs about goats grazing at the Getty this week.

Goats, it turns out, are quite efficient when it comes to clearing overgrown brush that can be a fire hazard around local communities.

Goats grazed out at San Pedro's Peck Park Canyon for a couple of years recently, drawing kids and families to watch. But local Rec & Parks officials appeared less than enthusiastic each time the proposal was brought up. Too much buraucratic hassle, I suppose. And so, no goats for Pedro.  

      We've posted about this before, but now's your chance to get involved with the Los Angeles Animal Service's Baby Bottle Foster Program.

A volunteer training session is being held at 4 p.m. this Thursday, May 8, and again at 11 a.m. Saturday, May 10, at the Harbor Animal Shelter, 735 Battery St., San Pedro.

Miki Shaler, who helps administer the citywide program, says there are "hundreds" of under-age kittens and puppies in need of volunteer foster families who are willing to bottle feed them until they are ready to be adopted.

It's a great activity for families, she said.

"It teaches compassion so it's great for families. When (the animals) come back to the shelter, they get a special designation that they were a fostered kitten so they're more sociable and will have an easier time adapting. They've been raised from hand so they're much more friendly."

Foster families also can adopt their kittens.

The bottle feeding is a commitment -- "It's not unlike having babies in your house," Miki said, with feedings every couple of hours. "It's work, but it's rewarding."

Interested? Contact Aeisha Ridgeway, the Harbor shelter's New Hope Coordinator, at aeisha.ridgeway@lacity.org. Or you can call her at 310-548-2632. 

OK, so they're not really pets, but you can see all kinds of live stuff swimming around in the murky tidepools off of San Pedro (no smart remarks!)

Check out this weekend's Science by the Seashore  tidepool walk offered by the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium -- from 7:30 to 9 a.m. Saturday and 8:30 to 10 a.m. Sunday.

     Heeeere's Rugby! "Rugby is your all American dog. He is such a sweet guy with a very happy-go-lucky personality. Rugby is a durable pup, ready for kids and whatever life throws his way. He is approximately 4 months old." And, yes, he's available for adoption!

But aside from having super-cool and cute dogs just waiting to be part of your family, Animals Rule Placement Foundation  has come up with a creative way to raise funds. The group is putting out a call for recipes to supporters as they get ready to publish a cookbook that will be available in September -- just in time for the holidays.

You can submit either "people" or "pet" recipes (though be sure to specify which is which). They can be easy to make or gourmet-style.

The cookbook will also provide space for you to write a little personal information, perhaps about your rescued dog? Ads also are available for purchase. And copies of the book will be available also to buy for yourself, friends and family.

Recipes are being collected during the month of May and can be e-mailed to: AnimalsRuleCookbook@yahoo.com or faxed to 310-830-7080. But you might want to call cookbook coordinator Deborah Davidson Harpur at 310-625-9580 for details first.

PS: Oh, and if you want to find out more about Rugby -- and all the other great dogs Animals Rule have available for adoption, stop by their weekly adoption event, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Saturday, "rain or shine," at Creative Pet Supply, 305 N. Harbor Blvd., San Pedro.

Happy adopting!

Equestrians are invited to join us for the annual Mayor's Breakfast Ride, which will be held on Saturday, May 10.

The one-hour ride begins at at 8 a.m. at Chandler Park, just west of City Hall at Censhaw Boulevard and Palos Verdes drive North. 

The event ends at the Scout Pancake Breakfast in Ernie Howlett Park. 

Scout Parents, Inc. sponsors the annual Pancake Breakfast to benefit local scouting programs. Pancakes, eggs, sausage, coffee, juice, and milk will be served in Howlett Park from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.

Breakfast tickets are $5 the day of the event,but may be purchased in advance from scouts or at City Hall for only $3.00. For more information about the trail ride or the pancake breakfast, please call Andy Clark, Community Services Director,at 310 377-1577, ext. 109 

Good article this week in USA Today about how communities are coping with feral cat colonies.

The story by Sharon L. Peters takes note of recent efforts in Iowa and elsewhere to round up and dispose of the wild cats. But mostly she focuses on the humanitarian groups that are putting compassion into action by providing money, energy and manpower to help resolve the issue.

PetSmart Charities, the story says, will announce a $13 million spay-netuer program this July for Los Angeles. A clinic in Burbank, affiliated with Best Friends Animal Society in Utah, will sterilize 20,000 feral cats a year under the program.

