Virtually Pets
This week’s adoption column is dedicated to the unwanted newborn kittens who died because of lack of resources and human cruelty or indifference, and specifically to Noddy and Nightingale, a brother and sister who were the first newborn-kitten losses of the season for cat rescue Helen Sanders CatPAWS. Photos courtesy of Helen Sanders CatPAWS.
“With history as our merciless teacher, we know they will likely not be the last,” CatPAWS volunteer Deborah Felin resignedly stated.
The tiny kittens were brought to Long Beach Animal Care Services several days ago. The couple who brought them in knew that the mother was hanging around in their backyard; they had no idea where to get help, and they said that they didn’t want kittens everywhere. Three years of trying to trap the mother were of no avail, they said, and wouldn’t take the suggestion of bringing the kittens back to the mother where they would not only have stood a better chance of survival but also the mother could have been lured to a trap by an experienced trapper, using the kittens as “bait.”
Even with the combined efforts of ACS staff member Carrie Bain, Felin, Seal Beach Animal Care Services, a foster that tended to them throughout the day and night, and me driving as close to breakneck pace as I dared from shelter to shelter, the little lives couldn’t be saved.
“Noddy and Nightingale were warm, fed and loved and did not die that day in a shelter,” Felin said. They are mourned, and their lives mattered.”
Please—if you find kittens, wait to see if the mother appears, and whether she does or does not, check out the resources at the end of this section of the column for help. Not enough gratitude can be expressed to all of them for attempting a next-to-impossible task—creating a reversal of kitten season through trap-neuter (and spay) release (TNR), fostering and adoption. That’s a type of climate change we could all be happy about.
Meanwhile, goodnight, little souls. Our hearts ache for you.
Last week’s Pet Projects introduced this kitten season. The opening note is a bummer, but it’s also a reality. Rescues, shelters and fosters help kittens to become cute and healthy and grow up to be lovely cats, but they also have to deal with the lack of resources—human, physical, financial and human—that makes it impossible to save them all. Even if you’ve only spent a few hours with a kitten, it’s crushing to the rescuers to lose them.
But on the very bright side, a lot of them do make it, thanks to the same rescuers, shelters and fosters. The next few adoption columns will highlight them, and this week, The Little Lion Foundation is featured. Little Lion is the pride (sorry) of the bottle-feeding community. This nonprofit focuses on caring for neonatal kittens who are at risk of being euthanized in shelters, which is all of them initially. In tandem with Helen Sanders CatPAWS, they hold bottle-feeding workshops for the public and also act as bottle-feeding resources. “Every cat deserves to roar,” their motto reads, and the group ferociously works toward this goal.
This Saturday, The Little Lion Foundation is having an adoption event at Just Food for Dogs on Lakewood Boulevard in Long Beach (see Things to Do, Pets to Support). You can meet these little cubs in person and take one or more of them home.
Sadie is 5 months old and super-sweet. She loves other kitties and dogs, too, and is as alert and playful as she looks.
Elliott is also 5 months old. He’s a very sweet boy with lots of energy and would do well with another kitty to play with. Fortunately, finding one for him would be no problem on Saturday.
Dipper is 5 months old, too, and it’s too bad you can see only his sweet face—his body has those classic whorled tabby markings. He was rescued from the shelter at 4 weeks old, and as you can see, Little Lion has done well by him. He’s now looking for a family of his own.
Look at Adeline’s stunning, unique tortie-print coat! Adeline was rescued from a Blue Line station in Long Beach, likely looking to get out of town. Adeline is a year old. At first, she’s shy, but she’s a sweet Adeline, and she warms up quickly, looking for attention, love and her own ticket home.
As a friend said, the problem is bigger than the solution. However, if you’re willing to keep chipping away at it, here are a few good resources. Please suggest any that I left out.
Information
Support Groups
Vouchers and Free/Low-Cost Spay Neuter
Long Beach Animal Care Services (vouchers provided by Friends of Long Beach Animals and clinic information only; the shelter’s S/N isn’t open to the public)
SNP/LA Veterinary Clinic, San Pedro (call to inquire about feral spay days)
Golden State Humane Veterinary Clinic, Long Beach
Fosters, Bottle-Feeders, Help Needed from the Community!
(CatPAWS and Little Lion to present bottle-feeding workshops)
Jellicle Cats Rescue Foundation
Long Beach Spay and Neuter Foundation
Making Biscuits Cat Adoption and Rescue
(If that seems like a lot of resources, multiply it exponentially—cats X litters X litters X litters X litters… . It isn’t.)
Things to Do, Pets to Support
Turtle Party at the California Turtle and Tortoise Club, Care Society Chapter
Friday, April 20, 7:30 PM, University Baptist Church, 3434 Chatwin Avenue, Long Beach
Free
Time for the old shell game! Join this great group for a fun-filled night. All turtles welcome for an evening of prizes and games, including Name That Turtle by Richard Roosman and Turtle Criss-Cross Puzzles by John Wong. And it’s pizza night—please bring sides!
