The holidays are upon us, and we both feel their weight on our backs, wallets and time. It’s all we can do to sit down at the keyboard and bang something out, and it’s even more difficult to get up after the cat or dog takes up lap residence. For our posting before the holidays, we have a few assorted pet-themed stocking stuffers, holly boughs and a fur ball or two.
Santa Paws is Comin’ to Town
Help the Santa Paws elves deliver goodies to local shelters. Meet up with the critter contingent Saturday, Dec. 20, at the following times and locations:
11:15 a.m.: Long Beach Animal Care Services, 7700 E. Spring St. @ 605 Fwy., Long Beach, 90815; (562) 570-PETS
11:45 a.m.: Long Beach spcaLA 7700 E. Spring St. @ 605 Fwy., Long Beach, 90815, (562) 570-SPCA
1:30 p.m.: Seal Beach Animal Care Center, 1700 Adolfo Lopez Dr., 90740, Seal Beach, 90740, (562) 430-4993
3 p.m.: Orange County Animal Care Services, Orange, 561 The City Dr., 92868, (714) 935-6848
And While You’re at Animal Control Services…
The Classic Kong Toy Drive Project is still collecting Kong toys for cats and dogs. Bring yours down to put in the big collection box. Bring them in anytime!
What Not To Give
Pimple balls, a nubby toy made by Four Paws, if there are any left over in the discount stores. Like anyone, we get a flurry of e-mail warnings that turn out to be creations of someone with too much time on their hands, but we always check them out on snopes.com. But this warning proved valid, as did another that says that the product Cocoa Mulch, sold in large hardware stores, sounds tasty but is harmful to household pets (thanks, MoodSwing Jewelry, for sending them). Take note—visit the site any time you have a questionable e-mail (don’t click on the one in the e-mail; type it into the browser just in case it too is a sham) and type a couple of key words in the Search box (we did “pimple balls” and “cocoa mulch.” Frankly, would you buy something called a pimple ball anyway?
Help Them out of the Pits
Villalobos Rescue Center, a large pit bull sanctuary in California located at 36220 Anthony Rd., Santa Clarita, needs a few strong backs and wills to help shovel snow away from the doggies’ pens and to provide blankets and other warm things. If you’ve never shoveled snow in your life, this is a great way to begin. If you have and want to help the dogs anyway, put the snow tires on your Segway and head out. Contact Jessica, the volunteer coordinator, at volunteer@vrcpitbull.com.
Adopt, Don’t Shop—Ever
It goes without saying that you should adopt your pet at the shelter and not buy one from a pet store—see our previous article on giving the gift of a lifetime—but we’re going to say it anyway: don’t buy your new best friend at a pet store. In Defense of Animals, an organization dedicated to ending exploitation of animals, is holding a cross-country series of events urging shoppers to go to shelters instead of pet stores for animals, and to educate the public about the horrors of pet factories. Click the link for details of the events.
Two Gifts for One Price
Give a dog a second chance at life this season! Buy a strand of opera-length authentic hand-knotted cultured pearls for $75 from Mood Swings Jewelry, and a portion of all sales will go to Hearts for Hounds to rescue homeless dogs. You’ll also receive a certificate naming the dog you helped. Mood Swings Jewelry is located at 455 E. Ocean Blvd., Suite 21.
Socks Clinton
Presidents share the spotlight with their pets, and few have gotten the spotlight that the latest presidential and vice presidential animals have, in the past weeks, Checkers speech notwithstanding. However, a modest, quiet little guy, Socks Clinton, is reported to be dying of cancer and has, according to presidential historian Barry Landau, only “days or weeks” left. After the Clintons left the White House, the president’s former secretary, Betty Currie, had taken the little guy home, where he’s been maintaining an un-Clintonlike low profile for the past eight years. We at Pet Post remember him most fondly.
His Squadron Must Be So Proud
The lump of cat litter goes to an L.A. County assistant fire chief who beat his neighbor’s 6-month-old puppy to death out of “self-defense” after the dog ran across his yard. Animal rights activists, petition and human decency led to the man’s arrest and filing of animal cruelty charges by the Riverside County Sheriff Dept. deputies against Glynn Damon Johnson of Riverside. We’re tempted to be cute and suggest that he wear a sandwich board sign that says, “I’m a puppy killer,” but the last time something like that was done, it was out of tough love, and we bear no love for Johnson, tough or otherwise. He may spend up to four years in prison, where we hope he gets what’s coming to him.
Help! Alter Me!
Finally, here’s a little gift for you from AHA productions. It should give you pause for thought—or is that thought for paws? Remember to spay and neuter your pet.
“I’ve read that the peasants believe that if you go into a cow-house or stable at midnight on Christmas Eve, you will hear the animals talk.”
– Horace Bordenby in H.H. Munro’s (Saki) “Bertie’s Christmas Eve”