It’s that time of year again—time for my favorite SAMLARC event. No, it’s not the SAMLARC annual meeting on Tuesday, March 29—which I also plan to attend. It’s time to dress Princess Ginger Monster up and have her walk me to Solana Park for SAMLARC’s 4th Annual Dog Day Afternoon event on Saturday, March 26, from 1-4 p.m. SAMLARC initially held this event at Monte Vista Park. This day for dogs proved so popular that it was moved to the larger Solana Park site last year.  Even though the grass is wet this year because of the rain—the event will go on and will be better than ever—according to …

Last week was a particularly busy one for animal stories in the local media. Reading and watching news online, in print and on television, you couldn’t help but see three stories of particular interest locally. The story that was most concerning was the announcement regarding a large confiscation of cats in Santa Ana. Although the actual event happened over a month ago, the press finally caught wind of this sad hoarding situation that occurred at the home of a well-respected cat rescuer. Rescuers becoming hoarders is an all too common occurrence. In early February, the founder of Cat …

The forecast is for rain. It's time to dress your dogs up in their winter best. Southern California weather doesn't give you many excuses to make your dogs look this cute—so take advantage when you can. Here is a collection of photos of pets we received after an earlier call upon our readers to share their photos of dogs in their winter gear. Feel free to send more, too. What's next? How about sending along your photos of dogs dressed up for an outing? What does your dog wear when going out on the town? Send your photos to animalwrites@ariel.net

This weekend is “PetSmart Charities® National Adoption Weekend,” and the resident rescue group at the RSM PetSmart—Modjeska Ranch Rescue—will be having an adoption day at the store on Sunday, Feb. 13, from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. It has  promised to be there with three adorable Westie/Poodle mix puppies and a 5-month-old Yorkie mix—along with lots of kitties. Modjeska Ranch Rescue has become one of the most recognizable local nonprofit animal rescue groups in the RSM area since its founding by Russell and Teresa Taylor in 2001. As many rescues do, MRR takes in animals from throughout Southern …

Since the rescue of Speck—the Jack Russell Terrier—a few weeks ago from OC Animal Care by Russell Rescue, and an e-mail I received from George Seikaly—his foster dad—the day he took Speck home, I’ve been reminded of what it takes to be a foster parent to a rescue dog. It’s an important and often heartrending job. While it was fortuitous that Crystal Christensen recognized Speck from a picture on Facebook and was able to arrange for him to leave the third shelter he had been in over the course of about a year’s time, his story is far from over. Speck was transported from OC Animal Care to San …

For the past several months, I've been working with OC Animal Care and dog rescuers who use Facebook in their efforts. I periodically coordinate communications between them in an effort to minimize staff time needed to deal with the placement of animals at the shelter. On Tuesday, an urgent message came from Irvine resident Crystal Christensen from Barks of Love Animal Rescue and Placement Services  asking if I could make sure that OCAC staff knew that she was working to get a dog named "Prince" (ID A1066946) out of the shelter. With the county shelter in Orange constantly at capacity, there …

As I sit listening to the sounds of the latest storm, after a week of being imprisoned in my home with rambunctious dogs, I wonder what else I can do to get my dogs to go outside. They hate the rain. We've all got cabin fever. This is especially true for Ginger, my Jack Russell terrier (or terror) mix,  a.k.a. Princess Ginger Monster. She runs up and down the stairs, jumps on a chair in the living room, then dives across the room at the sofa, where she eventually plants herself on its back. After a few minutes, Ginger goes to the front door and sniffs—loudly. Then, she looks at me. "OK, fine…

If you know me, then I don't have to tell you that I'm an animal welfare activist. I'm your go-to person when you're looking to adopt a pet, need to find a vet or doggie day care, find a stray animal (domestic or wild) and don't know what to do next, need to re-home your pet, or have a question about animal feeding or care. I've lived in RSM for close to 20 years, 15 of which have included animal rescue. From the time I was a part of the Rancho Santa Margarita Cityhood Committee, everyone knew that if and when we built a local animal shelter, I would be involved. Well, as it turns out, after …