May 2010 Archives

It's in Orange County, but if you happen to be out that way and are looking for a pet, stop by. Here's the scoop from City News Service... 

The Irvine Animal Care Center will host its fourth annual Orange County Super Pet Adoption event Sunday, when more than 65 pet rescue groups and shelters will bring more than 600 homeless dogs, cats, rabbits, birds, and small mammals for adoption.

``Super Pet Adoption is a great venue for rescue groups that may not have other opportunities to show their animals,'' said Ron R. Edwards, Irvine Animal Care Center Administrator. ``We want to help as many animals as possible and this event is a great vehicle to do so.''

In addition to adoptions, the event will also feature games for children, dog contests, live music by Pinch Me! and Calypso Compromise, a silent auction to benefit the Irvine Animal Care Center, demonstrations by leading pet experts, refreshments, and pet photos by the Pawtographer.

``Ask the Vet'' and ``Ask the Trainer'' booths will be available to offer potential pet owners advice on pet medical and behavioral issues, while celebrity guest Snoopy from Knott's Berry Farm will be on hand to welcome visitors.

The event is being sponsored by Purina Pro Plan Rally to Rescue, VPI Pet Insurance, Southern California Veterinary Specialty Hospital and PETCO.

Admission is $1 for adults and free for children 17 and under. To view a list of participating rescues, shelters and exhibitors, and to see a detailed schedule of events, visit IrvineShelter.org or call 949-724-7740.  The pet adoption event will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at 6443 Oak Canyon Road in Irvine.

Trash day at my house is always an adventure. For some reason, my dog is obsessed by trash trucks. Whether he loves them or hates them, I can't tell, but when he hears them rumbling down the street, his ears perk up and he starts to bark.

He doesn't do this with any other truck. Not dump trucks, not container trucks. Only trash   trucks.

As they get closer, so too does the barking until it's so loud that people blocks away can hear it.

The dog is somewhat famous for this odd habit. I've met complete strangers at the neighborhood dog park who have heard about the dog who barks at trash trucks. The park in San Pedro is right next to a freeway and when the trash trucks drive by, he can hear them a half mile away and he chases them the length of the park.

Like I said, if he's doing it out of affection or anger, I don't know, but it's quite something to see.

I usually avoid the situation on trash day by taking him for a hike in the hills. But I overslept this week, so I walked him around the neighborhood, carefully trying to avoid streets where the trucks were picking up trash.

But when we got to one street, we found ourselves surrounded. There was a trash truck behind us and another in front of us. There was no place for me to hide.

The dog, normally the loudest dog in the South Bay cranked it up to 11. He howled and barked so loud in such a sorrowful wail that people started coming out of their houses to see what the ruckus was. They thought I was beating the animal.

"Oh, it's nothing," I assured them. "He just has a thing for trash trucks."

And then I saw a police car coming slowly our way. I don't know if he happened to be in the neighborhood or if somebody called him. I tried to look noncholant, but the dog wasn't having any of it. He was pulling on his leash and lunging at the trucks with the force of 10 normal dogs.

The police car stopped. The window rollled down.

"Is there a problem here?" the officer wanted to know.

"No sir," I replied. "Nothing to see here. Move along"

He decided not to arrest me on animal cruelty charges and drove off. The oblivious dog kept up his antics while my neighbors shook their heads at me in disaproval. They looked at me like I was a child molester. I walked home, my head bowed in shame.

When we neared my house, the dog stopped barking. I could see he was thirsty and wasn't in the mood for making noise anymore. He turned his head around and looked up at me, his tongue hanging stupidly from his open mouth.

I swear he was smiling.

 

Many of you have probably already seen this story about a pit bull named Mary Jane written earlier this week by my Daily Breeze colleague Larry Altman.

On Monday, a Hawthorne man -- Ricardo Salvador Plascenia, 19 -- was booked on suspicion of animal cruelty after neighbors heard his dog, Mary Jane, "screaming and crying," police said. The neighbor thought a dog had been struck by a car.

A neighbor's cell phone video allegedly captured the dog being punched and kicked; slammed to the concrete pavement; and then suspended by a rope and a choke chain over a clothesline in the man's backyard.

The black 50-pound pit bull, which was slammed to the concrete in an alleged crime caught on video, was taken to an animal hospital. On Tuesday, she cowered in her cage but was said to be in good condition.

"She's actually a very, very good girl," Hawthorne animal control officer helen Coronel said. "She's very timid. I don't blame her."

Animal cruelty charges, however, were not immediately filed against Plascenia. Prosecutors sent the case back to police to gather more evidence, including a medical report on the dog's condition.

Larry tells me this is no different than any other case in which prosecutors hope to gather the most documentation they can before moving a case forward. Remember, though, that dogs legally are considered property so this could wind up a misdemeanor. 

(Mary Jane is shown below in a photograph by Scott Varley of the Daily Breeze.)

 

 

Plascenia was scheduled to be released from custody earlier this week.

