Virtually Pets
Timothy Lee is coming to tea; hey, ho, Timothy Lee! Remember that little song from your childhood? You probably don’t—I can’t even find the entire text via Google. But the heck with Timothy Lee and the tea, because Whiskers and Fluffy are coming for coffee (how’s that for poetic license?). Yes—if all goes well and the funding is raised, Long Beach will finally get its own cat café!
Veteran cat rescuers Pam Leslie, Erica Strong and Tamara Trujillo are planning to set up the Feline Good Social Club in downtown Long Beach. It will be a place where cat lovers can go have a Kaffeeklatsch mit die Katzen and will feature a lounge area with seating, towers for the cats to climb, a gift shop and a retreat area for the kitties to go to when they need to chill. All the cats who roam and rub against the clients will come from local rescue groups such as Zoey’s Place Rescue, Zazzy Cats Kitty Rescue and The Little Lion Foundation (as an aside, 10 percent of adoption fees collected by The Little Lion Foundation will go to Live Love Animal Rescue and Priceless Pets Rescue to help with the costs of pets that they took in from the hurricane, so get yours today). Strong said that the founders are also “committed to supporting outlying rescue groups for areas where people dump cats and there’s no community to support adoptions.”
All the cats and kittens will, of course, have been vetted, inoculated against disease and treated for fleas. None of them will be allowed to go home without having been fixed; most of them will have been fixed already.
Coffee and cat lovers can go hang with the cats, play with them, and best of all, form a permanent bond and adopt them. The cats, on their part, will have a lovely place to roam free, look out windows, and climb on the furniture with abandon.
Cat cafés began in Japan and have spread globally. There’s a teahouse in London and a growing number of feline-inhabited coffeehouses in the U.S. (see “Coffee, Tea or Me-ow: The Cat Café Society”). They’re not just a novelty, although they are fun—the ability to socialize informally with cats in a natural way instead of inside a kennel seems to have a positive effect on the desire to take one (or more) home. Startups cost money, and the founders of Feline Good Social Club have started an Indiegogo for the purr-puss. Please contribute at this link.
Here are a few possible denizens of the café. I requested photos from some of the rescues and got hit with an immediate deluge of cats and kittens, so I had to choose a couple from each. Cute, until you realize that the sheer number indicates a need for adoption, spay/neuter and, most of all responsibility.
If you can’t wait for the café to open, you or someone else may want to grab up one or more of them now….
From Zazzy Cats Kitty Rescue; email [email protected] for info (please click link to their rescue in paragraph two and see the most hilarious cat photo you’ll see in a long time):
Fiona, looking like a veritable nymph in a bathtub, is a female tortie, approximately 8 weeks old. She and her sister were found in Long Beach and were saved from being turned in to the shelter. Sadly, momma was hit by a car and didn’t survive. This is why rescue.
Eunice is also approximately 8 week old, a beautiful calico and Fiona’s sister. Eunice loves to be the center of attention but loves hanging with Fiona even more! Why not take them both?
From The Little Lion Foundation; email [email protected] for info (remember—adopt this month and 10 percent goes to rescued pets displaced by the hurricanes!):
Bonded sisters April and Arizona were born March 15, 2016. Don’t they look as if they belong in the National Gallery? If you’re looking for double the love these two girls are it! All they want to do is cuddle! They’re total lap cats and would love nothing more than to spend their life sitting on their person’s tummy together in the sunshine.
Momma Kate is a 2-year-old female brown-tabby tripod. Momma Kate was found on the streets of Long Beach with a broken leg and her two 7-week-old babies, and was pregnant again! She raised her beautiful babies well, and received an amputation. She’s been doing very well and is now ready for her forever home. She prefers a quiet space but loves to be the center of attention!
And from the illustrious Feline Good Social Club founders; info at [email protected]:
Babe was found in an industrial area in the driveway of a business, her eyes crusted shut and her coat covered in mange. At not quite 8 weeks old, she was in serious peril. Fortunately, the business owner who found her was willing to foster her while she recovered. Babe is now another spunky, happy, healthy and now friendly little kitten. She’s looking for a new foster home to continue with her care until she is big enough to prep for adoption.
Meet The Dupli-cats, a current rescue the group is working on. The photo may put you in mind of Village of the Damned, but the truth is more disturbing, albeit with a very happy outcome. This litter of quadruplicates arrived through an intervention, i.e., TNR, at a feral-cat colony. At 9 weeks old, these poor kittens were already learning about distrusting humans. “We got to work, and after five weeks, we’ve made great progress,” said Pam Leslie. “It’s been a challenge, of course. The first step was just getting them to allow us to touch them. They would hiss and turn their backs and cringe while they got head scratching and petties. Over time, they got comfortable with the petties. Then, they evolved to wanting the petties—success!” Their names are Moses, Harper, Taylor and Snooki. The latter is apparently quite a pistol and a work in progress.”
“Feral kittens are one of the biggest challenges for rescue,” Leslie said. “We want to take in kitties, work them over—ensure they’re healthy, happy and social, and then place them in forever homes. Feral kitties slow down that process, but every life saved is worth it, feral or not!”
