When voting for Long Beach Post’s Best of Long Beach closed on July 31, Live Love Animal Rescue was running one head and half a tail in front of the rest of the pack. Live Love has been running like a greyhound after a rabbit ever since Emily Ann Peters founded the organization. Besides taking in dogs from shelters and situations, fostering them, and finding them homes, the rescue was instrumental in helping empty Long Beach Animal Care Services of dogs last year when the pandemic made it virtually impossible to work inside buildings, and almost every Fourth of July, they found fosters for every shelter dog to make room for animals lost, terrified and possibly injured on the street because of unendurable blastings and poppings. Dogs who’ve had the worst luck in the world will find their fortunes turned around if Live Love gets wind of them.

VIDEO: Dog tied up in a truck and his sister bask in a bittersweet rescue

Not that other Long Beach rescues don’t deserve to win Best of Long Beach. Every one that’s been featured in The Scratching Post deserves an award. But this is a chance to feature the top vote grabber. Besides, it’s a great excuse to show off their adoptables.

Virtually Pets

Check out these four and their colleagues at this link, where you can also find an adoption application. You’ll find lots of resources there as well.

Hannah, age 9, is a mature lady with simple needs and few demands, one of them being a forever home with a human as loving as she is. She’s as happy watching you do the dishes as she is playing. When Hannah looks at you and smiles—she does!—you can’t help but smile too. She loves her toys, especially the rope one, and has lots of outdoor energy for walks. Her foster says that she’s the best of everything German shepherd, and she has everything it takes to be the best of any kind of dog. She is crate trained, potty trained and leash trained and has had extensive professional training as well. She still needs some advanced training and should be in a home with no children under age 16 or small animals. Further details and professional-training support will be provided to those who apply.

Liam needs a foster—or an adopter, of course. The foster said that from the moment they met him at the shelter, they were struck by his exquisite beauty and his quietness. When he first arrived at the shelter at about a year old, his ears had been recently cut and the sutures were still in them. He was most likely used as either a stud or for a “sport” like pulling carts. Liam lacked the early guidance and socialization that is ideal in a young dog’s life. After six months in the shelter with most of his time spent in a kennel, Live Love knew that Liam needed some training and guidance. He’s spent two months with a fantastic trainer, learning as many skills as possible while the volunteers learned more about what the best home would be for him. They discovered that he’s energetic and playful and enjoys playing fetch. He does well on car rides. He is an intelligent and independent boy who enjoys his people and thrives with clear boundaries and guidance. Treats and praise motivate him, which makes guiding him much easier. Live Love believes he would do best in an adult-only home. He’d do well in a quiet home in a calmer area—apartment living or a busy urban area would not be ideal for this sensitive boy. All Liam’s troubles are in his past, and he has learned so many great skills and earned the affection of many. Now, his future starts.

big black dog with white muzzle and paws stands with a person in a blue sweater on a blue ground. Dog is blind.
This soulful sweetheart is ready to melt hearts and give kisses! Charlie, just about a year old, is a special pup who may not be able to see but has a heightened ability to love! As you can imagine, he likes to take in new things at his own pace. He can be a bit shy while he reorients himself in a new environment or around new people, but he will steal your heart (and your couch, if you let him!) in no time. New dogs have made him nervous so far, but it’s possible that he may be able to get along with other dogs if introduced slowly. Charlie’s a snuggler and also a smart boy who has already acclimated to his crate training, knows to follow on a leash by listening for where you are, and is ready to keep learning more! He loves his toys, and playing tug-of-war is his favorite thing. But give him a blanket and you might be in for a surprise—he loves to rub his face in it and hop around like an excited little bunny! Charlie’s endearing quirks have won over the hearts of everyone who has met him—shelter staff, his fosters and, of course, his rescue family. If you’d like to be the next heart stolen by Charlie, send in your application!
tan pit bull sitting up, one paw up, on grass
Like so many lovebug pit bulls, Fawn, 9 years old, thinks she’s a lap dog and will happily climb aboard your lap for kisses and cuddles. She loves a good belly scratch and will let you know if you stop too soon! She loves going for walks to sniff the flowers and see what’s going on in the neighborhood. She’s low energy inside—she’ll bark only if someone’s outside the house, but you want that!—but she will happily go for short runs or hikes. She is friendly to all new people she meets and is not really interested other dogs. She’s sweet to children, though! She loves treats, and will shake your hand to say thank you! All the volunteers are a little bit in love with this beautiful and kind-natured senior lady.

