I’d like to introduce you all to a new member of the family, this is Fred.

Fred is 12 year old and comes from our city’s local animal shelter. We do not have No Kill and the City of Los Angeles still has to euthanize more animals than I want to even contemplate. Our Fred was Red Listed which meant that he was running out his time and had little interest. Despite what some people think, believe me, the Shelter hates to have to euthanize animals and they do lots to try to get animals adopted but too many folks don’t spay and neuter their animals and surrender their animals for a number of reasons, most of which are inexplicable to me. But let’s not completely judge. At any rate, Fred is pretty old, which is one strike against him; he was picked up as a stray and was pretty rough, bad ears, fleas, some mange on his hindquarters, another strike against him; and he’s big and black, not sure why but more strikes against him. He is quite sprightly for 12! In fact, it is hard to believe that he could be that old. He’s got a nice spring in his step even though he can only go on shorter walks before he starts to poop out. His fur is starting to grow in and after a bath, he is quite handsome. He’s about 65 lbs which is underweight at his size, we will soon take care of that with yummy food and vitamin supplements. There are some challenges though, at 12 he is stuck in his ways and even with some training, we  probably aren’t going to curb all of his bad habits – he’s a chewer, a bit of a barker and he’s not into cats, at all. The cat thing is a problem because of the little girls in the house. This means that Fred is primarily going to be an outdoor boy. Fortunately, Fred seems to really prefer being outside but he does come inside to sleep. We’ve got a large laundry+storage+mud room in the back of the house that makes a perfect doggie bedroom. But for all the challenges, it is such a joy to spring a dog from the shelter and spoil him like the grandest award winning pure bred. I hope Fred has many more happy years ahead of him and each one of them in our little family.

~All will be well