Responsibility with a spoonful of sugar and a pinch of catnip
Apostrophe Books is Long Beach’s newest bookstore, and it’s distinguishing itself by offering regular signings by authors, local and otherwise. This Saturday, Aug. 14, they’re getting as local as you can get with a signing featuring Lisa Glatt and Suzanne Greenberg, Belmont Shore resident authors and CSULB creative writing instructors. Each of the two writes for adults and coauthor the Abigail Iris series whose setting is so familiar that anyone living or shopping around Second Street—the “best street in Long Beach,” according to the main character—may be concerned about recognizing himself or herself, but in a good way.
Of course, what drew us in was the book’s title and subject (not to mention that the title’s one of our own subheads), so we popped in to Apostrophe and got a copy for Judy’s granddaughters. We read it ourselves first, and we want you to know that this is a book worthy of being a parenting guide for pet care even if you don’t have anyone to parent except yourself. And your pet.
Lisa Glatt said that a friend who’s big on animal rights educated her about adopting a pet instead of purchasing one, so she and co-writer Greenburg are now passing it forward. The Pet Project is not a cutie-pie happy ending tale of little girl wanting pet, little girl showing how responsible she can be by filling up every square on her chores chart on the refrigerator with stars, and little girl ultimately getting permission to take home a kitten from the litter of the outdoor cat next door. In The Pet Project, characters are likeable and believable and don’t lip-synch advice from an SPCA brochure, all dogs are on leashes and their owners carry and use poop bags, and every pet in the story has been manifestly spayed or neutered, thank you.
And responsibility is stressed from page 6, when 8 ½-year-old Abigail Iris and her mother come across a cat rescue-adoption table at our very own Sunday Farmers’ Market at Alamitos Bay Marina. Abigail Iris falls in love with a black kitten and begs her mother to let her have him for her half-birthday. After all, she says with third-grader logic, a kitten is like half a cat.
Any responsible rescue would advise a parent to go home and think about it, and any responsible parent would do just that, and that’s what happens. We learn that Spot—Abigail Iris gives him the name from the bright orange spot on his nose—is about 3 months old and had been dumped behind an Albertson’s trash bin. After collecting the rescue’s business card, Abigail and her mother head home via Second Street and its many outdoor café tables and walkers, including a man who occasionally walks down the street with a parrot on his shoulder. Abigail Iris waits through five chapters, but both she and the reader know that Spot will have made himself at home in time for her half-birthday.
But the book is only a third of the way finished when this happens. When it does, conflict arises in the form of an incurable cold blooming in the nose of Abigail Iris’s older sister, Victoria. The cold turns out to be an allergy, and Abigail Iris, besotted with her pet, is brokenhearted at the thought of having to give him up. Spot’s been neutered, he knows how to fetch, and Abigail Iris has composed a list of all the things she’s learned about him, many of them having to do with sleeping. Furthermore, her family has signed a contract with the cat rescue group, and she’s already promised Spot a forever home. “Maybe Victoria can go live somewhere else,” Abigail Iris says to her father.
The resolution of the conflict is cleverly and wisely woven in with the supporting characters and subplots. Abigail has three friends whom she calls the Onlies, because up until now, they’ve all been only children. Her “silly Only friend,” Rebecca, is dealing with her own family change—she’s about to have a new baby brother and she’s not thrilled. Abigail Iris herself is not an Only—she’s part of a blended family, all of whom get along very well. Her oldest sibling, Eddie, is embarking on what seems like his first serious relationship with a girl that he and Abigail Iris met in a bookstore, and a boy in her class is taking notice of Abigail Iris.
The most effective of the side stories are the ones that deal with pets and their issues, particularly two that deal respectively with spay/neuter and the death of a pet. Abigail Iris’s father talks about his cat, Elmer, who loved to fetch an aluminum ring and would leave it on his owner’s pillow in the hope that he’d wake up and toss it. Elmer became involved with an unsprayed neighborhood female. “Soon, we had little Elmers all over the place,” Abigail Iris’s dad said. Elmer got neutered right away, and the reader learned the reason for spay/neuter without didacticism from the authors.
The impending death of the old dog who lives with Abigail Iris’s half-brothers’ family is a touching subplot that runs in the background in the same way that knowing that a loved pet will one day have to die. This is a lesson as important to teach a child as is responsibility, and the way this storyline was developed tells volumes about the authors and the book’s honesty.
“We had a dog, Ginger, who died at the age of 17,” Greenberg said. “I thought about Ginger a lot as we worked on Bruno. It was so sad for all of us when Ginger died, maybe especially because she was so old and had been around longer than any of my children.”
“Before we adopted our cats, I didn’t quite understand when people talked about that sort of grief,” Glatt added. “I’d always believed that grief was reserved for people only. Now, I see that there’s animal love too, and that they’re in your life day after day, night after night, and that they make their way into your heart, so that of course, when they die, you miss them with a full and big sadness.”
Glatt and Greenberg are looking forward to their signing, 1–3 p.m. at Apostrophe Books on the “best street in Long Beach.” Bring the family.
Apostrophe Books is located at 4712 E. 2nd St. in Belmont Shore. Call (562) 438-7950 for information.
Virtually Pets
In the spirit of The Pet Project, we offer you beautiful felines rescued by the Helen Sanders Cat Protection and Welfare Society. All of these fine cats and others may be viewed on their Web site. Adoption application is available to download.
Casey is dreaming of a home of his own. Can you make this kitten’s dreams come true?
Blanco, stunningly handsome, well-mannered and loving is also deaf, but his real “special need” is a loving home.
Cameo is striking, very unusual, with wild markings! Beautiful, fun-loving girl.
Pet Projects
Friends of Long Beach Animals Garage Sale Fundraiser, Saturday, Aug. 21
Paw through the treasures at 3762 Rose Ave. and help Friends of Long Beach Animals at the same time. Other sales will be taking place on the block. 8–noon.
Foster Homes Needed
CatPAWS, a private rescue organization, needs foster homes for cats and kittens looking for forever homes. Click here for information.
Itty-bitty kitties are being born and dumped on a regular basis at our shelter.
License Canvassing
Licensing for domestic cats as well as dogs is now mandatory and, like it or not—and we know that a lot of you don’t—L.A. County license inspectors and ACS officers will be going door-to-door to check to see if your pets are licensed. If your pet has not been licensed, bring vaccination and altering records, and microchip ID to ACS, 7700 Spring St. in Long Beach and get him or her licensed. Cats receive free licensing until Jan. 1.