pet connection

TGIF doesn’t mean much to me. We’re on book deadline here, I might have mentioned a time or two.

The good news: The stories for these new books are knock-your-socks-off fantastic. I am loving reading the wonderful stories people have sent us of how animals make our lives better. (And hey… there’s still a few days left to write one, if you have a story to tell. Don’t send it to us here at the Pet Connection, though: Click on the submission link on the site.)

I don’t know when Christie is flying to Austin for South By Southwest… but if it was last night I wonder if she got there on time. If she went SFO through Dallas (instead of taking the Nerd Bird direct from San Jose to Austin), she may well have had a diversion or delay. Hope she packed warm clothes, too. My friends outside of Austin said last night was freezin’.

Yesterday, I decided I travel too much. This, after explaining to a co-worker who’s taking her family to San Diego for spring break what parking garage to use at the Sacramento airport, what floor and even what row, and how to get through security and Starbucks lines more efficiently. And then I told her three kid-friendly activities in San Diego that are not to be missed, especially the tour of the USS Midway. Never too young to have children learn something about respect for hard work, duty and sacrifice.

Speaking of hard work … Christie left me blog-fodder, what a trouper.

The L.A. Weekly takes a look at the new forced spay-neuter law, and decides it’s a toothless joke intended to appease a small but vocal band of animal-rights folks with a grudge (actually, a lot of grudges):

To appease a raucous lobby with deep pockets, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Tuesday signed a citywide pet-neutering ordinance that critics say is impotent and could actually worsen tragic animal-euthanasia levels in Los Angeles.

It requires Angelenos to neuter their pets at 4 months, but the measure, written by Council Member Richard Alarcon, is freighted with exceptions and has no serious enforcement mechanism. It starkly evokes a similar law created by the City Council in 2000, known as “spay or pay,” that badly backfired.

[...S]ome veterinarians and other animal experts scoff at the new law because it is aimed at pets owned by the few Angelenos who already license them — not at seedy backyard breeders, not at pet stores, and not at the 76 percent of L.A. pet owners who ignore existing city licensing laws.

[...] The animal-rights movement is filled with emotionalism and friction, but its leaders appear to agree that Alarcon was making a showy act of appeasement, largely intended to assuage the activists’ anger over Villaraigosa’s hiring of Ed Boks to run the city’s shelters.

Pointless political pandering that’s primed to backfire … good job, L.A.! Heaven forbid that the SoCal Sillies drop their spittle-spewing hatred, their all-breeders-are-scum rhetoric and their attitude of smug superiority long enough to work together with other animal-lovers to actually try something that works.

Elsewhere (and I’ll probably add to this throughout the day): Could a Garfield strip without Garfield be funnier than one with the round tabby? You decide. … Celebrity vet Dr. Jeff Werber gets everyone’s panties in a bunch by participating in a veterinarian “sting” for an L.A. TV station that seems to suggest “cat scan” — having a feline sniff a dog, you know the old joke? — works as well as real diagnostics when it comes to figuring out if a pet is healthy. Pet Connection BFF Dr. Patty Khuly does good rant and the comments are even better. She’s got lots of other good stuff over there, too. (Hey, Dr. P … did you finish your story for our books? Hmmm? March 15 is the deadline!) …

If you like gorgeous horses, check out Sarah Andrew’s new RockandRacehorses.com. I’ve never met Sarah, but over the last two-three years I fell so totally in love with her work that we hired her as the lead photographer for the new horse book. She has also written a story for that book, about her first and only horse, Alibar, who came into her life when she was 14, in 1989. They’re still together. Can you see love in a picture? You bet you can. … A stronger consumer protection agency? Pardon me if I wait to see how it shakes out. Color me skeptical. …

… More as it comes. Feel free to consider this an open thread and add your cool stuff below. Time to write …