The dog, a pit bull mix, will be transferred and held at the Carson animal shelter pending any court proceedings.

Regardless of the outcome, authorities said the dog would not be given back to Plascenia, who also allegedly had marijuana plants on the premises in the 4000 block of 141st Street. 

We'll keep readers posted as the case moves forward.

 

Thanks to our friends over at L.A. Unleashed:

 

This goes without saying when you watch the video, but owners say this Boston terrier Polly is best friends with Hermoine the cat.

 

 

Leaping Lizards.

You may recall my post of 10 days ago about finding Annie the cat playing with a still-twitching (but detached) lizard's tail in the living room.

 

I comforted myself with the thought that surely she had captured the lizard while she was outside on the patio, then wound up with only the tail to bring indoors through the doggie door as the rest of the lizard escaped into the backyard.

Wrong.

In a surprise discovery (yes, I yelped out loud), I spotted the rest of the lizard this morning, very alive and looking quite well actually, except for the stub that used to be his tail. Annie had cornered him under one of her slanted cardboard scratching trays in the living room.

Thinking her fascination with the spot meant only that one of her plastic toys had just rolled under there, I lifted the scratching box up. 

Let's just say chaos ensued.

Annie, of course, was thrilled with the full exposure of her elusive prey.

I was horrified. I scooped Annie up into my arms -- she protested loudly -- and tossed her in the kitchen, closing the door (it took two tries to contain her, she was so excited). I returned to see if I could somehow capture the lizard in the living room and shoo it out the front door.

I could not. The reptile was far too wily for me (and I was, admittedly, far too slow-witted to know exactly what to do). The last I saw of it, the brown-striped (and rather pudgy) lizard had slithered out of sight, somewhere underneath the sofa.

Annie was released from the kitchen. I had to leave for work.

 

So now what??

 

 

Attention all local dog trainers: We need to get a class going in this in the South Bay, no?

 

A visit to the sloth orphanage.

Meet the sloths from Amphibian Avenger on Vimeo.

I always enjoy going to different dog parks, seeing what volunteers have done at the facilities and taking stock of what makes each one unique. 

Ewwwww.

That would be Cowboy. 

Annie loves the "house" I picked up for her a while back at Creative Pet Supply  in San Pedro.

 

 

A new round of meetings is coming up for Bruce and Maureen Megowan's year-long effort to establish an off-leash, fenced-in dog park somewhere on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

  

 

If you support this issue -- or would otherwise like to weigh in, pro or con -- you'll have a couple opportunities on Saturday and Tuesday:

 

 

• 9 a.m. to noon Saturday (5/15), community workshop, Fred Hesse Park, 29301 Hawthorne Blvd., Rancho Palos Verdes; preliminary plans for Grand View Park and Lower Hesse Park -- which both include possible dog park areas -- will be discussed. Other workshops will follow in July and September.
• 7 p.m. Tuesday (5/18), parks commission meeting, Rolling Hills Estates City Hall, 4045 Palos Verdes Drive North; continuation of a discussion about possible uses for the former Palos Verdes Landfill.

You can contact Maureen at 310-541-6416 or email her at mmegowan@cox.net.

For more information, see our former posts on the topic 

Ready, all together now: Awwwwwwww.

This Chihuahua mix rescued from the South L.A. shelter by Noah's Bark should get the Mom of the Year Award.

Nicknamed "Jolie," the dog has adopted a tiny black-and-white kitten that she's now nursing alongside her five newborn puppies. Noah's Bark volunteer Shelly Gomez is keeping them at her Hawthorne home until all are ready to be adopted.

Here's the story link. And check out this adorable online photo slide show posted by Daily Breeze photographer Sean Hiller.

Here's one of the shots, but there are more online. And, yeah, they're all pretty much this cute:

 Photo by Sean Hiller/Daily Breeze

 

Watch the blog in coming days for a couple new features.

First off, we're launching a fixed photo gallery on the site that will let you e-mail your pet pics to be posed as part of the blog. We'll publish the details about how to participate shortly, but spread the word to your pet-owning friends -- we'd love to see all your dogs and cats -- and whatever other pets you have -- posted here. :-)  You'll also be able to provide a paragraph of information to run with the photos. (Photos of deceased pets also can be included, if you'd like to remember a special dog or cat from your past.)

Secondly, we'll be posing a couple reader questions each week and we'd love to have your participation, interaction and owner expertise in answering and commenting. One will be on a specific topic each week (probably posted on Mondays) while the other will be more of an open thread that will invite you to share the latest news about your pets -- problems or challenges, issues you're facing, funny stories, successes. Your choice. Other readers also then are free to weigh in with advice or comments, if they want. 

As for the topics of the specific-topic thread, send me your ideas. I have a few questions lined up but would love to hear from you the issues you'd like to talk about or see addressed.

Stay tuned for all the details to come later.

