Thoughts from the Publisher

Last Saturday, Steve and I set out to have a romantic dinner to celebrate our 23rd wedding anniversary. Although the actual date was on Sunday, we decided to go out and “whoop it up” a day early. We ended up going to the Rainforest Café in Downtown Disney. We had a close parking spot, only had to wait 15 minutes to be seated, had the chef come out and take our orders (because of my gluten issues), had a very tasty dinner, and a rather lovely time strolling around Downtown Disney. We were both pretty tired out by 9:30pm and headed back to the car. Just as we stepped into the parking lot, the fireworks exploded overhead, giving us a perfect ending to a perfect evening.
Once we got home, I stayed up and read for a while and then watched a bit of television before tucking myself in for the night. For some reason, Steve just couldn’t get sleepy and ended up couch-bound, watching television until about 2:30am.
Around 3:30am, our smallest dog Sophie started barking her head off. Steve called out to her to stop barking, and when she wouldn’t stop I got up to see what was going on. Looking out through the patio door with very sleepy eyes, I thought I saw Sophie barking at either a very large rabbit or a very small kangaroo. The creature was hopping around the yard in circles, and I just couldn’t quite focus on what I was seeing.
I quickly put on my glasses, looked back out the door and saw what looked like a small, blonde dog caught in some type of harness. At that point, I hollered at Steve to get up and come see what was going on. Sure enough, running around our back yard was a young dog all tangled up in a navy-blue leash, or rather tethered to a leash that had been tied to resemble a harness. Apparently, someone had tied up this puppy and then lifted her by the leash and tossed her over our fence that faces the alley in the rear of our property.
Being so early in the morning, 4am by then, we decided to keep our dogs in the house, set up a bed, food and water outside for our visitor and then further tend to the matter when we woke up for the day. Steve and I went back and tried to get a little sleep. After getting up, we called animal control, and they promised to send someone out to help us as soon as possible.

Around 1:30pm, animal-control officer Gerry Umbertus arrived and helped us with our newfound canine pal. Carefully lifting the little dog out of a hiding spot in our yard, Gerry comforted the puppy and assured us all that her office would either find the owner or work hard to find her a good new forever home. Believe me, we would have kept her if we weren’t already at our capacity of furry creatures at our house; if we had kept her, I would have named her Peaches because of her soft fur and peachy glow.
I can’t figure out why someone would give up such a nice little dog, or why they would choose our yard as a place for her abandonment. Nevertheless, the doggy’s future is in the hands of the nice folks at the Long Beach Animal Shelter. If her owner doesn’t claim her by the end of today, she will be up for adoption. If you are interested, call (562) 570-7387 or go to the shelter at 7700 E. Spring St. Ask for animal ID # A493646. I’ll keep track of what’s happening with “Peaches” and report back to our readers as soon as I can.