From time to time, while I was walking Philadelphia near Rose Bowl, I am with a dog coach named Eldon, who generously offers advice.
My Cheesteak Beagle used to go on strike during the walks, but is improving thanks in part to the Eldon advice. I wanted to write about that, but Eldon said that he mostly retired and that he does not need advertising. His only new customers, he told me, are dogs that are still fighting with the PTSD of the Eaton forest fire in January.
Come on, I implore. That is a story alone.
Steve López
Steve López is a native of California who has been columnist of Los Angeles Times since 2001. He has won more than a dozen national journalism awards and is four times Pulitzer.
Maybe so, Eldon said. Dogs are habit creatures, he reminded me, as much as humans, or more. They like their homes, their neighborhoods, their smells and family routines. Remove all that during the night, and they are out of balance.
Eldon suggested that I called Natalie Langan, owner of Sailhead Hounds, because her clients include displaced altadeans and her discompulated dogs. When Eldon showed me a photo of Langan, I realized that I had seen his walks in the packages on the Gabrielino path about the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, with a garnish of 30 or more dogs in the closure of four legs.
“I would say that approximately a quarter of all the dogs that we collect for our walks are Altadena dogs that lost their homes,” Langan told me when I called.
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Some dogs, and cats, have made multiple movements from fire and had to get used to new surroundings over and over again. That can make them nervous and increase their separation anxiety, Langan said, and if their owners are depressed or afflicted by loss and uncertainty, animals also absorb those emotions.
“Dogs see the world in patrons. This is how we can train them,” said Langan, who advises clients who lost their homes to establish new routines for their pets. “The number 1 is to create a new normality, and that is also for humans. My parents lost their home in the fire and I have been helping them” build the structure in their days and stay in motion.
When I first wrote about the Impact of fires on dogs, cats, chickens and colored fishI noticed that Anthony Ruffin's dog and Jonni Miller and two cats were very shocked. Especially Mr. Thelma, a cat who refused to go outdoors in his temporary rental in Crescenta.
Dogs wait patiently while water bowls are filled after their walk in the Regional Park of the Crescent Valley community.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Miller informs that Mr. Thelma, who was found wandering for the rubble of his courtyard several days after his house in West Palm Street in Altadena was destroyed, is fine, but it will not yet come out.
I also reviewed with Jessica Davis, who runs Boomer's friends, A rescue of animals from Malibu that helped families trace strangers scattered throughout Palisades fires. She said that multiple movements to temporary rooms have been particularly hard with pets.
“Yes, they can be resistant, but some animals wear trauma and want to be back where they were,” Davis said. “We are starting to see a wave of people saying: 'I lost everything and I can't keep my animal'” until they resettle me.
Davis said he is currently trying to find someone to foster a Bernese mountain dog.
In Altadena, Sharon Moon and Kimbop, her 14 -year -old pomerania, used to enjoy regular neighborhood meetings with dogs and their owners, and Moon's mother would join her and Kimbop in walks for sunset along the Crest path.
“Everything is gone,” said Moon, including his home. He stays in Silver Lake, planning to rebuild in Altadena, Kimbop is going quite well, but he still adapts to different places of interest and strange to his friends. “We all used to have a lot of fun gathering and chatting [in Altadena]. It was our little enclave away from all madness. “
Meghan Malloy and his family, who lost their home in Altadena, moved three times before establishing themselves in a rent in Sherman Oaks. It has not been easy, because Malley and her husband have a newborn, two cats (Felix and Mushu) and two Golden Retrievers (Arthur and Clementine).
The cats are fine and also Arthur, but loses his patio and his friends.
And then there is Clementine, who was “a little anxious” before fire, and more since then.
1. Natalie Langan, co -owner of Sailhead Hounds. 2. The assistant coach Soyun Ahn receives a kiss from Gus. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
“She has been absolutely in a venting for me or my husband's side,” Malloy said. “She was always a pack of herd, and she had to be with the people, and with Arthur. But she has been so sticky and gets so angry about being alone.”
Levi, a 4 -year -old street dog, suffered “a month of real instability,” said owner Jenn Burt, while moving to temporary rooms with a series of friends in the Pasadena area. “Having to get used to a new place every week … and not knowing what the rules were in each of the houses … it was quite difficult,” Burt said.
Levi had enjoyed the privileges of the couch in Altadena, but those rights did not travel with him. He is improving, but he is still more anxious than he used to be and shaken by fireworks in night warming for July 4.
Boudica, a mixture of shepherd, is “definitely traumatized,” said Katie Jordan. When they lost their home in Altadena, she, her teenage son, two cats and Bouudic tried to get into the apartment of a room of her boyfriend, but it was a tight adjustment, and a rent in Glendale has been better.
Jordan once took Bouuda to his neighborhood destroyed in Altadena, before the debris was eliminated, and realized that it might not have been a good idea. “He was heartbreaking,” Jordan said. “She simply ran that she cried, as if she were so confused.”
Ruby, a Pinscher Doberman displaced by the fire Eaton, rolls in the grass.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
However, there is an activity that always provides relief to Boudica: “Being in a great pack is his dream, and he feels so sure,” said Jordan.
I know what Jordan means. Philly gets excited every time we get three blocks away from leaving him with the dog manager Burke Stuart, of the man's best friend, so he can run with his backpack.
On Wednesday morning, Boudica joined the other 23 dogs on a walk in Sailhead Hounds in the Regional Park of the Community of Crescent Valley. Langan joined two other coaches: her husband, Chase Langan, and Soyun Ahn.
Boudica had much in common with Cosmo, Freckles, Lucy, Ruby and Levi, all of which lost their homes or were forced to move temporarily. But I could not have chosen them as those who have problems. The tails moved and most of the dogs had that expression that looked like a smile, the middle mouth open, the tongue hanging. With a lot of grass, trees, dirt and touches of eschatological delights in the air, they were in the paradise for dogs.
All dogs are trained not to pull the belt, remain in formation and stay away from rattlesnakes by sight, sound or aroma. Everything was very impressive, but I kept thinking of Philadelphia, who travels to the nose to the ground, in Zigzaguear around the world, would have been expelled from class.
Natalie Langan, Centro, addresses the assistant coach, Soyun Ahn in a walk in the Regional Park of the Community of Crescent Valley.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Around half of the walk, the dogs left Correa but stayed close. Two of them fought in the grass, and some went up to a twisted tree trunk to pose for a group photo that would be sent to the owners.
In general, it was a quite therapeutic way to start the day. And not just for dogs.
Steve.lopez@latime.com
