New Orleans-style parade on the Plaza; kittens, lots of dogs

Happy Thanksgiving Sonoma! I love this time of year. The colors, the smells, the crisp air ... football. I love bundling up in the morning to take Doc on his first romp of the day. It is reminiscent of growing up in New England.

Speaking of romps, if you were around the Plaza last Saturday around noon, you more than likely treated to a New Orleans second-line parade with dogs lead by yours truly. It was a celebration of life for my good friend, the late Bonnie Tempesta who I’ve spoken of here before. She loved dogs and anything New Orleans, so it was a natural to gather her family, her friends, her dogs and her dogs’ friends for a frolic around the Plaza. Look for us next year around this time as we may just make it an annual event.

We are celebrating our cats and kittens with a Kitten Cornucopia special for November keeping our adoption fees to only $25 for all things feline. In my last column I mentioned that the baby kitten intakes has almost stopped. Well I lied – (not on purpose). Days after that writing, we got in over a half dozen kittens, one a bottle baby, three 3-week-olds and a few 5-to-6-week-olds.

Did you read about Cat Town Cafe in Oakland? I love this idea! It’s a cafe/adoption center for cats. You can just hang out, have some tea or coffee and a nosh and then go into the glassed in cat room to hang out. Other cities are following suit. Temporary, pop-up cat cafes have appeared in Los Angeles and New York, and efforts are under way to establish permanent businesses in San Francisco, San Diego and Denver. Cat Town has become so popular so quickly that reservations are required just to get in the door on weekends. By Sunday evening, Cat Town was out of cats, so, it’s fair to say the business model works. So if you are an entrepreneur looking for a bright new idea for Sonoma with a fondness towards the feline of the species, let’s talk! We’ve got the cats!

We have a full palette of dogs at the moment with a few new residents. Rusty, a min-pin mix and Jake, a long-legged chi mix are looking for their perfect humans to take them home.

We also have Rue, who was a very shy girl, now up for adoption. She’s adorable and looks like a tiny dog wearing an Aussie costume, with the body of a Chihuahua and the markings of an Aussie. Our wonderful Bessie (Cassie) has made a major breakthrough as she has been successfully meeting some of the other dogs at the shelter. It is a slow process, but this is huge and we hope this now opens up new adoption possibilities for her. There would need to be several meets before she could go home with anyone, but we feel she has broken through a major barrier that held her back. If you like black labs, she is the sweetest dog in the world with people and now can possibly do ok with another dog.

We have a host of other wonderful dogs as well that you must see. In the big to medium category, there’s Mollie, the Aussie/cattle dog mix, Leilah, the sweet 10-month-old German shepherd mix, Paisley, the sweet gorgeous fawn and white blue eyed beauty female pit mix. In addition to those mentioned above in the smaller version are Florasita, Shakira and Leroy Brown. All are on the website to peruse at petslifeline.org

Don’t wait, get your tickets now for the Olate Dogs on Sunday, Dec. 28, at 2 p.m. at the Sonoma Valley Veterans Memorial Building, available exclusively on our website (petslifeline.org). In addition to their awesome performance, they will also be premiering at least one (maybe two) of their new short films.

We are so excited to have the Olates back in town. They are the nicest folks in the world and they cherish their very talented dogs. The general admission tickets are very affordable at $35 for adults and $25 for children. We are also offering a VIP ticket that covers both adult and children and includes front section reserved table seating and a post event reception with food, wine and a meet and greet with the Olates and their adorable dogs.

Until we meet again ... peace, love and paws!