PDP/PPM Books Contest, week 3

At the new Technique Restaurant on Colorado Blvd., depending on which side of the table you choose you may gaze at the ceiling...

...or at what is perhaps a more dramatic view: the kitchen and some quirky, food-related films.

Technique is the new "classroom" kitchen of the Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Pasadena. John and I had a lovely meal there the other night. We began with Grilled Haloumi Cheese with compressed watermelon and pickled rind, plus Roasted Bone Marrow with French radishes and toast with house-churned butter (I had to try it). For his meal John had fried, free range Jadori chicken, braised cavolo nero, pommes puree and a biscuit. I couldn't resist trying the Coffee Braised Short Ribs, parsnip puree and house made apple chips, which also came with some delectable root vegetables.

J raved about the cavolo nero all through dinner, of which he ate every bite. I didn't need a knife to cut my short ribs and I can't even begin to define the succulent flavor of that sauce. The parsnip puree alone is worth going back for. I did not eat every bite, I snarfed every bite.

We were too full for dessert. The room is a bit of an echo cavern, but that's the only drawback I can see.

An elegant, fantastic meal, cooked and served by Le Cordon Bleu students, and you won't believe the price. Go ahead, guess. (Liquor license is being applied for, so no wine.)

No prizes for getting that one right, but there is a prize today. We're supposed to be having a contest and indeed we are.

What historic building is now occupied by Technique Restaurant? That's today's contest question.

I've given you all the information you need to Google the answer. As a matter of fact, I've linked you to it.

A quick review of the contest rules:

1. Email the answer to me. There's a link to my email in my profile at the upper left. You have until midnight tonight, Pasadena (Pacific) time. Answers in the comments section will be rudely ignored.

2. That's all you have to do.

3. This weekend I'll ask my cutest, most innocent neighbor child to draw the winning name from a hat. I'll announce the winner in Sunday's post.

4. PRIZES! Once again, this week's prize will be a brand new copy of Hometown Pasadena 2009-2010, thanks to Colleen Dunn Bates and Prospect Park Media. I'm down to two copies after today, so the contest will continue for two more Fridays--plus an additional week when Colleen and I will give away a copy of At Home Pasadena, the lovely, hardcover coffee table book about beautiful living in our beautiful town.

Stick around, because one lucky winner will receive a copy of the brand new novel, Helen of Pasadena, by Pasadanish Lian Dolan. The book is now available on Amazon, at Vroman's and at bookstores everywhere. Whet your Helen appetite by reading chapter one here.

Many thanks to Colleen, Lian and everyone at Prospect Park Media.

Enlightened Art

Maybe you see Tibetan monks creating a sacred sand mandala every day, but since I don't I found this enthralling.

These monks are visiting Pasadena from the Drepung Loseling Phukhang Khangtsen monastery in southern India. (I just love that a monastery has a website.) The monastery was founded 500 years ago in Tibet, but when the Chinese occupied Tibet, as you may know, the Dalai Lama and his followers were forced to relocate their operations.

The Museum's website says, "...sand mandalas depict the world in its divine form, representing a map by which the ordinary human mind is transformed into the enlightened mind." Here, two of the visiting monks use tapered metal tubes to place colored sand grains onto the mandala. When they're finished with one color, they tap the excess out of the tube and it sounds like clinking your fork against your plate.

These guys are experts. The monastery didn't send the new kids on this job. You can see the outline on the table, a blueprint of where this work is headed.

If you're as fascinated by this arcane art form as I am, you can watch it in action for free at the Pacific Asia Museum, every day this week and only this week, from 10am-3:30pm. I missed the opening ceremony yesterday morning. The closing will be Sunday, when this ethereal work will be swept away at 2pm.

And a happy birthday to my brother Stuart! I don't think he checks here, but I like to say it anyway.

A Jones for Coffee (I'm sure they've heard that one before)

A fervent discussion over at Pasadena, 91105 and Beyond tells me coffee is of enough importance to--well, to spur a fervent discussion.

Coffee is also important enough to spawn workshops.

When I picked up the brochure at Jones Roasters I thought this was something new, but Jones has been offering Coffee Workshops since 1994. They offer an Introduction to Coffee, Intro to Cupping (what is cupping?) and even Home Brewing (we're still talking about coffee). The classes are inexpensive and kept to small groups.

The one I'd really like to try is already over for this year: Guatemala 2010. I hope they do a Guatemala 2011.