Other groups helping ferals nationwide include the Humane Society of the United States (their CD/DVD called "Effectively Managing Feral Cats" is being offered free to 6,000 shelters, communities and feral-cat advocates through a PETCO Foundation grant); and Alley Cat Allies, which helps individuals and groups to learn more about feral-colony management.

Alley Cat Allies is embarking on a major research project to collect data about ferals and the people who help them.

In Los Angeles, the Operation Felix  program is offered through the city's Animal Services Department -- lots of good links on that web page if you're interested in the topic.  

I received this anonymous comment regarding my post about directions to the illegal dog beach in Rancho Palos Verdes.

For some reason, it didn't post, so I'm reprinting it here in full. The writer makes some very good points: No matter where you go with your dog, always be polite and aware that not everybody loves animals. And always be respectful of your surroundings.

However I disagree with his argument that some beaches are being overused. While that might be true, I'll make a deal with you. If you think an area is being overused, YOU stop going and let somebody else have a turn.

It's that time of year.

Shedding is just something we dog owners learn to live with, but it can be a challenge.

You can fight it, but according to this Dog Breed web site article, it's a natural process in most dogs.

"All dogs shed; some more than others. There is no such thing as a non-shedding dog, unless you have a completely hairless dog....."

Paris, a Mexican hairless I know at the San Pedro Dog Park, is one of those. But low maintenance? Hardly. Her owner tells me Paris needs regular applications of sunscreens, a wardrop of T-shirts to protect her skin and weekly baths.

Some dogs, according to an article in the May edition of "Your Dog," a newsletter out of the Cummings School of veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, tend to shed a lot more than others. Among the "Big Time Shedders" listed are Malamutes, Akitas, Australian shepherds, Belgian sheepdogs, collies, English toy spaniels, German shepherds, Great Pyrenees, Keeshonds, Newfoundlands, Pomeranians, Saint Bernards, Samoyeds, Siberian huskies and Shetland sheepdogs.

What to do?

Groom, groom groom:

The more hair you remove, the less you will see it all over your house. Brushing your dog once a day will greatly reduce the unwanted hair all over your clothes, carpet and furniture, especially during shedding season.

 

In honor of Tuesday's election day (when does this all end again?), we call your attention to an item we learned about from Dogster.

An article from The Guardian tells us there is actually a Cats for Obama web site.

And not to be out-done, there's a Howling for Hillary video also for your entertainment. (Warning: Turn the volume down on this one. I just managed to tick off several colleagues conducting serious telephone interviews within earshot.)   

OK, how cute is this? Makes you want to run out and get a monkey, doesn't it?

I stirred a bit of controversy last month when I wrote a post about a secluded beach in Rancho Palos Verdes where people often take their dogs.

Some bozo who lives a beach away was mad at me for ruining his privacy. I guess his own private beach isn't enough.

Some dog owners were upset that I even mentioned the beach, even though I never said exactly where it was.

Well, here's exactly where it is: Go to the Trump National Golf Course at 1 Ocean Trails Drive. There's public parking next to the club house.

In fact, the clever leaders of RPV mandated that parts of the course remain public. So you can walk through there any time you want. Just stay in the public part and you'll be fine.

This is from the city's Web site:

Founders Park was formally accepted by the City on January 17, 2006 and named in honor of the City's founders who led the effort to incorporate the City of Rancho Palos Verdes more than 30 years ago.  This 5.5-acre parcel is located adjacent to the Trump National Clubhouse and offers patrons an attractive sight with breath-taking ocean views, picnic tables, a gazebo, nearby restrooms, coastal access and adjacent walking and biking trails.  Dogs must be on a leash.

Walk around until you see a small trail that leads away from the manicured golf course. There are trails on both sides of the park, but the one on the north side is a more difficult climb.

Follow the trails down and you'll get to the beach.

And that's that. Make sure your dog stays on a leash. People were getting tickets a few weeks ago, even though nobody goes down there except for hikers and dog people. It's a stinky, rock-strewn beach and not really a good place to go sun bathing.

More on dog beaches coming later this week.

Police officers and canines from across California will compete in trials Saturday, May 10 at Redondo Union High School's football field.

Admission is free for the event that runs from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The school is at Pacific Coast Highway and Diamond Street.

