Honey, rescued Chihuahua mix

Besides adopting one of the available dogs, there are many other ways to give. You can sponsor a dog, make a one-time monetary donation, give goods and supplies such as food and blankets, or volunteer your time (as I’ve done in the past). Click here to learn more about donating to Chihuahua Rescue.

(Honey is a Chihuahua mix I rescued from an Orange County group last year).

This post is part of the Blogging.LA Holiday Giving series.

I didn’t like cats. My family always had dogs. Dogs were congenial, enthusiastic, stoked. Cats were diffident, seemed to not form attachments, and were generally a pain in the ass with zero ROI.

Then I moved into the Little House In Canoga Park.

Ok, so this little house had a bunch of feral cats living around it. Scads of ‘em. Everywhere! The place was filthy with cats! They were all terrified of me. The house was surrounded by trees and undergrowth, and the cats ran and hid under bushes, amidst vines, and in the crawl space under the Little House. I was determined to not become attached to them.

That endeavor did not succeed.

I began feeding the cats.  They warmed up to me. They curled around my feet and purred. They licked my arm when I petted them. My heart melted. I started to see how many little ones would show up, be cute, then…disappear. I tried not to think about what became of those kittens.

I had to try to get these cats all spayed and neutered, but how? Vets charge a lot for that. My search led me to FixNation, a nonprofit that offers free spay and neuter services for homeless cats. Slowly, over the course of about two years, I got all the cats trapped, taken to FixNation where they were sterilized and vaccinated, and then released them again. They mellowed out. They became cool cats. They chilled, lounged and rolled around adorably. Distinct personalities could be detected. They snuggled up to one another–I’d always thought cats were loners! Not these guys. They were friends. They were a pack. Team Meow.

It’s great that these guys are all doing so well, with me looking after them, but if they’d kept reproducing, the resultant kittens would NOT be doing well. And they’re NOT doing well all over the city. It’s awful. But FixNation is leading the charge to prevent the uncontrolled breeding.  Their mission is to reduce the population of homeless cats and kittens in Los Angeles by sterilizing as many as possible. To date, FixNation has spayed and neutered over 65,000 cats.

I know that there’s great suffering all over, in our communities. Homelessness and poverty are becoming ever more evident. And we all could stand to help out our fellow man. But it’s in the way we treat those who are small, who are relatively powerless, that grace is found. All creatures great and small, we should be responsible stewards of them all.

One donation of $40 neuters one male cat. You improve the quality of his life, and prevent the needless suffering of untold others. Thank you to FixNation for doing this work.

Future dog houses on Santa Monica beach?

Will Santa Monica’s sand castles turn into dog houses? Will dogs kick sand in the faces of 98-pound weaklings on Santa Monica’s beaches? Or will the dogs end up in the pound? Those are some of the questions Santa Monica residents may be asking, after the Santa Monica City Council voted yesterday to come up with a pilot program for designating a dog beach, and to present the program to state officials in Sacramento.

In dog-crazy Santa Monica, some locals, including the folks at Unleash the Beach, have been pushing the dog beach idea for years. However, you’re likely to find just as many people who think it’s a bad move, primarily for sanitary reasons. This is one issue where “step in it” is used literally rather than figuratively.

Additionally, the legal thicket involved in creating a beach for dogs in Santa Monica is one that most dogs wouldn’t even want to enter. In addition to trying to convince the folks in Sacramento, dog beach advocates must overcome opposition from, er, well-heeled groups such as Heal the Bay, whose members are concerned about those who would poison the atmosphere (again, literally not figuratively). And if the Coastal Commission wants to get involved? Just ask Venice homeowners or The Edge how accommodating the Commissioners are.

So, I would caution Santa Monica dog beach advocates: don’t hold your dog breath just yet, as this may take a while.

Buster is our 10-year-old Russian tortoise. All that you wanted to know about her and her meal this morning but didn’t really care to learn can be found after the jump. Or you can just enjoy the diversion that is the above video (though I’d recommend going full-screen to capture the nomnom’ing chelonian in all her sped-up glory.

So named in honor of Buster Keaton because of the stoic expression they both share, my mother found her burrowed into the dirt beneath a trashcan along the side of her Sherman Oaks house in October 2001, an escapee from a neighbor I couldn’t locate and so I gave the tiny land turtle a home that was a succession of larger but always inadequate fish tanks for the first 7 years we were together.

Finally in 2008 I purchased the lumber and built her an outdoor pen, and she went from having four square feet of glass-walled indoor space to the 25 square feet of Silver Lake backyard you see in this video. MUCH better for her.

Anyway, what this video first captures is me going through the motions of freshening up the water bowl she NEVER drinks from and picking up the uneaten bits of her previous meal before setting out her fresh breakfast, which consists of mixed greens (mustard, collard and turnip greens along with some spinach), some snail vine blossoms (her absolute seasonal favorite!), some sliced carrot, butternut squash, sweet peppers and broccoli. Then I spritz the pile of deliciousness with water and sprinkle upon it a ground-up store-bought mixture of dry grasses (alfafa, timothy, oat) supplemented with a dash of calcium/phosphorus powder.

A few minutes after I finish and leave, the sun gets up high enough for its rays to rouse Buster, and away she soon goes on the NomNom Express, making multiple and entertainingly (to me, at least) enthusiastic passes at the food in between wondering around the grounds. Bonus: she can also be seen voiding her bladder and pooping at various points along the way. And you might also spy me sweeping and Ranger the dog ranging momentarily in the background, but neither of us void anything, you’re welcome. At least not in the frame.