 

Live Love Animal Rescue accepts donations. If you’d like to further their good work, donate here.

Just fur fun and fur-ther education

Free spay/neuter-vaccine clinic: 9:30 a.m.,  Sunday, Sept 5, Creative Pet Supply, 305 N. Harbor Blvd., San Pedro, see graphic for price list

Amazing Small Animal Practice in Gardena is offering low-cost services by appointment only. See graphic for details.

Jackson Galaxy’s Cat Camp Summer Sessions: 10–11:30 a.m.; Saturday, Aug. 14 and Aug. 21; Zoom channel, $20 for Poopinar.

You can feel the end of summer approaching, and that’s cause for not only some mourning but also fond remembrances of weeks past. Jackson Galaxy is offering for the final session of his summer camp (with the meme-worthy Kitten Lady Hannah Shaw). Get the scoop on the poop, quite literally, in the Aug. 21 session about divining the significance of the caboodle that comes out of a kitten’s caboose. Petco Love is providing the marshmallows and chew sticks for the s’meowrs. Read further descriptions and purchase tickets at this link.

Benny the Cat’s third birthday celebration: 6:30–7:30:p.m., Tuesday, Aug. 24; link here, free event.

Join Benny the Cat’s human family and Helen Sanders CatPAWS in celebration of the third birthday of the best boy in the whole world! Benny survived horrible abuse as a kitten, and his story has been told many times over. This year, a virtual celebration will be held for Benny and the lives he’s inspired as well as his special bond with so many fellow cat lovers—and fellow cats, too! Helen Sanders CatPAWS is sponsoring this special event, and there will be lots of party-favor opportunities: Benny biography books, CatPAWS tote bags, and a $100 American Express card. You’ll learn about the guy’s honor of finishing fourth out of 26,000 cats in the World’s Most Inspiring Cat Contest and all the other adventures he’s had! Guests will have a ball (and maybe chase one around the room) playing cat trivia games, catching up with old friends, and making new ones! The event is free; donations are optional. Here’s your special engraved invite! Living well is the best revenge, and so is loving and being loved!

Comedy and Cats: 7:30–9 p.m., Saturday, Sept., 4, Feline Good Social Club, 301 Atlantic Ave., Long Beach, $25

Join the feline adoptables and residents at Long Beach’s premier cat lounge as you laugh hysterically at the comedians onstage while the cats wonder how come you’re not laughing at them. Six comedians, backed by the lounge kittens, will give you the laugh you surely need by now in the Salty AF comedy show. Guests will be socially distanced among the lounge’s three rooms (2,000 square feet!), so there’s plenty of space for you and the cats to socialize. Bring your own beverages. No kitten around, get your tickets soon because social distancing doesn’t allow for a packed house! Tickets are available here.

Best Friends’ Strut Your Mutt fundraising event: details and events here

Ready to start building a team or just strut your stuff solo? Best Friends, a nationwide organization whose intent is to save every animal life possible, has started its registration for its Oct. 23 Strut Your Mutt Day virtual walk. The goal is to raise $2 million for both the organization and animal shelters and rescues nationwide. Access this link for instructions on how to build your team or register yourself, and participate in virtual events such as pig yoga and meeting the animals at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary as you move along the time line. Mutts and all manner of mammals will thank you!

Calendars: 365 days of furry love

Helen Sanders CatPAWS Show Us Your Kitties 2022 calendar contest: entries accepted up to 5 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 18

Calling all stage cat mommies and cat daddies! Now’s the chance for you to buy the way of your ridiculously adorable ridiculous feline into the spotlight! Helen Sanders CatPAWS cat rescue is again holding its annual photo contest in which you can enter your own cat and get your friends to donate funds to vote for a cover or month photo position on the calendar! It’s a lot less fattening than asking them to buy your kids’ fundraising chocolate, and the money taken in will pay more medical bills for cats, put together more DIY newborn-kitten-care kits, and fund all the good things CatPAWS does—the goal is $10,000, but they’ll settle for more. You can also reserve a special day for a kitty whose memory you want to honor. CatPAWS will attempt to place every photo received somewhere on the calendar. Grab all the details here!

