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Blog Entry 3 of 10 Van Nuys With the Fringe on Top

Van Nuys isn't a state. It's a state of mind. A blog by Steven Rosenberg of the Daily News.

Blog Url: http://valleynews.com/~vannuys

If you see an Alaskan Malamute with a shaved body

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Contributed by: Steven Rosenberg on 8/17/2006

You know, sometimes I woe the day/hour/minute I decide to leave the house for a walk around the neighborhood I like to call Southeast Van Nuys (capital S).

Our Big Cat has barely been gone a week after a terrible illness, and we've vowed to take a good long respite from acquiring any new "free" pets (we still have Screech the cockatiel, who we rescued from marauding crows a few years back, and still miss Notorious D.O.G., gone three years now, and Birbee, the first cockatiel we found in the street over a dozen years ago).

We found a small dog a few months ago -- a miniature pinscher/chihuahua who must've been dumped in the neighborhood (couldn't find the owner despite aggressive attempts to do so). This one was small, cute, possessed of two intact nuts -- and not something Big Cat wanted around, so I TOOK HIM TO THE ANIMAL SHELTER, where everybody was really nice and professional, and he was adopted on the very day he became available to the public.

So on to this morning. We're out for a walk, Lulu on her new Disney Princess bicycle, when this Alaskan malamute -- who's body hair has been shaved off (presumably for the summer heat), and who's running around the entire neighborhood peeing, pooping and generally acting like a lost dog does.

I groaned. Not another stray. Not a big one. Not now. Not for the foreseeable future. Don't follow us home.

He did.

I got him water and a can of Friskies Mixed Grill. (What, you think I keep dog food just laying around?) He drank a bit of water, ate the salami that Ilene gave him and ran off. He seemed pretty sweet, was kind of skinny (though his head was at my lower-chest level) but was very energetic.

It's hard with big dogs -- their chances at the shelter aren't as slam-dunkish as those ofsmaller dogs (and bringing that small one in was no easy psychic chore, though I knew I had to do it -- and it worked out great). And I hate that people are not putting tags on their dogs (he could have a microchip, but I doubt that someone would go to that trouble and NOT put on a collar and tag, too) and then let them loose (or not securing their yard -- something I got VERY good at doing with D.O.G).

So if you see an Alaskan Malamute with a shaved body running around Van Nuys, how about adopting a dog? You. Not us this time. Capisce?

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