All told this is about 2.5 hours (between 8:30 and 11 a.m.) of a “Day in the Life of Buster the Tortoise” condensed down to three minutes. I hope you enjoy it.

Foxtails are a feature of many grasses that grow locally. The distribution in my yard is fairly sporadic, but it’s common to see areas along sidewalks that get overrun. I snapped the above photo on Alvarado near Sunset in Echo Park earlier this evening.

The plant becomes problematic when it dries out (see photo below) and the seeds break off.

The danger of foxtail seeds is that they are barbed, so when they get stuck in a dog’s coat, they work their way in and get stuck. Paws, ears and nostrils are particularly vulnerable. They can embed under the skin and have been known to get under eyelids, in throats, etc. The bottom line is these nasty things can cause pain, bleeding, infection and rather substantial vet bills. If you have foxtails on your property or walk your dog(s) in area where they grow, inspect the paws, ears and fur daily. They are difficult to eradicate, especially if you don’t want to use harsh chemicals. During the spring, summer and fall, I pull the plants out of the ground by hand on a daily basis. Even with my vigilance, my dogs have had a couple of instances of needing some minor vet attention due to a foxtail lodged in a paw or an ear.

P.S. I read that outdoor cats are also at risk, it is much lower due to their grooming habits.

If I had to pick a favorite critter that I got to confront it would have to be the very personable “Piglet,” below, who was so ready for her close-up:

He *un*died for your sins...

For those of us who aren’t necessarily sold on the idea that the King of the Jews rose from the dead in fulfillment of scripture one Sunday morning a couple thousand years ago, this upcoming weekend is little more than a nice time to celebrate Spring. When I was back in the Midwest this was really something meaningful, as the cold, snowy, wet season often seemed to last nearly half the year. Hell, most years it was probably something more like three and a half or maybe four months, but something about that kind of cold also seems to slow down time a little bit. Easter, then, was really a time for some rejoicing. With the bizarre weather patterns we’ve been experiencing this year in LA, unfortunately Easter may just be about little more than the resurrection of a crucified hippie.

But thankfully for us, we have something the son of God didn’t have: vehicles that periodically bring some of your favorite food selections to your neighborhood for easy access. (And no, all of my posts are not going to be about food trucks; I just happen to be excited about any opportunity to check them out in my ‘hood.) To that end, this Saturday there will be a small gathering of food trucks in North Hollywood, at The Other Door bar, complete with “kid-friendly games, coloring contests, a special DJ and prizes! Of course, lots of Easter libations that are big-kid friendly too!”

As specified on the Nom Nom Truck’s site, here are the details:

SATURDAY, APRIL 23rd
12:00PM – 3:00PM
10437 Burbank Blvd,
North Hollywood CA 91601

As an aside, while I’m really stoked to see that one of my very favorites the Frysmith truck will be there, I’m slightly irritated by the existence of the Phydough truck. This is probably only because I saw the word “dough” in the name and got my hopes up that it might be a dessert truck of some type. But no, it’s a food truck for dogs. (Yes, I can be a little slow on the uptake; “Phydough” ~ “Fido” – whatever, I knew that.) Seriously – more space for pet food means less space for people food, am I right? Does your dog even care that its snack came off a truck?? </rant>

Since 2008, the city has required dogs, and cats, over the age of four months to be spayed or neutered. Therefore, to get your $20 dog license, your pet must be altered. There are a few exemptions and if you qualify, you pay $100 (plus a possible $235 breeder’s fee if applicable) for the license. A current rabies vaccine is also required. The various applications can be found here.

Your dog will not actually go to jail if caught without a license. You won’t be fined, but you will be asked to bring any licenses current. Little Guy, pictured above, isn’t really behind bars. He just fell asleep that way in my dining room. (Rescued from East Valley shelter over 10 year ago. Neutered and licensed).

As Will mentioned this weekend the meadow on the north eastern side of the Silver Lake Reservoir was finally opened to the public. Threats of it’s opening have been floating around for years, so when I confirmed this was legit I scooped up the family and ran over to check it out. The meadow itself is pretty fantastic actually. It’s a wide open and the grass is thick and lush – fun to roll around in and stuff.

For the moment anyway – while there are signs posted at every entrance stating that no dogs are allowed at any point (and the actual dag park is just a few steps away on the southern tip of the reservoir) people are either not noticing them or just outright ignoring them. We were there for about half hour, maybe 45 minutes and during that time there was an endless stream of people and their dogs walking through the meadow. Actually, just a few walking through – most of them were running around in the grass and pooping and peeing and generally dogging the place up. I give it a week or two until all the grass is dead and there are poop lamdmines every 5 feet.

This is why we can’t have nice things.

No go.

He is beautiful, ridiculously intelligent and wonderfully dispositioned (other than having an understandable urgency to chase any of our cats and mate with our female border collie/shepherd mix), and not very street saavy. And he is lost, which means after an overnight hoping for a miracle in reconnecting the dog to his guardians who I’m sure miss him terribly, my next course of action is to contact Animal Services, wherein if he’s microchipped they might be able to facilitate a reunion, or at least an adoption to a new home… or at worst his destruction. That chokes me up to no end just thinking about.

Which brings me to the entirely trivial matter this post is about: the need for animal caretakers to keep their critters collared and tagged and to keep those collars and tags maintained. So if right now — meaning right this very instant — you have a dog or cat or any other pet with access to the outdoors and a potential for escape and it’s lacking anything that might identify where it belongs, please resolve that. And if you know of or see anyone whose animal is similarly and so riskily unadorned, point it out to them. The heartbreak you save might be yours. And mine.