Meanwhile, here's the latest picture of Annie the cat. She's a bit pudgier than she was when I first brought her home last October. So she's now on a low-fat kibble diet. :-) This means that she is hungrier than usual and has taken to hunting, catching and munching on socks and other stray items she finds around the house.

********** 5/11 Update: Wow, fast response, guys. Maple's found a home; here's the e-mail that was sent to my Daily Breeze colleague, Rae Koyanagi, who asked us to put the poster on the blog:

thank you & thank donna... they found a home for maple last night from the flyer on the website... so thank you, thank you, thank you!!! let donna know she can remove the flyer now.  : )

And here's another e-mail:

just wanted to let you all know that maple has found a home with a family in torrance. thank you to all of you who were passing the flyer around! and a special thank you to the daily breeze... they put maple's flyer up on their website and within minutes amanda got a call from tiffany who wanted to take maple home!

Yay -- and thank you to Tiffany for stepping up to provide Maple with a new home.  

 

Our original post from Monday 5/10: Here's a plea for a new home for "Maple," a 5-month-old pitbull puppy that was left at the dog park in Redondo Beach.

She is being fostered but those who have here really need to find a home soon. She is sweet and gets along with other dogs as well as cats. She's had all her vaccinations and a clean bill of health from the veterinarian. She still needs to be spayed.

(Reminder: Clinico in San Pedro offers good prices on spay-neuter surgeries, and the clinic periodically offers special deals for pitbulls and pit mixes for even more discounts.)  

 

Call Amanda Hill at 310-567-8627. Flier below:

The Lomita Obedience Training Club had a record turnout Saturday when dog owners gathered to get their canines tested for the AKC's Canine Good Citizen Program.

Of the 14 dogs who took the test, 12 passed.

The training club administers the test two to three times a year -- the next test has not been

scheduled but will likely come up sometime in late summer (late August). We'll be sure to announce the date here when it becomes available. (If your dog has been through one of the club's training classes, they'll waive the $5 fee for the exam; check out the group's class schedule and class descriptions on their website).

(Below are a couple shots from Saturday's event held at Hathaway Park in Lomita. Because of the numbers who turned out, there was a bit of a wait to get called onto the basketball court where the formal exam was held; that gave owners a chance to practice with their dogs a bit.)

 

So what's the test good for?

"I always think of it as the first step to doing something more with your dog," said Barbara Millman, who headed up the team of examiners on Saturday. "There are some people who can get a house or an apartment to rent because their dog has passed the CGC."

 

 

The test was established in 1989 and stresses responsible pet ownership and basic good manners for dogs. Once dogs pass, they are in a better position to continue training for obedience, therapy, agility, tracking or performance events.

My dogs, Tess & Cowboy, were among those who passed, which was a thrill. They congratulate each other, below.

 

 

 

 

Here's a pretty amazing idea that comes to us from Excess Access .

Your hair -- and your dog's hair -- is being used to make special booms and mats to soak up polluting oils in the ocean.

Phil McCrory, a hair stylist from Alabama, came up with the idea after watching television coverage of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, according to Suite101.com.

A nonprofit organization called Matter of Trust in San Francisco is among groups that recycle scraps of hair to use as booms, sending boxes to oil spill disaster sites. But don't just send the little snippets from your latest bangs trim -- they need a certain amount of hair in bulk amounts to most efficiently provide what's needed for the booms.

Dog owners and groomers are invited to donate hair and can sign up at Excess Access. So tell your dog groomer and hair stylist.

And check out this video (with some very cool musical accompaniment) to learn more about the program:

 

 

If you live in the city of Los Angeles and have a noisy dog -- or sometimes walk your dog off- leash in areas not sanctioned (fenced-in dog parks) for that -- beware.

 

 

Check out this story on how the city plans to rake in another $2 million by getting tough on violators.

 

Coming soon: $100 citations.  

 

We posted last week about Paws 4 a Cause, a "Canine Cancer Walk" that's tied to the San Pedro Relay for Life Luminaria Walk coming up on May 22.

The dog walk component was held on Saturday at Deane Dana Friendship Park in San Pedro and organizer Jessica Johnson (that's her on the right) sent in these photos taken at the event. Between 20 and 30 people showed up, Jessica said, adding that last year's first walk drew only about three or four participants.

Next year she's working on recruiting a couple rescue groups to take part. The walk raised $705 that will go directly to the American Cancer Society.

From Jessica:

Thanks to all of you who made it to the event. A special thanks to Centinela Pet Feed and Supply for coming to the event along with their Lotus representative for making the lovely goodie bag. :) A spcial thanks goes out to also to Chic Canines, Dino's Pet Shoppe Boutique (formerly Kritter Korral) and Bistro -- and Nature's Select Pet Food for their donations and contribution to making the 2nd Annual Paws for a Cause such a great success!

Below and on the jump are some photos she sent along. What a picture-perfect day for a dog walk overlooking the harbor:

That's Mary Arzman, above, who is serving as the co-chair of the Relay for Life on May 22.

To see more photos on the jump, click the link below.