I'm not particularly emotional about the particulars of coffee. But coffee itself: yeah, I'm fervent.

Zen Tuesday: #9

Zen Monday is the day you experience the photo and give us your thoughts rather than me telling you what I think the photo's about. But as this is not Zen Monday but Zen Tuesday--hell, we can do whatever we want.

Theme Day: Public Transportation

(Tomorrow will be Zen Tuesday)

 

 

photo courtesy of Pasadena Adjacent

If you live in Pasadena you've seen this artfully decorated bus. Take a look at all the Pasadena icons: starting at left, you see the Thinker (one of Rodin's at the Norton Simon Museum), then the Colorado Street Bridge and the LA River. Next, City Hall in a bed of roses (we're the Rose City), the bell tower at St. Andrew, Pacific Asia Museum, a bunch of brands and...a bull.

Okay.

We are blessed at Pasadena Daily Photo today because, thanks to Pasadena Adjacent, we have scans of the original artwork that led to this design. How did she get hold of this work, you ask? Easy. Pasadena Adjacent, aka PA, created the art on this bus. Cool, huh? She was kind enough to take me through a little bit of the process.

Here's a scan of an early proposed design:

Left to right: PA started with the tile from the Royal Laundry on South Raymond. Next, parakeets. I didn't know this, but PA says there used to be parakeets (wholly different from our famous parrots) in the Arroyo Seco near where Busch Gardens used to be. (PA should know, she grew up here.) Then you have the bridge and the river.

The portrait of the two women refers to one of the more interesting stories from the Colorado Street Bridge's dark side, aka "Suicide Bridge." "...a despondent mother threw her baby girl over the railing on May 1, 1937. She then followed her into the depths of the canyon. Though the mother died, her child miraculously survived."

I was going to say "one of the more tragic stories," but they're all tragic.

Then we have the brands and the...bull.

You may be aware that some folks in Pasadena don't like calling our bridge "Suicide Bridge." The idea of commemorating a suicide attempt on the side of a bus didn't sit well with the bus art people. But they liked PA's work so they sent her back to the (literal) drawing board. I don't know why the tile and the parakeets were dropped--not iconic enough?

PA returned with this:

Now we're getting there! You see our Thinker on the left, and the bridge, City Hall in its bed of roses, St. Andrew's Tower and the Pacific Asia Museum. On the right we have a cut-out of a Rose Bowl Queen. Totally iconic Pasadena.

PA's idea was to include under the queen's crown a picture of Dr. Kate Hutton, aka "the earthquake lady." See the seismograph running along the length of the San Gabriel Mountains in the background? Dr. Hutton, a Caltech seismologist, is a local fixture on the news whenever there's earthquake activity. Queen Kate's scepter is a parking meter. PA says parking meters were new in town (it was 1994) and folks weren't too happy about them. I guess before then you could park pretty much anywhere in Pasadena for free.

The bus art people didn't want earthquakes or suicide or parking meter jokes.

Fine. PA threw the bull back in.

What's up with the brands and the bull?

PA had done her research. The brands are not about the bull, as I had assumed. They're the brands of of the different California missions. The bull represents the Indiana Colony, the first Anglos to settle Pasadena, some of whom were cattle ranchers.

And PA did manage to inject a bit of humor into the design: the Thinker is soaking his toes in the Los Angeles River.

This has been a fun post to put together, thanks to Pasadena Adjacent. Let's give her a big hand! She's an immensely talented artist and Pasadena is lucky to have her. Thank you, PA!

Update: I'm now at liberty to tell you that Pasadena Adjacent's name is Elizabeth Garrison. She and her partner Victor Henderson have created numerous works of public art around southern California. Tash did a great post about their work at Fire Station #5 in Westchester.

City Daily Photo is now 1299 blogs strong! Blogs all over the world are participating in today's theme day. Check them out.

Happy Halloween

This guy looks happy, right?

John and I saw him in the window of The Kitchen, a gourmet catering and gifty shop. It's in that "bonus" part of Pasadena that's so far west on Colorado Blvd. it's almost in Eagle Rock--but it's still ours.

Okay, this is it. Pasadena (even the bonus part) is decked out for Halloween. Tonight the holiday season begins in a big, loud whoosh!

We'd like to think no, we've got almost a month before Thanksgiving, but it's really only three weeks and that goes by fast. Then a month until Christmas, a week until New Year's, and poof! Where did the time go?

