4:01pm | Every dog has its day. At night, all cats are gray. All things must pass, and forever changes.

When John Keisler first walked into his job as manager at Long Beach Animal Control in 2008, he had no idea what he was up against or what to expect. 

Keisler had been selected for the managerial position in the wake of a maelstrom of media criticism,
investigation and bad feelings after a dog had been inhumanely euthanized at the shelter. With no experience in animal services, Keisler entered the shelter to try to rebuild and restructure what was lost in the flood or thrown out with the bath water.

“We weren’t sure what was going to happen,” said Antje Hunt, cofounder of Long Beach Spay/Neuter, a feral cat alter and adoption program.

Keisler insists in an assertion of modesty that he didn’t either, but he must have had some idea. He received the best education in the form of on-the-job training, and he continually emphasizes the importance of the humane community and his staff, in particular, former operations chief Michelle Quigley, whom Keisler calls his “right hand.”  
Now, nearly three years later, Keisler is leaving his position with a full heart and a legacy of the shelter living up to its new name, Animal Care Services. He has accepted the position of business operations bureau manager for the Parks, Recreation and Marine Department, where he hopes to continue that legacy

“You can’t hold back talented people,” said Animal Match Rescue Team founder Carolyn Stern, after she recovered from the initial shock that jolted a number of animal advocates when they heard of Keisler’s departure.

And ACS will be following Keisle r— wagging its tail behind it and on leash, of course — from the Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services to Parks and Rec, although there will be a link to the health department to address community welfare issues such as rabies and animal bites. The official search for a new ACS manager will begin in the near future; in the interim, Keisler and Parks and Rec director George Chapjian will oversee the operations of the bureau and expect to provide a smooth transition to a new manager. Keisler and Chapjian believe that the transfer to Parks and Rec will work to the bureau’s favor because of an added visibility that the department will bring.

“We’ve built the infrastructure, but we haven’t had the assets and resources to get it out there,” Keisler said. “What better than Parks and Rec to get it out?”

What’s been built has been impressive, and Keisler has done it by being visible, creative and, most of all, one who actively listens to the humane community. One of the first things he did as ACS manager was to create a committee composed of a number of advocates and rescuers to create a link between the shelter and area residents. The committee, PAWS (for Pets Always Worth Saving — the acronym had to be filled somehow) was and is a major partner in an impressive number of changes that are still ongoing. They include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Enabling shelter-side adoption;
• Forming a working relationship with spcLA, which shares the Pitchford Animal Companion Village facility;
• With 2nd District Councilwoman Suja Lowenthal, hiring a full-time vet for the shelter, to be implemented in the near future; 
• With ACS techie Richard Cranston, reformatting ACS’s Web page; 
• Establishing an online wish list for shelter needs (click here to find out what’s needed);
• Obtaining comfy Kuranda beds for all cats and dogs through the Kuranda shelter donation program 
• Making sure that each animal is happily occupied with his or her own sturdy Kong pet toy in the Toy for Every Animal Drive; 
• Launching low-cost mobile vaccination/licensing clinics in Long Beach parks;
• Increasing door-to-door canvassing for dog and cat licenses as well as the cat licensing program, and creating the Late Penalty Amnesty program, which provides pet owners the opportunity to catch up on delinquent licensing accounts or get animals registered without penalties;
• Implementing two low-cost spay and neuter programs through the shelter as well as the Dr. Loren Eslinger Spay/Neuter trust fund, named after the veterinarian who generously donated her services to the shelter throughout the years (click here for information, including how to donate);
• Establishing an estate fund for the Animal Care Trust; and
• Kicking off the Pet Literacy Program and reestablishing the Animal Care Exploring Post for youth who may be thinking about a career with animal welfare.

Whoever is eventually hired as manager will have some sizable paw prints to fill. Meanwhile, Keisler will still be in charge, assuring that Parks and Rec resources are readily available for our animals’ welfare and well-being and that his legacy remains a living one.

“Everything we started as a team will continue,” Lowenthal assures the humane community. “You helped us revive ACS in our city to where there is no going back.

“And we still have John.”