First, big shout-out to the teams at Long Beach Animal Care Services and Live Love Animal Rescue for their Foster the Fourth partnership. The effort, now in its third year, calls for Long Beach residents to pick temporary houseguests from the kennels for a period of two to four weeks and so make room for the dogs who run yipping in terror when a bottle rocket or a city display goes off in his or her earshot. And their hearing is acute.

A good number of Long Beach residents, including Long Beach Post reporter Stephanie Rivera, have attended Foster the Fourth’s orientation with great enthusiasm, and a bunch of dogs have packed their kit bags and headed for summer camp. There are still dogs in the shelter to adopt, and a heck of a lot of cats. Cats generally come to Long Beach Animal Care Services by other routes, particularly in the form of unwanted kittens; straying, wandering cats; nursing mothers; hoarding situations; and, tragically, kittens who were thought to be orphaned and weren’t. Somehow, shelter director Staycee Dains managed to finagle kitten fostering (again, Long Beach Post editor Melissa Evans, reporter Valerie Osier and I are among the people who got another stripe on their Crazy Cat People badges).

Because the dogs had their day and the shelter has a heck of a lot of cats, you’re encouraged to go bring home a friend. Forever and ever. Kittens are cute, but there’s something to be said for adults. With love and luck, they all grow up, anyway. Here are this week’s pointy-eared candidates:

tabby kitten with tortie markings and big eyes stares at the camera.
Twilight (ID#A629080) is a fairly recent arrival to the planet. She’s one of those kitties who can’t decide on a tabby or a tortie coat and so she’s decided on both. The results are stunning. She doesn’t know much about humans yet, so she’s a little nervous, but she’s curious as a cat. She needs a special someone to encourage her inquisitiveness and turn it into playfulness. Photo courtesy of Long Beach Animal Care Services.
brown tabby headshot. She has green eyes, a brown nose, and a "milk muzzle." She has a worried look on her face.
Vicki (ID#A628162) couldn’t have cared less about fireworks—she’s been snug and safe here. Vicki is 3 years old, mellow and prefers lounging to almost anything else. She’s a cuddler and can often be found curled up in a small ball on the shelter’s catio. She’d make a great lap cat.. Photo courtesy of Long Beach Animal Care Services.
Tortie with her eears back and an intense scare looks into the camera.
Pauline (ID#A627422) on the other hand is vocal and attentive and, as you can see by the intense stare and the position of her ears, is ready for takeoff–right into your home and heart. She loves to follow you around and wants to be by your side. She has an incredibly exotic look and is sure to melt the hardest of hearts. She’s a senior at 11 years old and absolutely delightful. She’d love to spend her sunset years with you. Photo courtesy of Long Beach Animal Care Services.

 

Black kitten with oneof his eyes cloudy looks longingly into camera.
Long Beach Animal Care Services often takes in cats who have special needs. Oliver (ID#A626305) is one of them. The shelter’s medical team is administering meds to help correct an eye issue. No hypochondriac he—Oliver’s sweet and loving, and at only a year old, he needs a human as special as he is to bring out the cat in him. Photo courtesy of Long Beach Animal Care Services.
Blue building in distance, sign over it saying "Animal Admissions," between two white pillars. To the right is a banner with blue highlights and animal faces that reads "Adopt at Long Beach Animal Care.
The signage at the P.D. Pitchford Companion Animal Village doesn’t specify which door leads to the shelter and which to spcaLA. But it’s easier to determine now. To adopt one of the pets in this article or any from Long Beach Animal Care Services—the shelter—pass through the door to the left of this banner, with the sign “Animal Admissions.”
Things to do, pets to support

Please send any Long Beach or Seal Beach pet-related events or projects to [email protected]. Posting subject to approval.

Movie night at Long Beach Animal Care Services: Saturday, July 6, 8:30–10:30 p.m., P.D. Pitchford Companion Animal Village, 7700 E. Spring St. at entrance to El Dorado Park, Long Beach, free

Grab your pupcorn, curl up on a blankie or perch on a lawn chair, and enjoy a showing of “Madagascar,” a madcap computer animation that will give you a lot to discuss after the movie has ended. No adoptions tonight, but you can come back Saturday! Please do.

Friends of Long Beach Animals 25th anniversary theater benefit: Thursday, July 11, 6:30–10 p.m., Long Beach Playhouse, 5021 Anaheim St., Long Beach, tickets $30.

Don your boas and make sure that they’re not crafted with feathers or fur! Then, sashay on down to the Long Beach Playhouse for one of the most enjoyable benefits you’ll ever attend: divine piano playing, faaabulous finger food, ravishing raffle prizes and a production of La Cage aux Folles, which will set you on fire! Tickets, which include it all, my dears, are available here.

Long Beach Animal Care Services Adoption Event: Saturday, July 20, 10 a.m.–1 p.m., Long Beach Animal Emergency Hospital, 4720 Pacific Coast Highway (near Staples and Circle Car Wash), Long Beach, adoption fees vary.

Long Beach Animal Care Services’ Adoption Waggin’ will roll down the Coast Highway with furry little adoptables onboard to meet the works to have Centinela on board with us, that is pending. We are bringing the Adoption Waggin and some of our furry friends to this event. Fix Long Beach will be there to provide education about spay/neuter and rescue.

24th annual Wienerschnitzel Wiener Nationals to benefit Seal Beach Animal Care Center: Saturday, July 20, 6–9:30 p.m., Los Alamitos Racing, 4961 Katella Ave., Cypress, $3 for general, free for kids under 17, $85 for VIP dinner packages, parking free.

