Dog Days of Summer

I can't sleep late on Sundays anymore. My kitten Hank (short for Dr. Henry Kittenger) thinks 5am is the perfect time to jump up on the bed, meow at me to fill his bowl with Hairball Control food and then pounce on his crabby older sibling Zelly (Zelda Molly Katzenberg).

And some day, if I ever own a house, I'll have a couple of dogs as well and will have to get dressed and go out the front door at that hour, to be seen by other conscientious, groggy dog walkers. The kind of people who come to the park to adopt dogs from city shelters...

Eighteen dogs and one kitten (wish the cat count had been higher) found new homes at Sunday's Mobile Pet Adoption in Studio City where I volunteer, if I'm not doing a transport, including the lucky dog above.

Throughout the day, homeless dogs accompanied by their volunteer handlers lined up for the dog wash...

...where a mysterious woman, obscured by her gray baseball cap, lathered, rinsed...

... and for one particularly filthy and flea-infested dog -- repeated.

This guy was great. When he was held up for the rinse cycle, he automatically began to dog paddle. He's been adopted and if his new family has a pool, he's set to go.

One of the volunteers complimented me on the photos I take and I said, "Sure. I used to work at Vogue." Which is true, but that was thirty years ago and all I ever did there was nervously answer phones and give out misinformation to people who didn't share my portion control issues.

And one time, when I was temping at Self magazine, I was on the set of a shoot and was asked to iron an item about to be photographed. I think the editor was unimpressed with my work. All she said when I finished was, "Oh." I was never asked to iron again.

Below, Dee Dee (hidden, far right) organizes her new family, plus the volunteer who introduced them (center), to line up for their first photo:

And here's Sawyer with his new dad:

The soon-to-be-renamed Balto got a bath at the last MPA and was promptly adopted, only to be returned to the shelter when he had an accident on the carpet of his new home. Ever optimistic, Balto made time in his schedule to come back to the park where he found the perfect new mom.

She's experienced with training rescue dogs and, coincidentally, mentioned that she had just taken up all of her carpeting.

It takes just a little bit of patience to train a rescue dog, as evidenced by a couple of others who were adopted at the last MPA and came back to show off their well-trained parents.

Here's Bezerra, whose mom promises to send me an anecdote to include...

... and Zoey, with her new dad.

Zoey was found by an animal control officer, abandoned in an alley. She was left in a box with a blanket and no food. The officer saw the box moving and when he opened it, this emaciated dog jumped out and licked him.

When she first came to the adoption event Zoey was so shy she crawled instead of walked.

And now she is a couple of weeks into her Happily Ever After.

Another MPA next week. More pix of wet dogs to come...