{"id":922,"date":"2018-02-22T09:28:20","date_gmt":"2018-02-22T17:28:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/?p=62508"},"modified":"2018-02-22T09:28:20","modified_gmt":"2018-02-22T17:28:20","slug":"love-isnt-date-specific-happy-forever-valentines-day-to-our-shelter-pets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/pets\/love-isnt-date-specific-happy-forever-valentines-day-to-our-shelter-pets","title":{"rendered":"Love Isn\u2019t Date Specific: Happy Forever Valentine\u2019s Day to Our Shelter Pets"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Photos by Kate Karp.<\/em><\/p>\n

So what if Valentine\u2019s Day was a week ago? It didn\u2019t stop Justin Rudd and the Haute Dogs team from holding a postponed celebration at Long Beach Animal Care Services<\/a> (ACS).<\/p>\n

The culmination of the Valentine’s Day Card Contest and Yappy Hour<\/a> was originally scheduled for Saturday, February 10 but had to give way to the Subaru Loves Pets Valentine Adoption<\/a> at P. D. Pitchford Companion Animals Village. This was just fine, since 10 pets went home from the shelter side alone (Pitchford, like Rome, is divided into two empires\u2014ACS, the city intake side; and spcaLA, a private organization. Adoptive animals are available in both sides).<\/p>\n

Rudd\u2019s Valentine\u2019s event, like most of his myriad other projects, are multifaceted in intent. Key words here are healthy competition<\/em>, kindness to animals<\/em>, socializing pets<\/em>, adoption<\/em> and more eyes on cats, dogs and rabbits<\/em>. The young \u201ccompetitors,\u201d mostly schoolchildren, made Valentines for the pets, and volunteers attached them to the kennels.\u00a0The cards will stay in place for a few days. Meanwhile, all the funny Valentines in these photos are waiting for their forever loving homes.<\/p>\n

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Handmade cards, earnestly expressing love for pets as only children can express it, adorned the pets\u2019 kennels.<\/em><\/p>\n

A pizza party was awarded to the class of the student who submitted the winning card, but even that seemed like a secondary benefit next to the attention the pets got. The pets seem to love that attention, particularly the dogs, and visitors to the shelter got to see potential housemates in an atmosphere of sweetness. There were cookies, too (thanks, Erin and Colin!).<\/p>\n

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Second-grader Eva won the pizza party for her pirate-themed valentine card. Eva had to be called away more than once from the dog kennels to be honored for her effort!<\/em><\/p>\n

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A jauntily outfitted Rudd poses with Eva and her twin brother along with the Long Beach Pageant members.<\/em><\/p>\n

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The shelter\u2019s Explorer Academy<\/a> members Kiana Claro and Monse Rogers presided over the event and offered those cookies.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

With all the bitterness, divisiveness and horrid events that are happening in so many places, it seemed a good idea to introduce some sweetness. Apologies in advance\u2014I\u2019m no photographer\u2014but an in-person, up-close visit would give you a better idea of the cards and the critters. Pretty obvious ploy for adoption, of course, and for that, I don\u2019t apologize. Happy Valentine\u2019s Day, forever, to our homeless pets.<\/p>\n

Designs on a Pet?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Animal Control Officer Edna Sorenson, leader of the Explorer youth, has a special project whose name is Trixie. Trixie (ID#A489806<\/a>) is 13 and has had a lot of medical issues, which have been taken care of. Read more about her here<\/a> (and see a better photo), and if you or anyone you know might be interested, call the rehoming team at (562) 7387.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Despite his name and apparent demeanor, we\u2019ve all seen Droopy (ID#A504961<\/span><\/a>) burst into life in the new Dog Play Yard at the shelter (more about this in a future article).<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\"\"<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Norman (ID# A583593), handsome Great Dane mix.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Pittie-poo Sandy (ID#A490627).<\/em><\/p>\n

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Quigley (ID# A602989) is a pit bull mixed with something that made those starchy ears!<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\"\"\u00a0\u00a0\"\"<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Most of the cats were curled up in the kennels. Some hadn\u2019t been given a name as of this date\u2014many get picked up as strays, and there\u2019s a mandatory waiting period to see if a cat\u2019s or a dog\u2019s owner shows up. They need valentines, too.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\"\"<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Glossy Randy (ID# A603324).<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\"\"<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Asher, (ID# A579781) was wide awake and waiting.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Long Beach Animal Care Services is located in the P. D. Pitchford Companion Animal Village, 7700 East Spring Street, Long Beach, at the entrance to El Dorado Park (no parking fee for shelter visitors). Use the entrance shown in the photo.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So what if Valentine\u2019s Day was a week ago? It didn\u2019t stop Justin Rudd and the Haute Dogs team from holding a postponed celebration at Long Beach Animal Care Services (ACS).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":66416,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[68],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pets","tag-the-scratching-post","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=922"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=922"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}