Enjoy the most, if not the only, humane dog race anywhere! Los Al will be wriggling with wiener dogs, i.e., dachshunds, at this whimsical event that has raised over $275,000 for the Seal Beach Animal Care Center since 1996, with $12,000 earned last year through ticket and T-shirt sales. The dogs will win prizes for themselves, and the nonprofit animal care center will get goodies for their animals, too! Purchase tickets at the Care Center in advance of the event or at the door the day of. For safety reasons, please do not bring your own dog. Call the Vessels Club at 714-820-2821 for information about the VIP package. If you have a long little doggie—dachshunds only—and want to enter him or her, call 714-820-2690—there are a few spots left.

Pinot’s Palette Fundraiser for Fix Long Beach: Sunday, July 21, 2:30–5 p.m., 470 Pine Ave., Long Beach, $35 per artist.

Remember that silly book titled “When Cats Paint“? After a couple of glasses, you’re sure to do as well as any of the kitty Kandinskys and Kahlos in this ridiculous book. You’ll have a great time slapping the colors on the canvas—or whatever they use while sipping a good glass of wine and helping Fix Long Beach make sure that cats—and dogs too, of course—can still paint on paper but not paint the town red breeding kittens. Doors open at 2:30, so get your pawr of wine ready. Tickets are available here.

American bulldog with brown ears and mask and white body, sitting on grass
At 7 months old, Rave (ID#A628718) is still puppylike. Rave is a female American bulldog and is curious about the world around her, is eager to learn, and loves to play. She has lived happily with children. Photo courtesy of Long Beach Animal Care Services

Fix Long Beach Free DOG Spay/Neuter Clinic: Saturday, Aug. 10, 8:30 a.m.–2 p.m., Ramona Park, 3301 E. 65th St., Long Beach, free spay/neuter for qualifying Long Beach residents, with appointment; free microchips, shots, flea-med doses, dewormers and nail trimmings $10 each—no appointment necessary.

Newborn kittens are the most euthanized pets in shelters, ours included. The best way to stop a flood is to tamp the source, and that’s why we’re here. Our appointments are fully booked, but you can come for standby at 10:30 a.m. Appointments are available for future clinics—come make one. Full details are available here.

Ongoing

Your frayed towels and worn-out blankets wanted and needed at Long Beach Animal Care Services

Stop! Before you toss away the old towels or use them to sop up the oil on your garage floor, consider our shelter  animals! gently used hand towels and regular-size ones clean up messes in the kennels and dry off pooches and kitties after baths. Don’t forget small and medium-size blankets, too. Cats curl up on them and dogs are warmed and comforted. Drop by the shelter with them and a shelter staff member will help you take them in. Long Beach Animal Care Services is located at 7700 E. Spring St. at the entrance to El Dorado Park, 7700 E, Spring St. No parking fee for shelter guests. Go through the Animal Admissions door that has a banner in the ground to the right.

tiny scruffy Siamese kitten
Jellybean, courtesy of Long Beach Animal Services

Bottle feeders needed desperately at shelter, ongoing

This is Jellybean, and he’s eating gruel (think 6-month-old baby human in a high chair). He needs help getting all his food in his mouth and then cleaning his cutie-pie face after he’s finished eating. Photo courtesy of Long Beach Animal Care Services.

This year’s kitten season has been a downpour. Last Saturday, about 40 pets (in one day!) were brought to Long Beach Animal Care Services, and over 30 of them were kittens, many just born. Our shelter and the Long Beach Little Paws Project kitten nursery need help badly and immediately, whether you are an experienced bottle feeder or have never had a cat before. Compassion happens when the rescuing begins—private-message the shelter on its Facebook page with your contact info to help kittens in our shelter, like Jellybean. Please share the post on that page widely. If you’re not in our area, your local shelter kittens need your help, too.

Register for Strut Your Mutt Los Angeles

Best Friends Animal Society is teaming up with our partner rescue groups, shelters and animal-welfare organizations to help save the lives of homeless cats and dogs at Strut Your Mutt. Local Long Beach groups such as The Little Lion Foundation are participating, and animal advocates and lovers will be coming from everywhere. Register for the Walk or donate if you have a pet who just won’t be walked—cats come to mind. All funds raised go directly to lifesaving programs such as spay/neuter, adoption, and a KITTEN NURSERY! This year’s event is on Oct. 26 at Exposition Park in Los Angeles—all information is available here.

Donations accepted for Pets of the Homeless

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, 255 Redondo Ave., 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 at Beacon for Him Ministries, 1535 Gundry Ave. Long Beach, 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 9-11 a.m. Donations will be gratefully accepted at these locations as well.

Adopt, adopt, adopt

The following pet-related businesses regularly feature cat, dog and rabbit adoptions. If you’re a Long Beach-area rescue and don’t see your adoption event listed here, please email [email protected]. Click on the links for each rescue in case of updates or changes.

Chase Bank, 5200 E. Second St., Long Beach

 Gelson’s Market, 6255 E. Second St.

Kahoots Pet Store, 18681 Main St. #102, Huntington Beach

Pet Food Express, 4220 Long Beach Blvd., Long Beach:

PetSmart Cerritos, 12741 Towne Center Dr, Cerritos

PetSmart Compton, 1775 South Alameda St., Compton

PetSmart Garden Grove, 9835 Chapman Ave., Garden Grove

PetSmart, Long Beach Exchange, 3871 N. Lakewood Blvd., Long Beach

PetSmart Seal Beach, 12341 Seal Beach Blvd., Seal Beach.

PetSmart Signal Hill, 2550 Cherry Ave., Signal Hill

Unleashed by Petco, 600 Redondo Ave.

Foreverhome Pet Rescue, Inc.an as special as he is to bring out the cat in him.