Little Lion Cat Adoption Event
Saturday, April 21, noon–4:00PM, Just Food for Dogs, 2200 Lakewood Boulevard, Long Beach
Adoption fees apply
Just Food for Dogs is hoping to help this great cat-rescue/bottle-feeder organization to find just homes for cats, and just in time for kitten season to start showering babies on us. Hang out with The Little Lion Foundation and JustFoodForDogs, meet the adorable kittens looking for forever homes, and speak with our nutrition consults about how they can benefit from our JustFoodForCats (yup, they got it!) meal once they’re full grown.
America’s Family Pet Expo
Friday, April 27, 10:00AM–6:00PM; Saturday, April 28, 10:00AM–7:00PM; and Sunday, April 29, 10:00AM–6:00PM, OC Fair and Event Center, 88 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa
$15 general admission, 13 seniors, $10 children 6–12, free to children under 5 and to active and retired military members with valid ID
The 29th annual America’s Family Pet Expo is the largest pet and pet-product expo event anywhere! Exhibits include retailers, groomers, hobbyists, rescue organizations, breeders and pet experts. BARK Therapy Dogs will be appearing there as well! It’s a great show of dogs, cats, birds, fish, reptiles, and small and large animals, plus top-notch entertainment and attractions. For more information, visit this link. Oh—and please leave your pets at home!
California Turtle and Tortoise Club, Care Society Mini-Show
Saturday, May 5, 10:00AM–3:00PM, El Dorado Nature Center, 7550 East Spring Street, Long Beach,
Free for club members; $7 parking fee
Learn about turtles and tortoises of all kinds! Many will be there to meet you. The club will be supplying a lunch, probably pizza. All ages welcome!
BARK Therapy Dogs Pajamarama Event
Thursday, May 10, 6:00PM–8:00PM, Barnes & Noble, Marina Pacifica Mall, 6326 Pacific Coast Highway, Long Beach,
Free event
Kids—put on your favorite pair of pajamas and have a great read with BARK dogs who will also be in their pajamas—more than likely with Scooby Doo or Beethoven. What could be cozier, more adorable or likely leading to more reading?
Furry Friends Faire
Saturday, May 19, 10:00AM–1:00PM, Los Cerritos Park, 3750 Del Mar Avenue (across from Los Cerritos Elementary School), Long Beach
Free to attend
Don’t miss our all-things-animal event! We’ll have fun contests to enter your furry friends in, such as pet tricks, largest pet, smallest pet and most unusual pet. The poetry-award winners from Los Cerritos Elementary students will be reading their poems. We’ll have an array of service providers you can meet at the event for your pets: groomers, trainers, pet food, dog walkers and more! For more information and updates, visit us here!
Fix Long Beach Free Spay/Neuter CAT! Clinic
Saturday, May 19, 7:30AM–3:00PM, Ramona Park, 3301 East 65th Street at Obispo Avenue, Long Beach
Have your CAT spayed or neutered free with appointment and qualifications; vet appointment with voucher, minimal charge for dogs and cats; flea meds $10; shots and dewormer $10 each; nail trimming, $10
Fix Long Beach thanks our shelter, Long Beach Animal Care Services (ACS), for giving us the means to sponsor this month’s clinic. The more cats that get fixed, the fewer unwanted kittens that will be put to sleep.
Putting on these events costs in the thousands, and it couldn’t happen without the generosity of our donors.
It’s now the law to fix your pets in Long Beach and many Southern California cities. To provide this costly service to our Long Beach residents who otherwise couldn’t afford it, Fix Long Beach offers this service free of charge. The spay/neuter truck will be at its new location at Ramona Park on this date. The spay/neuter procedures this month are for cats only.
Make an appointment through IM or email at [email protected] for your dog, and include (1) your name, (2) address, (3) phone number, (4) pet’s name, (5) age, (6) sex, (7) breed, and (8) weight, and Fix will see if they can schedule you. You can also come as a standby, but be there at 8:30AM. Make sure that your pet has had nothing to eat or drink past 10:00PM the previous night.
To donate, visit our page. In-kind donations such as leashes, collars and toys can be brought to our event or ordered through our Amazon wish list.
For both spay/neuter and vaccinations, all dogs must be on sturdy leashes and all cats must be in dedicated carriers. Fix thanks you in advance for being responsible for your pet’s health and for helping to reduce shelter overpopulation and euthanasia.
Pets Ahoy Wine Fund-Raiser for Seal Beach Animal Care Center
Sunday, May 20, 1:00PM–4:00PM, Seal Beach Yacht Club, 255 North Marina Drive, Long Beach
$50; proceeds help to fund SBACC
Toast the animals at SBACC with wine, soft drinks and a buffet lunch. Enjoy silent auctions, a super-opportunity drawing for a $1,000 Visa card, and the knowledge that cats and dogs at SBACC will thrive and find good homes, thanks to you! Ticket sales information is available here.
