Pit Stop

I just got back from Downey, the town that gave us musical group the Carpenters and, possibly, fabric softener...

... where I dropped off these three Pit Bull puppies with Kelly of LEASH Animal Rescue (LEASHanimalrescue.org)...

... and she already has foster homes lined up for them. Quite an improvement over the space they'd been living in at the shelter:

Ah, the good life...

You think she's hungry, look what I stopped off for on the drive back:

(For anyone unfamiliar with the concept of Cheese on a Stick, picture cheese. On a stick. Hey, I had vegetables yesterday.)

This was my fourth day in a row of dog stuff, starting on Friday, when I met up with Andrea before work to help with photographs. While we were taking pictures of this Border Collie...

A couple of men walked past with these two dogs...

...and one of them yelled, "You want them? They're free."

I had just gotten my DWP bill that morning and noticed that between 1998 and 2008 my garbage pick-up fee jumped from $12 to $62 and change:

And, y'know, I'm pretty sure I'm making less garbage these days. Recycling and everything. And now they're talking about tripling the fee for registering your car. Isn't that what cost the last governor his job and forced a new election, presenting us with a choice between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger or Gov. Gary Coleman?

Anyway, I was not in a good mood and said some nasty things to these two guys who promptly dumped their pets anyway.

And here's another dog who came in on Friday, a supposed stray. Sure looks to me like he's cowering behind his owner, not a stranger, as she fills out a form, removes his collar and leash and then walks away. Forever.

But there are good people who come to the shelter to adopt, like these two women who found the perfect kitten right away, in one of the cages in the lobby:

By the way, this kitten was not particularly cold. It's just that the shelter had run out of carriers and this baby blanket seemed like the next best way to get him home without escaping.

And this little dog, adopted a couple of months ago, had come back to be fixed. Boy was he happy to see his family again and to have that silly cone-shaped collar removed:

More adoptions took place Saturday at an event on Larchmont Boulevard...

...where this Lab/Retriever mix found a new dad:

And then back at the shelter on Sunday, Lola adopted Chiquita:

And Hershey, who wasn't adopted on Larchmont the day before...

... went home with Anne, Ellie and Noah (and Alexandra, not pictured).

And then I went home and looked at my DWP bill again. $62.32 for one bag of trash a week? I need to make a phone call to someone...

The Latest Poop

From dictionary.com:

Poop:

- noun Slang.
relevant information, esp. a candid or pertinent factual report; low-down: Send a reporter to get the real poop on that accident.

I was on the phone with a friend the other night. We got to talking about celebrities we've met and how silly we feel about being starstruck. He mentioned reading something by someone who works in a grocery store where Jamie Lee Curtis shops. Got me wondering if she bought any Activia, then I realized this was ridiculous. She probably gets truckloads of the stuff for free. I'll bet when she shops she buys cheese. Lots and lots of cheese. Because she knows that when she gets home there's all that that Activia waiting.

I asked my friend if he thought it was odd that in one of the commercials she hugs the other woman, a stranger. My friend suggested it wasn't really a hug. They were squeezing each other so they could poop.

I met Jamie Lee Curtis years ago, when I was writing for a sitcom starring Tom Arnold. (Don't even bother trying to remember which one. Trust me, you've never seen it.) Ms. Curtis was there to visit one of the producers, but stopped by the writers' room and said hello. She was incredibly friendly and encouraging. Could not have been nicer. I had no idea she was constipated.

Someone else I know often sees her walking her dogs in the park. Unlike some celebrities, she follows the rules and keeps them on-leash. Really, could not be nicer.

And on that subject of dogs in the park...

Only 15 dogs from L.A.'s South shelter came to the Mobile Pet Adoption yesterday.

Due to the forest fires still burning, East Valley shelter needed to keep their trucks at the facility in case of an emergency. Still, 10 of the 15 dogs were adopted, including Ireena...

One little dog is being transferred to a less crowded shelter:

And this dog, Tux, is going to a private rescue. Very happy news.

Plus 2 cats were adopted, one of whom I picked up this afternoon and delivered to the Valley, since her new owner couldn't get there from work before closing. Traffic was heavy. Good thing she slept the whole way.

I also made two other recent trips to the shelter. Last time I saw a couple who were shopping for a kitten. They picked this guy:

Actually, he picked them.

Some of my East Coast friends think it's really cool that I often see celebrities. But actually, it's usually more like this: years ago I went to a party at some famous director's house whose name I can't remember now but Buck Henry was there. And all I could think all night long was, "How sad for Buck Henry that he has nothing better to do on a Saturday night than what I'm doing."

Of course, now I spend my Saturday nights at home with my cats. And sometimes when I look at them, I could swear they're thinking to themselves, "How sad for us that we have nothing better to do..."

Still waiting for a thank you from George Clooney

Years ago, when I was a writer for the TV show "Step By Step", I had a small office on the Warner Bros. lot. The best thing about the office was the single window which sat right above the basketball hoop where the cast of "ER" played ball. I could have opened that window and thrown crumpled script pages at them. (As a sitcom writer I had a lot of time to think about things that had nothing to do with sitcom writing.) Anyway, the cast will never know what I didn't do so they'll never thank me.

Other people I know make better use of their time, like Jane who spent a couple of hours at the shelter yesterday grooming this girl named Tommy...

... who was completely ignored by this nearby resident:



(Hhmm... much the way George Clooney ignored me.)

Later, Andrea took out a couple of dogs for walks and photo sessions...

... which they quite obviously did appreciate.

And Tommy got lucky. A couple came to adopt her even before her beauty parlor appointment was over. And since she was already spayed, as soon as the paperwork was done she went home.

Meanwhile, dogs and cats and everything else keep coming in, literally by the bucketful:

Incidentally, although I never told Mr. Clooney that I could have lobbed water balloons at him and his colleagues, we did have a brief conversation once when the "Step By Step" writers had to interrupt and walk through their game on our way to watch a rehearsal.

Our conversation went like this:

Me: Always getting in the way. Those pesky writers.

George (with a grin): Damn writers.

I will remember it forever.