Operation Senior Dog Transport

Pocita's a little nervous at first

Los Angeles can be a hard place to be a homeless senior dog.  Shelters here are crowded and there are tons of lap-sized dogs available. So what's a dog to do if she finds herself without a place to call her own?

If she's lucky, she gets noticed by someone like my Facebook friend Claudia. I've "known" Claudia since a mutual friend "introduced" us a couple of years ago when we were looking for help with an abused dog that Gabriel had found near our house. But I hadn't ever met her in person until this Friday. She's a very dedicated animal rescuer, and I'm so happy that we were finally able to help one of her charges. Two years is a long time to owe someone a favor!

Earlier in the week I saw Pocita's photo on her wall, and that she needed a ride to Muttsville, a senior dog rescue in San Francisco. Coincidently, Gabriel and I were heading that direction to do some research for a comic book project we're working on. What luck! A couple of messages back and forth, and we were ready to take on our small passenger.

Starting to get interested in the trip

She was a bit worried at first. She'd lost her person to cancer and ended up as a foster at the age of 8 or 9. And here she was getting in a car with a couple of strangers after already traveling all the way from Long Beach to Los Angeles with Claudia! No wonder she was too nervous to eat breakfast.

She was too well mannered to whine or complain though, and after we'd been on the road for a little while she decided that my lap wasn't too terrible of a place to sit.

Life looks better with cheese

Then, after I bribed her with a tiny piece of cheese , she decided that maybe things would be okay after all and started to relax.

More cheese?

We stopped a lot more than we usually do on the LA to San Francisco run. Six hours in the car is a long time for anyone, let alone an elderly pup, but we still made it to the city in time to stop by the amazing Isotope Comics and meet James Sime, who sold us some very nice books and recommended that we visit Blue Bottle Coffee which did indeed have fabulous coffee. Many thanks to James for making us feel so welcome!

Either Pocita is very short or Gabriel is very tall

Before we got to Isotope we met up with Pocita's new foster, who couldn't have been nicer. Convinced that she was in good hands, we were free to travel the city and get the reference we needed for our new project. Happily, Ron Richards of iFanboy was nice enough to meet up with us and give us some tips. Without him we would have never been able to get everything we needed in just one afternoon. We also would never have found the bar we ended up at afterwards. Specs is in an alley right across from City Lights Books. Who knew? It's quite a fun place. I have to believe that only in San Francisco would Gabriel have been able to have a conversation about Tombo pens with a guy at the next table in a pub.

Sadly, we had to head home after just 24 hours. The trip back was a lot less fun without our co-pilot, but I have high hopes that she will get a permanent home soon. And now, back to making comics!

Pocita's first look at San Francisco