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Blog Entry 9 of 9 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

This sweet dog could be yours

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Contributed by: Steven Rosenberg on 1/30/2007

Sometimes I feel like we're stray-dog magnets. Every six months or so, we seem to find a lost dog wandering around our Van Nuys neighborhood. Ilene, especially, is out on the streets walking with our little girl, and they know just about all the neighbors - and the neighborhood dogs, for whom they carry a large bag of dog biscuits.

On Sunday, it happened again. We were eating breakfast, thinking about what to do with our day - no housepainting since it had just rained and threatened to do so again. The doorbell rang. I opened the door. A woman was holding a dog by the collar, and she said that she found her wandering on Burbank Boulevard, and she had to go to work and had an apartment and ...

So we had a dog on our hands. She was (and is) a female boxer, less than a year old, very friendly and polite, with beautiful short brown hair. I'd guess she weighs about 60 pounds, given that I lifted her a couple of times.

We already had the best dog in the world - named Dog (officially Notorious D.O.G., if you must know) - for many many years, and it's easy to call every dog who crosses our path by that name, but this dog we named Lucy. She has a Lucy-ish look about her, you might say.

We got Dog's old leash out and took Lucy on a walk to see if anybody out on the street recognized her. She's a great walker - no pulling on the leash, and she looks well taken care of. She's very curious about birds, and our pet cockatiel Screech (she's also a stray, by the way) wasn't very happy about a big boxer head staring at her through the bird cage bars.

Nobody knew Lucy, but quite a few people pouring out of Starbucks took a liking to her. We're not really set up - physically in the house with a toddler and a skittish bird, emotionally and all that ( we just lost Big Cat a few months back) to take in a new, big pet.

I took Lucy in the car (she's a good car passenger, too) to the East Valley Animal Shelter in hopes of her owners looking for and finding her. The last time I was at the shelter, bringing in a chihuahua whose owner didn't come, I was impressed by the caring and attentive staff. This time was no different, except that there were at least six volunteers helping out.

The chihuahua I brought in was quickly adopted, and I hope the same happens for Lucy. I hope somebody out there - maybe somebody who reads Valleynews.com - who would like a dog in their life will go visit Lucy - her number is A853286, and you can follow her online here- and consider bringing her home. She definitely loves people and wants a home.

As I said, this is my second visit to the East Valley Animal Shelter, and the experience has been very positive each time. From the staff to the volunteers to the people coming to adopt a new pet, I have a very good feeling about the service being performed there - and the caring shown by all.

There are many private animal rescue organizations out there, but none of them do what the animal shelter does, which is take in any and every pet who's either missing or abandoned, from anybody who brings them in. They do their best to find new homes for all of the pets brought in. I wouldn't go anywhere else.

Even if you're just thinking about it, why don't you go visit Lucy at 13131 Sherman Way in North Hollywood. Have a volunteer take her out with you and get to know her. You just might find a new friend.

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Submitted By: Martin Spencer

posted on 2/1/2007 @ 9:46:00 AM

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Wow- Where's the OTHER half of this story? You praise the shelter, but fail to mention that it's the ONLY entity that KILLs ALL animals on as little as one day notice. You fail to mention that the killing it does -- and incorrectly calls euthanasia -- is done due to temperament testing, or determining that a scary, hungry dog is "fractious" and not recognizing that it's simply scared and hungry. My friend, you have zero credibility when you only tell part of the story and claim that the world is fine. Case in point: there was a sherman oaks street fair in October and NO animals from the E. Valley shelter came to be seen by the 100,000 people in attendance. The shelters have NO materials to help the numerous foreign language people in this area. It's a mess, and you don't tell the whole story.

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Steven Rosenberg

Van Nuys , CA

Steven Rosenberg has posted 9 blog entries and 0 comments since joining on 8/14/2006. Steven Rosenberg 's average blog rating is 5.

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