In its 21st year, the competition includes a canine obstacle course, area searches and other activities.

For those wanting to cheer on the Redondo Beach Police Canine Team, check out the following events: Box search, 9 a.m.; obedience and agility, 10:45 a.m.; and manwork, 1:30 p.m. In the last activity -- usually a crowd favorite -- competing canine teams will demonstrate their ability to safely subdue a combative suspect.

I met Dannielle more than 10 years ago at the Santa Monica dog Park. I'm not sure how, but she's still only 22 and as beautiful as ever.

I used to take my old dog, Buck, down there every day, but by then, he was too old to really care about the other dogs. He mostly just sniffed around.

But Danielle (and I just realized I never spelled it before and may be getting it wrong) would show up with a carload of pups. There was Calisto, as sweet a dog as you could hope to meet. And crazy Oliver, who is all black, except with gray circles around his eyes.

And then she got Hudson, a giant of a dog who knows some of the most amazing tricks ever. Danielle somehow taught Hudson how to sneeze on command. I once asked her how she managed this and she said that Hudson is just that kind of dog.

See for yourself. And if your dog can do anything this good, let me know and I'll post it for the three people who read this blog to see.

A woman in France was mad at her boyfriend, so she performed a little, um, surgery on him. And then she tried to frame her dog for it!

People will blame their dog for anything.

Zuleika Firpo recently moved from Florida to take a position as an animation specialist for American Honda Motor Co. in Torrance.

Now, she needs to find a new home after her current rental unit became embroiled in a contamination issue. 

   The problem is, she has 2 dogs -- a toy poodle named "Weener" and a Staffordshire terrier (at left -- a pit bull in the common parlance) named "Brutsy."

Brutsy, she says, is sweet and quiet.

"They are both well behaved and have never damaged any property or injured any one or any thing," she said, adding that both are very social canines who are regulars at the Huntington Dog Beach and Runyon Canyon dog park on weekends. "Neither of them know what it is to be hungry for more than 10 minutes, never mind fight for their lives or act aggressively for any reason."

Finding pet-friendly rentals is tough. A co-worker of mine who owns two chihuahuas also is finding that out as she looks for a place in Long Beach. But add a "pit bull' into the mix, and you've got a real challenge on your hands.

Zuleika has posted notices on Craigslist and the Honda website hoping to connect with a landlord in a "decent and safe" neighborhood.

"I am not a gangster or a thug," she said. "I hold two degrees and am a very responsible person."

Tell us your stories about finding rentals for tenants with pets. How hard is it? If you're a landlord, what are some of the concerns you have in renting to people with pets? Is there a way to bridge the gap?

Here are some tips I found online.

And if you can offer Zuleika some assistance, post a comment here and we'll be sure she sees it. 

But they sure do like cake!

Spring and summer are more than just times for barbecues and baseball.

The warm weather also signals the start of kitten season.

I got this e-mail from Madeline Bernstein, the head of SPCA Los Angeles, who had this to say about the matter:

As the largest and most experienced animal welfare organization in Southern California, spcaLA takes in hundreds of kittens during the Spring and Summer months. Considering that in just 6 short years, an unspayed female cat and her offspring can produce 67,000 kittens, we - like most animal shelters across the country - have our hands full during Kitten Season.

Momma cats, looking to find food or a new mate, are often hit by cars, felled to a common feline disease or captured by people who wish them harm. They leave behind tiny victims of the pet overpopulation crisis who need constant bottle feeding and care. Many times, the momma cat dies before her kittens have even opened their eyes.

But there are things you can do to help, Bernstein said. For startes, get your cats fixed or foster unwanted kitties. And, of course, they can always use money.

SpcaLA always welcomes your generous donations. During kitten season, we have specific needs, like Kitten Replacement Formula and more. Donate the funds with which to purchase these items, or donate the needed items themselves. Donations can be dropped off at any spcaLA location during business hours. For more information, call 1(323) 730-5300, x232.

There's a company online that is marketing a walking dog balloon for people who don't actually own a real dog but want to get more exercise.

You can get balloons that look like a pug, a dachshund and a retriever. When filled with helium, they float just above the ground. But they don't poop. At least we don't think they do.

Guaranteed to have your neighbors talking about you. As if they don't already .

Original link from fellow bloggers at http://internet-pets.blogspot.com/