For our first official Best Friends LA Brigade events, volunteers spent Sundays July 6th and 13th helping at Baldwin Park County Shelter.

By Laura Thompson, Best Friends LA Brigade

As everyone in animal rescue knows, July 4th is one of the worst days of the year for shelters with the influx of animals that results in overcrowding. Anticipating this, while also dealing with a shortage of staff, Baldwin Park shelter sent out an urgent plea to Best Friends for assistance in feeding animals, cleaning kennels, grooming dogs and providing care and comfort for cats over the holiday weekend.

Sunday, July 6th
Best Friends LA Brigade volunteers met at Baldwin Park and began by helping the two staff members on kennel duty in distributing food to some of the over-200 dogs. Due to a shortage of bowls, some would've had to wait to eat, but quick thinking on the part of volunteer Andrea Lewis led to a trip to the nearby 99-cent store for thirty extra plastic bowls. While these didn't last long in the kennels of some of the bigger, more boisterous dogs, they met their immediate needs for food and, emblazoned with the LA Lakers logo, brightened the kennels temporarily with purple and yellow pride.

Brigade volunteers, working in tandem, then coralled dogs indoors so that we could do the hard and dirty work of hosing and scrubbing down the outdoor kennels. Robin Skov and I took on a few rows and spent almost an entire four hours washing them. Karen Cruz and Robin Harmon did the rest and still somehow managed to have time for bathing and grooming dogs as well. How do they do it?

Meanwhile, Lucy Kadota tirelessly trimmed, using scissors, no less, the matted fur of a poodle mix until she could lift it off like a rug. The little dog sure didn't seem to mind all of this attentiveness as it was probably the most she'd had in long time, poor thing.

Gayle Alexander bathed dogs with Robin H. in the decent-sized tub of the small but well-apportioned grooming room that Baldwin Park has. Jessica Cliver and Andrea spent time in the back room with the cats, cleaning their crates and giving them some much needed affection.



At the end of the day, after some last minute visits to certain animals, we took a few of the dogs into the small, grassy meet-and-greet area, where we rested, and the dogs played. Those pictured here (Saber, in main photo above and, from left to right here, Babyface, Greatwhite and Wonder) were all adopted out or pulled by Coastal German Shepherd Rescue, thanks to Jessica's Myspace skills and clever networking.

Sunday, July 13th
It's hard to stay away from Baldwin Park for long, since as a County shelter, there's only a five-day hold on the animals. So back we were for another day of dog grooming and walking, kennel cleaning and cat care. Lore Herek came prepared to work in the cat area, feeding ferals and tending to the ISO. Robin H. fed dogs and hosed down the kennels in the back building with Faith Truax and Shawn Cunningham, then later Robin and Faith bathed and groom dogs together, while Shawn came up with the good idea to do some of the laundry. Thanks, Faith and Shawn for your flexibility and willingness to do just about anything! Lucy, once again, spent most of the time tending to another extremely patient matted poodle mix. We've got to get her some electric clippers next time.

Lisa and daughter, Lori, spray washed and disinfected a couple of kennel rows themselves, then took care of some of the puppies and smaller dogs in ISO. I joined Jameson Yu and Hiroko Baba for washing of other kennel rows, though we worked fast enough to have time left over for other activities, including dogwalking for me and playtime with puppies in the grassy area for Jameson and Hiroko.

Thanks again to Robin Skov, Karen Cruz, Lucy Kadota, Gayle Alexander, Lore Herek, Faith Truax, Shawn Cunningham, Lisa and Lori , Hiroko Baba, Jameson Yu, Jessica Cliver and, of course, Andrea Lewis and Robin Harmon for all of your efforts on one or both days.

We look forward to seeing everyone again at the next Brigade event.

Photos courtesy of Jessica Cliver, Best Friends Staff, and Jameson Yu, Best Friends Volunteer