by Noella Noelophile®
In Long Beach at noon on Saturday, the traffic was amazing.
Not on the freeway–outside Long Beach Animal Care Services.
Justin Rudd and his nonprofit Community Action Team had brought volunteers and gifts to the shelter for their annual “Operation Santa Paws” event.
On the Saturday before Christmas, volunteers nationwide visit animal shelters for “Operation Santa Paws”. Community Action Team spearheads the Long Beach edition.
Participants had collected all kinds of pet treats, toys and food as well as supplies. Now they were preparing to visit with the animals.
And on their itinerary would be three more shelter visits, before the day was over. Participants could visit any of the shelters, or all four.
“This is wonderful to have you here today. Thank you,” said Long Beach Animal Care Services Shelter Operations Supervisor Christine Kucenas.
Asked how many volunteers the shelter has on a regular basis, Christine answered, “Fifteen”.
Justin next asked what would be involved, for anyone who wanted to become a regular volunteer.
“We have Pet Literacy, which is a program where you come and read to the animals, and for that you can be any age,” Christine replied.
Meanwhile, volunteers had stacked up boxes of donations for a total of four animal shelters on the itinerary.
“Don’t give every dog a treat,” warned Justin. “If everybody (does that), dogs get sick, and…that ruins their holiday.
“Just talk to them, spend some time with them. Kneel down at their kennel and take a moment.
“Can you show hands, to these people, how many of you are here for the first time?” Justin asked.
Quite a few volunteers raised their hands.
“We’ve been doing Operation Santa Paws for nineteen years,” Justin told the group. “Has anybody been doing it nineteen years with me?”
No one had, but quite a few people, laughing, raised their hands that they had done it for “a long time”.
A few minutes later, the group headed inside the first shelter, Long Beach ACS. They would next visit SPCALA, prior to their stop at the Seal Beach Animal Care Center.
But…
Unfortunately, here will be our cautionary note. If you participate in this next year (and I recommend it completely!), please get there early. Otherwise, you may not get a parking space.
As we didn’t.
I’d hopped out of the car to get the preliminary shots above as my husband circled to find parking. Ten minutes later, he was still circling. So were at least three other cars, forming a “parade” of sorts.
Finally, we concluded that we were not going to get a space. So we headed off for the next destination: Seal Beach.
On the way, we had an unexpected Christmas treat.
Along came a procession of police cars with their lights on. At first, we thought it was an emergency.
No–Long Beach Fire Department’s “Spark of Love” had a celebrity in town.
And he was getting a police escort!
“Merry Christmas!” called riders from one of the vehicles.
And we loved Long Beach Transit’s addition to the parade!
Arriving in Seal Beach, we were able to find parking and join the group. And get our feline fix!
A visit to Seal Beach
I talked with volunteer Kathy Johnson, who gave us a tour of the cats’ area. Kathy said she had been volunteering at the Seal Beach Animal Care Center for three years.
Seal Beach Animal Care Center is a no-kill shelter. “All of our cats, they’ll be here forever if they don’t get adopted. That’s what’s so nice about here,” Kathy said.
In fact, during the tour, she even showed us “Drifter”, who had been adopted–twice. Both times, he refused to eat or use the litter box , and lost weight while in his new home. But once returned to the Animal Care Center, he was completely well again! Clearly, Drifter knew he didn’t want to “drift” away from the place he considered “home”.
We talked about the Center’s needs.
“We’re always looking for volunteers,” Kathy said. “We want volunteers to come in and even to socialize with our kittens and cats. ‘Cause they get lonely, they want to play. The more sociable they are, the better (their odds of getting adopted).”
Kathy said all the kittens in the Seal Beach Animal Care Center had been fostered by foster moms–which gave the staff a better idea of each one’s personality.
The Seal Beach Animal Care Center has three kitten rooms.
“We’ve adopted over 300 kittens this year,” Kathy said.
There are also several other rooms for a combination of adult cats and older kittens.
A personal favorite, this year, was this fellow: Hydro!
After they first come in, Kathy said, the cats spend their first few days in a cage as they get acclimated. Later, they’re out in the rooms.
At night, staff put down comforters for the cats to lie down, and the cats’ bedding gets washed every day, Kathy explained. Staff also have CDS set up to play music for the cats (they like classical!).
And one room even had a “catio” for the kitties, where they can safely see the world outside the window without getting out!
Kathy said the Seal Beach Animal Care Center gets supported through the year by bake sales and selling calendars with pictures of their residents. I’m looking forward to hearing more, and to sharing the information with you in 2020!
Phase Three
Next, we headed off to Tustin, for the day’s final stop.
We saw quite a line at OC Animal Care as we arrived. Their “Pawliday” adoption event was in full swing! (Justin mentioned that adoptions were free; new pet families simply pay the licensing and microchip fee, plus the carrier.)
We had never been to OC Animal Care Services before.
The first animals we saw were these cute rabbits, up for adoption.
Then we headed inside several of the buildings.
Since we’d spent so much time with cats in Seal Beach, giving dogs equal time in Tustin seemed fair.
If ever we’d seen a dog with its heart in its eyes, it was this one! Too bad our cats would take a dim (and hissy) view of him as a family addition.
Can you imagine anyone mistreating this cutie? We can’t! But the sign on the pen said “Confiscation”. That’s normally due to cruelty. (She still ran over wagging her tail when we approached the cage!)
Can we say “winter wolf” here? What a beautiful animal!
“You do need a fantastic dog like me, don’t you? I see it in your eyes…”
“C’mon, I need a new pet human for Christmas! That’s you, right?”
Of course, we are cat people. Couldn’t quite leave OC Animal Care without seeing at least a few meowers!
“Operation Santa Paws” 2019, Long Beach edition, was drawing to a close.
But it had been another fun event at Christmastime, and we hope some of the dogs, cats and rabbits wind up with “furever” homes as a result of Operation Santa Paws 2019.
And thank you to Justin and Community Action Team for this event, their annual “Joy to the World” Christmas concert, the “Riley’s Red Wagon Book Swap”, February’s “Red High Heels Walk”, “Operation Easter Basket”, the “Great American Fourth of July Kids’ Bike Parade”, the “Haute Dog Howl’oween” costumed dog parade….
…and all the other special things they do, year-round, to give to the community 365 (or, in the case of 2020, 366!) days a year.
Merry Christmas!