If you want a bit of nonsense for frittering away your time, I have just the thing: national-day calendars, one of which is at the link I just gave you. You can spend hours down that rabbit hole. Days that achieved popularity over the years, such as Read Across America Day and National Pi Day, which extrapolates 3.14159 … to pizza and crusted desserts, are documented in detail. Scores of national days National Do a Grouch a Favor Day, National Clean Up Your Desk Day (I’m nonobservant), National Whipped Cream Day, National Crab-Stuffed Flounder Day all go from random to ridiculous.
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Sadly, a lot of the dog dudes and dudettes in shelters are large ones. At last count, which was three days ago, 25 of the 43 dogs staying in our shelter at Long Beach Animal Care Services (LBACS) were big ones. That’s more than half of all the various sizes.
So, what’s the deal? Are more large dogs than smaller ones turned over to shelters?
“I think little dogs get relinquished as much as big dogs,” shelter volunteer Dee Glick said.
Several reasons, most of them misguided, exist for the comparatively large number of comparatively large dogs in shelters. Some people, when considering adoption, may not have the strength to control a large dog if they tug on the leash during the banal attraction of a squirrel. That makes sense, but just seeing “little and cute” and not being able to see the “big, clunky and absolutely adorable” doesn’t, to a lot of us. Neither do apartment and condo restrictions of how much a dog can weigh. People weighing more th
The impending Mother’s Day holiday seems like a good enough reason to nudge you to take home and foster a kitten from our shelter at Long Beach Animal Care Services (LBACS) or from one of the cat rescues listed in
Adopt, adopt, adopt. Any day would be fine, in fact.
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LBACS has reinstated its kitten foster programs. About two years ago, the shelter launched a program that saw a lot of the little critters leave the shelter and lead the best possible life with temporary parents, who socialized them, fed them, played with them, and sometimes didn’t give them back. I had two in my house for a few weeks, and of our editorial staff members each took one. Mine went back and were subsequently adopted I’m at my limit of three. Melissa’s and Valerie’s are still in their respective homes, forever, being little brothers to the established cats.
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Gift exchange! FOLBA board president Lauren Campbell hands a plaque thanking Timmons Subaru to Natalie Tiimmons, human resources manager for the dealership as Rocky Ghahary holds the check in readiness. FOLBA’s mascot chews the scenery, which beats chewing the interior of an SUV. Photo by Kate Karp.
Subaru of America’s Share the Love events are designed to pay it forward to local and national communities. Over the past 13 years, the dealership has given more than $200 to national charitable organizations such as Meals on Wheels America and the National Parks Foundation and to local ones. Timmons Share the Love efforts have included distribution of personal protective equipment to local small businesses, providing toys for children at MemorialCare Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach, and giving funds to local charities. In the space of two months November through December 2020 the recent Share the Love event collected enough money to make the ride a lot s