Mark Your Calendars—the Human Way
Countin’ the Days in Humane Ways
It seems as if every year, numerous pet calendars crop up faster than you can say “penthouse.” They aren’t the ones you can buy online or at bookstores—full-color glossies of strangers with fur, feathers or scales adorning each month. The pets in this calendar live in actual homes—maybe yours—and are selected through donations to pet rescues. I figured that a separate section is in order until the entry deadline. Pick your pet picture and enter!
Friends of El Dorado Dog Park Holiday Bone-anza and Calendar Contest
Sunday, November 19, 10AM–4:00PM (Calendar Contest Entry Deadline September 30), El Dorado Dog Park, 7550 East Spring Street, Long Beach
Calendar Contest free to enter: Bone-anza free to attend
Friends of El Dorado Dog Park is announcing its third annual Pet Photo Calendar Contest and fundraiser. The top winner will be on the cover page, and the next 12 winners will each have their own calendar month. The Calendar Contest winners will be announced at 11:00AM at the Holiday Bone-Anza. The 2018 calendar will be available to purchase for $20 at the event. Even if your entry isn’t selected as a winner, every dog entered will be spotlighted in the calendar. Application is available here.
This year’s Bone-anza will be a fun-filled event featuring food trucks, vendors for your holiday shopping, contests, a DJ featuring Christmas sounds, elves, your doggie’s photo with Santa, and a silent auction and raffle featuring great gifts from our sponsors.
All proceeds from both the calendar and the event will go to support enhancements of the El Dorado Dog Park.
Places to Go, Pets to Support
Fix Long Beach Free Spay/Neuter Clinic
Saturday, September 23, 7:30AM–4:00PM, Houghton Park, 6500 Atlantic Avenue (near Jordan High), Long Beach
Free to qualifying residents; free microchips; low-cost shots ($10 each); $10 flea med doses
The grassroots free spay/neuter organization Fix Long Beach invites you to make an appointment for your unfixed dog, or get vouchers for free procedures for your dog or cat! These clinics are generously sponsored through Hope for Paws and Eldad Hagar.
Visit this link for qualifications and an application for your appointment. There is also a donation button to help Fix Long Beach continue their efforts. Click the organization’s Amazon Wish List link to donate items, or bring them to the event if you find a better deal!
Let’s continue to help make Long Beach no kill, one pet at a time!
Volunteer Meeting for the Friends of El Dorado Dog Park’s Holiday
Sunday, September 24, 1:00PM, El Dorado Bar & Grill, 3014 N. Studebaker Road, Long Beach
Free
Friends of El Dorado Dog Park (FEDDP) is gearing up for the sixth annual Holiday Bone-Anza, and we couldn’t do it without our star volunteers! So please mark your calendar, and let’s make this a fun and exciting day for everyone. Our goal is to get drinking fountains in the small and large dog park, and we need you to help get our doggies hydrated! The event will take place November 19 at El Dorado Park and will include vendors, crafters, Santa visits, a silent auction and, what else, elves. And we don’t mean Chihuahuas! Please help us make this great event happen! More details on our website.
Celebration of Life, in Honor of Gayle Carter
Sunday, October 1, noon–3:00PM, Uptown Dog Park, 4600 Long Beach Boulevard, Long Beach
Free; dogs and kids welcome
Please join the Friends of Uptown Dog Park for a gathering to honor the life of Gayle Carter (see “Always Everyone Before Her Self” to read about Gayle’s remarkable life). It’s a potluck, so please bring a dish to share (if you can’t bring food, come anyway). Drinks will be provided. Gayle did so much for the dog community in Long Beach and personally touched many of our lives. Her impact on our community was great. Please come, doggies in tow, and honor her memory at this gathering as we eat together and share stories and happy memories. We will gather at the park bench right outside the small-dog side.
Pet Adoption Event at PFE
Saturday, October 7, 11:00AM–3:00PM, Pet Food Express, 4220 Long Beach Boulevard, Long Beach
Adoption fees apply
Find your new BFF and everything that he or she could ever want or need, in one place. Long Beach Animal Care Services (ACS) and other rescues will be bringing some wonderful 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.
K9’s Uncorked Benefit for the Pups
Saturday, October 21, 5:00PM–8:00PM, Harvey Girls Gallery, 130 ½ Main Street, Seal Beach
Ticket prices $35 online, $40 at door
Who doesn’t love wine and food? Better yet, who doesn’t love animals? Join the K9 Kismet rescue for the fund-raising party of the year in the swell little beach community of Seal Beach! In addition to wine and food (human and dog) tastings, we will have live jazz music, adoptable dogs, a silent auction, a raffle, boutique shopping and a glass-etching class (bring your own wineglass)! Costume up yourself and your dog, and come on and paw-ty! Sponsorship donation and tickets can be purchased here. You do not want to miss this one!
Ongoing
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!
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
Donations are tax deductible. Our pups say thanks so much!
Long Beach Animal Care Services (ACS) Information for Low-Cost Vaccinations and Spay/Neuter Clinics
7700 East Spring Street at entrance to El Dorado Park (no fee for shelter visitors), Long Beach
Prices vary
Vouchers that take a big bite, so to speak, out of the cost of spay/neuter procedures are available at ACS during their public hours. Visit this link for information on clinics that accept the vouchers and for other spay/neuter assistance.
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.