Ongoing
Pittie Party at Pitchford!
Entire month of April, P. D. Pitchford Companion Animal Village, 7700 East Spring Street at entrance to El Dorado Park, Long Beach
$1 to $1,000,000,000! No parking fee for shelter guests
Bust out the party hats and crack open the Perrier! Long Beach Animal Care Services and spcaLA are having a Pittie Party this weekend with “Pick Your Own Price” adoption fees for qualifying adopters (exclusions apply)! The last party was successful enough to extend it throughout the month, so anyone who qualifies as an adopter can pick their own price to take home one of these goofy, sweet dogs like Droopy here! Participating pooches’ profiles will be printed in purple. Click the links above for shelter hours.
Hi, Droopy!
BARK Therapy Dogs Reading with Kids
See website for information
Founded in 2007, BARK (Beach Animals Reading with Kids) is a nonprofit all-volunteer program that encourages children to increase their reading skills and self-confidence by reading aloud to certified therapy dogs. Students sometimes find it intimidating to read in front of classmates but love to read to the non-judgmental, calming dogs. BARK now has 170 teams listening to kids in more than 100 schools and libraries in California—Long Beach libraries visited monthly are Bach, El Dorado, Bayshore, Brewitt and Los Altos; outlying-area libraries include Hawaiian Gardens, Iacoboni and Los Alamitos. BARK teams also visit nursing homes, senior living facilities and veteran centers. They even de-stress college students during finals week! For all events, check out BARK’s calendar. To find information about volunteering your furry buddy or to arrange a visit to your school, library or other community, contact the group at [email protected] or (562)235-8835.
Kitty Catchers Adoption Event
Saturdays and Sundays, 11:00AM–3:30PM both days, PetSmart, 2550 Cherry Avenue, Signal Hill
Despite the name, Kitty Catchers catches doggies, too, and some will be there along with the lovely fosters at this event! You’ll find your best friend there and anything else you’ll need to give him or her a good life from then on.
Pet Adoption Event at PFE
Saturdays and Sundays, Pet Food Express, 4220 Long Beach Boulevard, Long Beach
Adoption fees apply
Find your new BFF and everything that he or she could possibly want or need, in one place. Long Beach Animal Care Services (ACS) and other rescues bring great cats and dogs ready to go home with their new people. Everything is high quality at Pet Food Express, and that includes the adoptive pets! Check out the Cat Adoption Center, featuring fine felines from Long Beach Animal Care Services and Stray Cat Alliance. For more information about which rescues will be present on any particular day, follow this link.
SNP/LA Mobile Low-Cost Pet Vaccines
Locations and dates vary; visit link in text
For low-cost vaccines, visit this link. Note that pet owners must be 18 years or older, all pets must be on leashes or in carriers, and only healthy and non-pregnant animals will be vaccinated. Please bring prior vaccination information with you to the clinic. Vaccination and microchip services are provided for pets residing in any city. Licensing is provided for residents within our jurisdiction at Saturday clinics; please bring your renewal notice and rabies certificate with you. Low/cost spay/neuter information is also available through SNP/LA.
Free Pet Food Distributions
Papa, a big “teddy bear’ of a dog, sits with his human in Ashlee’s Pet Care station at Beacon for Him.
Beacon for Him has extended an outreach for people experiencing homelessness and their pets. Pet food, primarily dog food, is available at their facility at 439 West Anaheim Street, Mondays from 9:00AM to noon and Saturdays from noon to 3:00PM. A dog-washing station with a stainless-steel tub is also available onsite at these hours. Donations and supplies such as shampoo, flea control and, of course, pet food are always gratefully accepted.
The Pet Food Bank is sponsored by Christian Outreach in Action. COA is located at 515 E 3rd St, Long Beach. Hours are Thursday from 9:00AM to 11:00AM.
Shelter-Enrichment Supplies Needed for ACS Dogs and Cats!
Drop-off: Wednesdays through Fridays, 10:00AM–5:30PM and Saturdays and Sundays, 10:00AM–4:00PM, 7700 East Spring Street, Long Beach
Individual donations requested
ACS is continuing our kennel enrichment activities for our canine guests here and could use so more donations (there are plenty for the cats!). Here is what’s needed:
- creamy peanut butter
- yogurt
- beef broth (canned or in the box)
- chicken broth (canned or in the box)
- incense
- carabiner clips (heavy duty)
- ice cube trays
- pipe cleaners
- toilet paper/paper towel rolls
- cat toys
- corks from bottles (for cat toys)
- catnip
- canned cat and dog food
Donations are tax deductible. Our pups and kitties say thanks so much!