Stray Cat Alliance’s Ravishing Rescues Calendar: entries accepted until 8 p.m., Friday, Sept. 3.

Show your ear tips, kitties! The champion of cats stray and homeless are looking for your picture-purrfect cat to show off in the cutest photo you can find. All felines invited, no matter where they entered your home from. Each vote costs only $1, and 100% of the proceeds will be used to help homeless cats and kittens at Stray Cat Alliance. If your feline gets the most votes, they will win a top spot in the coveted 2022 Stray Cat Alliance Ravishing Rescues Calendar! Details available here.

Help wanted, help given

Volunteers of many stripes needed at Helen Sanders CatPAWS

Want to spend a few hours playing with cats? How about brightening the day of a bunch of senior citizens with kitten visits? Fostering cats because you aren’t sure you want to keep one but wish you could have one ever so briefly in your life (and yes, you could change your mind and keep them forever)? Delivering pet food to needy shelters? Assembling do-it-yourself newborn-kitten-care kits, and maybe bottle-feeding a few? Kennel cleaning (whee!)? Lend a paw to CatPAWS—fill out the volunteer application at this link.

Volunteer walkers needed for senior citizens’ dogs

Ida’s Walkers is a program of The Heart of Ida, a 501c3 nonprofit organization serving the older-adult population in and around Long Beach. Ida’s Walkers offers dog-walking services to low-to-moderate-income seniors who are hospitalized, have limited mobility, or are at risk of falling. If you want to help senior citizens keep their beloved pets as long as they are able to live at home, call 562-370-3548.

Fix Long Beach low-cost pet-services clinics: selected days and times, 1749 Magnolia Ave., Long Beach, services available by appointment at www.fixlongbeachpets.com.

Fix Long Beach is taking appointments for low-cost spay/neuter, dental, vaccines and other vet needs for cats and dogs. Vaccination clinics take place on the second and fourth Thursday of each month. Visit their webpage or Facebook page for details.

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

Kitten season is here and shelters and rescues are scrambling to save their lives, get them fixed, get them adopted. 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 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 will give shots between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. every third Thursday at 957 N. Gaffey St. Call 310-574–5555 to see if you qualify for services.

If you can see the bottom of the kibble bag

homeless man with longish brown hair and beard in old clothing sits on street closely cuddlinghis large tan-and-gray dog

Pets of the Homeless’s 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 businesses will accept your donations:

Trendi Pawz, 3726 E. Seventh St., Long Beach

Belmont Heights Animal Hospital, 255 Redondo Ave., Long Beach

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

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

Adopt, adopt, adopt

In-furson events

Long Beach Animal Care Services’ Adoption Waggin: 10 a.m.–2 p.m., second Saturday of each month, Pet Supplies Plus, 2086 Bellflower Blvd., Long Beach; 10 a.m..–2 p.m., last Saturday of each month, VBurger, 420 Cherry Ave., Long Beach, adoption fees apply.

 The shelter’s favorite glamping vehicle for cats and dogs has been making the scene twice a month. Adopt at either location and find everything you need for your pet or a fine vegan lunch.

White cat with tabby-patch ears and back stares upward, sitting in bowling-pin position in a glassed-in kennel with store products in background

Adoptees on display

Pet Food Express Cat Adoption Center: 10 a.m.–8 p.m. weekdays and Saturdays, and 10 a.m.–7 p.m. Sundays., 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, and now, you can finally visit with them, scratch their little ears, and rub them under their chinny-chin-chins on Saturdays from noon to 3 p.m. Volunteers will 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

two dogs and a cat on one border, two cats and two dogs on other. Caption says, "May we couch-surf at your place?"
May we couch-surf at your place?

Nota bon-e—fosters are needed everywhere!

If you’ve always wanted a pet but aren’t sure if you’re ready for a lifetime (the animal’s) commitment, or if you’re past the pet-roommate days for any reason, fostering might be a great way to go, especially with one or more of the kittens popping up during kitten season. Every one of the organizations listed below is in desperate need of fosters who’ll social them and help save their little lives. Who knows—maybe one of those lives will change your mind about the not-ready-for-roommate thing!

These nonprofits also regularly feature cat, dog and rabbit adoptions. As of now, adoptions are mainly by appointment. Fosters are needed for kittens as well. 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.