Virtually pets

I’d be remiss as a pet columnist if I didn’t post a Valentines-themed adoption article. Adopting a pet always has love at its source, but sprinkling photos of adoptables with hearts, red paws and other little visual nonpareils brings the point home and could help bring the pet home as well.

For this week’s adoptables, I decided to get as personal and down-home as possible, so I accessed a neighborhood group. The historic Wrigley area is one of the oldest neighborhoods in town and also one of the most neighborhoodly. The area forms a polygon whose borders comprise the 405 Freeway, the Metro Blue Line, Long Beach Boulevard, Pacific Coast Highway, and the Los Angeles River. Wrigley has its own homegrown Christmas parade; lovely dwellings, many of which were built in the 1920s and 1930s; and a private Facebook group for residents to express and exchange ideas about sustaining their neighborhood’s character and livableness. In all sense of wonderful, Wrigley also has a Facebook page dedicated to cats and kittens: trap/neuter/return, adoption, and health and safety of cats found or living in the area. The page is Wrigley Kittens, and the group was formed by educator-turned-Realtor Kelly McHugh Lopes.

Wrigley Kittens isn’t a rescue but a proverbial village—a coalition of cat-loving neighbors who post cats they’ve found, any colonies they’re feeding, lucky kitties they’re fostering, and lots of cartoons and silly videos to keep the mood up. The pets get vaccinated and fixed through donations (you can help by donating on PayPal at [email protected]om); fostering occurs by word of mouth.

Wrigley Kittens is a labor of communal love in the best sense. It’s a good place to find cats who’ve already got a pointy-eared head start on what it means to be an adored house cat in a loving home. Here are a few:

 

orange cat and brown tabby with white paws and chest sit on sofa back and look to left. Little pastel-color hearts are on top of their heads.
You can have double the love with these two in your forever home! Foster Lisa said that Miss B and Cece almost didn’t get to stay together because their humans dumped them on the street when they moved, and they got separated! They were rescued by two different people and wound up chez Lisa where they reconnected! They’re now recovered, healthy and in search of a forever home that will take both of them. They’re both a year old. “Instant kitty fam for you!” Lisa said. Miss B is a pretty, brown tabby with super-soft fur and white paws. She’s a sweet chatty girl who will always say hi to you. She loves to get under the covers and cuddle. She’s maternal to Cece, a relatively rare female orange tabby, and they love to groom each other, as you can see. Cece herself is sassy, smart and affectionate. She likes to watch what’s going on and figure things out. She’ll bring you toys and announce it on the way: “Meowmeowmeow—this is for you!” To adopt them, contact [email protected].

 

tortoise shell cat with big yellow eyes, black mask and white chest stares at camera among a rain of red and pink hearts.
Here’s yet another Cece. This poor kitty was trapped and taken to the shelter, but she is either feral or very scared. Hence, she was to be released in the area that wasn’t safe for her. She’s between 1 and 2 years old. Foster Ewa doesn’t know her story—she has microchip, but her former human sweetheart seems to have ghosted her. If she can be your Valentine, she will live off the streets and you will give her the gift of life. It might be a process—it will take time but if you’re that special, patient person, well …. To adopt Cece, contact: [email protected]

 

Siamese cat with light-brown body , black tail and mask, and a white splash on the face lies curled up on a yellow bedspread surrounded by a ring of hearts.
What’s Valentine’s Day without some Candy! Candy’s full name is Candyland, and she’s a declawed 10-year-old sweet treat. She seems to be a snowshoe—Siamese-type cats with white feets. She has coloring of the richest chocolate, and foster Bev says that all she wants is a hoomin to pet and cuddle with her. She doesn’t like to be picked up, nor is she a lap cat, but Candy loves to cuddle up next to her favorite valentine, begging for affection and attention as she makes biscuits from pure air and love. Candy is quick to purr and won’t stop until you stop petting her. She loves to have her jelly belly rubbed, too! Her fur is as soft as cotton candy. Enough dessert for you? Candy is looking for the purrfect dinner date, as she likes to have company while eating. She’d probably do best as your only cat valentine, in a quiet home. To adopt Candy, contact OCSP Cat Rescue at 714-815-4300 or [email protected]. Put Candy’s name in the subject line. Email is always the fastest way to bring your new family member home! You can also access an adoption application on the website.

 

Medium-size brown dog with white nose bridge and paws sits next to a kneeling woman with green pullover, jeans, light-brown hair and face mask. Lines of pink and red hearts frame them top and bottom.
Aren’t dogs worthy of being someone’s Valentine? You and I both know they are, and Sparky and the Gang has quite a few who want to be yours. Many of them, like Rylee, are in loving fosters. Here he is with Fix Long Beach board member Diana. Sparky’s foster-team member Louise said that Rylee’s a cattle dog/Rhodesian ridgeback mix, about 2 ½ years old. She came to Sparky toting a full litter of pups, who’ve all graduated to good homes. So now, Rylee an empty-nester and, thanks to a spay, will remain that way until she fills someone’s little love nest herself! She’s fine with cats and is just lovely, but needs some tamping down of her ebullient, playful nature—she’ll profit from obedience training. She’ll be a wonderful Valentine, ’cause like Louise always says, “What greater love is there than the love of a dog!” To adopt Rylee, contact the Gang at [email protected] or check out Rylee’s page.

