Lights! Camera! Adoption!

A film crew from a USC documentary class came to the Mobile Pet Adoption yesterday.

I'm pretty sure I wasn't caught on-camera. Hope so. It was hot and I was wearing shorts and although I've lived in L.A. for 19 years, my legs still look like they've never seen the sun.

(No photo of my legs here -- too much glare.)

But the film crew did see a bunch of dogs getting bathed and/or adopted...

This 8-year-old girl was covered in ticks and fleas and the mysterious baseball-capped volunteer (okay, it's Karen!) ran her through the wash cycle multiple times with special shampoo. Although she wasn't adopted yesterday, there's been interest from rescue groups as well as private adopters and I'm pretty sure she'll be out of the shelter for good very soon.

Hope the same thing happens to this sweet thing who somehow wasn't picked yesterday:

Altogether, 14 dogs and 3 cats found new homes this time and this 2-week-old kitten is being fostered by a volunteer who carried her around inside her sweatshirt all day. (I must remember to wear my reading glasses when taking photos. Trust me, in person this kitten is in focus.)

OK, no photo of my legs, but how about my feet? Here's the first photo I ever took on my cell phone - it's me, at work. I don't remember what I was reading.

Please email me if you can figure it out.

Beware of this cat?

I've been friends with Tom for about thirteen years, ever since he looked like this:





When Tom was two years old, I made him promise to take me to his high school prom. For about a year he agreed to do it, then one day when I reminded him, he said, "No! You're too old."



But he did agree to come along on Saturday to help pick up a dog and a cat from the same city shelter and then deliver them to two different locations. Upon arriving at the shelter, Tom immediately made friends with a little dog one of the volunteers had brought outside.


He even got a kiss:





No matter how early I get to the shelter, it seems the paperwork always takes a little longer than expected and we had to make it to our first stop by 1:00pm, to drop off this female Lab:




We were so excited about the great parking space I got, right in front of the building, that as we loaded the furry passengers into my car, neither of us noticed the poop on the curb. Oh well.

(No photo of poop. Hope you don't mind.)

As I have no idea how to use that Bluetooth thing, I had Tom call ahead to let the kennel know we might be running late, but we made it at 12:59pm and this friendly dog is now right next door to the two Lab brothers I dropped off Thursday, all available through labsandbuddies.org.




Since we were close to my office, we decided to pick up lunch and then stop by before delivering the cat. As we walked back toward my car with our sandwiches, Tom headed for the driver's side. I found this very confusing so he had to explain to me, "I'm holding the door for you. I'm being polite." When was the last time you saw a kid do that? Wow!

At the office, my colleague Timmy was about to open the carrier when I warned him this cat might not be friendly. Supposedly his owners turned him in because he was vicious and attacked them in their sleep.




Jane, a volunteer, saw him in isolation and felt terrible that he didn't have a chance to be adopted by a member of the public. She put out the word, via email, to rescue groups and sure enough someone offered to take this monster.



Hardly the face of ferocious.

Next, we headed out to meet his rescuer at 2:30pm at a Starbucks just off the freeway. Fearing he might try to run away in the parking lot, we decided we'd all go into the restroom to transfer him to the rescuer's carrier, but an employee told us we couldn't bring an animal inside. Inconvenient, but nice to know they have health code policies in place. We ended up using the grooming room of a nearby Petco, where this guy made no attempt to run away.

Now named Gus, he is off to a wonderful new life.



In fact, his rescuer, Madelon, wrote us that night:

Gus is the sweetest cat I have ever met. All he wants to do is cuddle. He is as friendly as can be. He is not afraid of dogs. I had company tonight and he greeted everyone with love and kitty bumps on the leg. What a doll!

Tom and I then went back to Starbucks for Frappuccinos. There was a new guy behind the counter who took an extra minute to make Tom's drink, not that we even noticed or cared, but the manager insisted on giving us a coupon for a free drink. Saturday night was Tom's sister's 17th birthday party. He gave her the free drink card as a gift.

Thanks to Tom, Andrea, Jane, Chela, Madelon, Laura, Laura Beth and probably a few others I'm not aware of for these two rescues.

Although he has now fulfilled his school's community service commitment, Tom is looking forward to volunteering again. And I went home and put my sneakers into my washing machine.

Off the rack...

Years ago, when I was working at Vogue, an editor asked me to get a white linen Issey Miyake shirt off a rack in the hallway. Seemed simple enough until I discovered it was one of about 20 white linen shirts on the rack, all prototypes without labels. Issey Miyake, Isaac Mizrahi... it may as well have been a shelf of 20 unlabeled videotapes and I was asked to guess which plain white box contained Gone with the Wind. That editor was so annoyed.

And yet, even I know you don't wear a boa with white shoes after Labor Day. Oh, Lisa, you will never win a fashion award like this:

Actually, this guy (girl?) was brought in to the shelter as a stray. A stray? What, someone left their door open and this thing slithered out onto Ventura Boulevard and into Cold Stone Creamery? I hope this boa gets rescued. I hope I get asked to drive it somewhere. I hope its new owners name it Feather.

Meanwhile, this young female German Shepherd and I took a ride out to Azusa this weekend. Thanks to Jane, Andrea and Chela, she's made it out of the shelter. And thanks to Maria and Adele, she'll be with German Shepherd Rescue of Orange County until she finds a permanent home.

And yes, she has one crooked paw, but that's good. Now you can tell her apart from the other designer Shepherds on the rack.