Love notes added to photos by Dennis Dean

 

Just fur fun and fur-ther education

Feline Good Social Club reopening, 301 Atlantic Ave. Long Beach, Saturday, Feb. 13, 11 a.m.–6 p.m., $15/session, book here.

The volunteers at the Feline Good Social Club are su-purr-excited to announce their February reopening during Valentine’s Week! What a more purrfect time to a return to cuddle than the month of love? Stop by the lounge and share yours with the lounge’s amazing 20-plus cats and kittens! Private sessions are available, so if you’re looking for a fun way to celebrate Valentine’s Weekend, they’ll be available Saturday and Sunday, the 13th and the 14th. COVID-19 protocols accessible here.

Celebrate World Spay Day with two animal-welfare organizations, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 5 p.m., free event, register here

Join Helen Sanders CatPAWS and Fix Long Beach for a virtual educational event on World Spay Day! Your optional donation to participate will support both organizations. All participants will also be entered to win a $100 American Express Gift Card. Read more about CatPAWS’ namesake, Helen Sanders, and the event and its organizers here.

Help wanted, help given

Feline Good Social Club needs willing subjects for its bewhiskered nobility

Feline Good Social Club will be closed to the public until it’s safe for humans. The cat curators said that in the interest of public safety, the kitties will be meanwhile curled up in foster homes and will return to bat toys and hearts around. Volunteers are needed in some key areas to help get things ready for reopening. Want to be part of a kowtowing staff to cats, because cats expect it? Email [email protected].

DIY Kitten Care Kits available free at Long Beach Animal Care Services

Kitten season is just about up, but kittens still enter shelters. It isn’t unusual to find nests of young, seemingly abandoned kittens during kitten season. It is a natural reaction to want to help, to save them. If you are interested in obtaining a Kitten Care Kit made possible by Helen Sanders CatPAWS, please email [email protected].

Spay/neuter vouchers available at shelter

Long Beach Animal Care Services has spay/neuter vouchers available. They’ll take a healthy nip out of the cost of a procedure. Residents of any of the five cities served by the shelter can telephone the general number at 562-570–7387 to request a voucher.

 Spay/neuter appointments are available at SNP/LA

The Spay/Neuter Project of Los Angeles (SNP/LA) is back in business for free and low-cost spay/neuter services, and they’re extending the hours of their vaccination clinics. The San Pedro clinic, located at 957 N. Gaffey St., will give shots every third Thursday between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. Call 310-574–5555 to see if you qualify for services.

If you can see the bottom of the kibble bag

Helen Sanders CatPAWS offers, through specific private donors, e-gift cards for people struggling during the crisis to buy food for their pets. The CatPAWS Spay/Neuter Fund, also privately funded, has vouchers available for anyone not able to go to the shelter for them. They also accept donations.

Pets of the Homeless‘ home page gives a self-description as the only organization focusing only on providing food and care for pets belonging to homeless people. Businesses and other organizations across the country receive in-kind donations of food and other needs that the dogs and cats’ human families can pick up at outreach locations. The following Long Beach businesses will accept your donations:

Trendi Pawz, 3726 E. Seventh St.

Belmont Heights Animal Hospital, 255 Redondo Ave.

Paw Shoppe Pet Center, Inc., 6416 E. Spring St.

Food and supplies are available at Beacon for Him Ministries, 1535 Gundry Ave., Mondays from 9 a.m. to noon and Saturdays from noon to 3 p.m.; and at Christian Outreach in Action, 515 E. Third St., Long Beach, Thursday from 9 to 11 a.m. Donations will be gratefully accepted at these locations as well.

Adopt, adopt, adopt

Pet Food Express Cat Adoption Center: weekdays and Saturday 10 a.m.–8 p.m., and Sunday 10 a.m.–7 p.m., Pet Food Express, 4220 Long Beach Blvd., Long Beach, adoption fees apply.

This adoption center is a much-needed satellite operation of Long Beach Animal Care Services. Julie and her team pull adoptable cats—”adoptable,” to these guys, means any cat in a shelter kennel! The team socializes the kitties until they’re adopted, which takes less time than you could imagine!

 Helen Sanders CatPAWS adoption center: viewable daily during store hours, PetSmart, 12341 Seal Beach Blvd., Seal Beach, adoption fees apply.

Window-shopping’s a neat pastime and likely has become more common during the pandemic. Helen Sanders CatPAWS has applied window-shopping to cat adoption; you can peer at several of the fine felines through the windows of the PetSmart adoption center in Seal Beach. Sadly, no ear scratching or chin rubs at this time, but volunteers can answer questions and provide you with adoption information! Be sure to wear a mask. You can find adoption applications and all the kitties here.

Links to loveables

The following pet-related businesses regularly feature cat, dog and rabbit adoptions, but as of now, adoptions are mainly by appointment. Click on the links for each rescue in case of updates or changes. These organizations operate through donations and grants, and anything you can give would be welcome. Please suggest any Long Beach-area rescues to add to the list.