So I'm trying to think right now, to remember: savor. Savor the little kiddies coming to the door, savor the autumn clouds and crisp air, savor the parties even if there are too many, savor the food (of course), even savor the crowds at the stores, dammit, if that's what I have to do. I'm going to have fun this holiday season. I'm going to enjoy every minute of it, from the weird decorations to the traffic, so that every gift I give arrives in the hands of its recipient loaded with good vibes.

If this sounds like a resolution, it is. Feel free to call me on it if I start complaining.

Happy Halloween, for starters.

***********
I promised to announce the winner of the PDP/PPM Books Contest Week 2, and tada! It's Melinda Baumle of Pasadena! Congratulations, Melinda. Melinda's name was randomly drawn from among all the correct answers to Friday's contest question by my cute, innocent neighbor, PDP's resident geologist Becca. (What can I say? The neighborhood kids must have been working on their costumes.) Melinda says her prize, a brand new copy of Hometown Pasadena 2009-2010, will come in handy because she has little ones and is always in need of new things to do to entertain them. Hometown Pasadena has a good kids' section.

Hometown Pasadena makes a great gift, too. I have more to give away. We'll play again Friday.

Update: I forgot to say what the answer to the question was! The Braley Building is owned by the Church of Scientology.

Acknowledgment

It's about time I acknowledged that Halloween's coming tomorrow. Better late than never.

I like this holiday because of its roots in the Celtic holiday of Samhain (the Wikipedia article is well-researched). We've strayed from those origins, but there's still something pagan about dressing up as someone you're not and running around in the dark, begging for treats while threatening to play tricks if you don't get them.

Around my neighborhood, styrofoam grave stones fill the yards, ghosts dangle from trees and skeletons rise out of grassy front lawns. Horrid goblins hang from the neck above doorways, spiders crawl along rooftops and certain doors, when opened, emit screams.

I wonder how parents explain all this death to their children. My first thought is this is a good way to introduce them to it. Death is fun! It's only scary in a Boo! sort of way. Maybe the subject of death doesn't come up, at least not with the littlest ones. Maybe it's all just candy and costumes.

But of course Halloween is about death. That's what the Celts celebrated at Samhain--the end of autumn, the approaching winter, the symbolic death creeping over the land. It's a fine time, at season's change, to note that we walk in a world others once walked, and to acknowledge that in some ways they still do.

We live in the homes they built, we absorb the art they created, we learn, over and over again, how their actions shaped our lives. If we're lucky we get to see the ruins they left behind in Rome, in Paris, or in Altadena. We live among the dead and this is a good thing. This weekend we acknowledge and celebrate them.

PDP/PPM Books Contest, week 2

I love the faded writing on some of the buildings in Old Town. This says "Keller Bros." something. I can't make it out. I wonder what kind of business the Keller brothers had in there.

We're looking at the back of the Braley Building on Raymond Avenue. The Braley has housed a lot of businesses: an antiques mall, a sandwich shop, an accountant, a theater company, a beloved Italian restaurant--all at the same time, all when I was first discovering Pasadena, all gone now.

The Braley recently underwent a renovation it didn't really need, but new owners can do that if they want to. In this photo taken this past May, if you look closely you can see a worker putting the final touches on the etchings in the middle window on the right.

Who is the owner of the Braley Building?

That's today's contest question. I've given you all the information you need to Google the answer, so you don't have to be a local to figure it out.

Let's review the contest rules:

1. Email the answer to me. There's a link to my email in my profile at the upper left. You have until midnight tonight, Pasadena (Pacific) time. Answers in the comments section will be rudely ignored.

2. That's all you have to do.

3. This weekend I'll toss all the correct answers into a hat and ask my cutest, most innocent neighbor child to draw one name. (The job of cutest/most innocent neighbor child will revolve throughout the duration of the contest. Last week it turned out to be Linda. The kids were all at the park or something.) I'll announce the winner in Sunday's post. (That's Sunday. Last week it was Monday. Change of plans.)

4. PRIZES! This week, once again the prize will be a brand new copy of Hometown Pasadena 2009-2010, thanks to Colleen Dunn Bates and Prospect Park Media. I started with five, but last week's winner, Tracie Cohen of Los Angeles, has deprived me of one. Now I have four of these to give away, so the contest will go on each Friday for four more weeks--plus an additional week when Colleen and I will give away a copy of At Home Pasadena, the lovely, hardcover coffee table book about beautiful living in our beautiful town.

I'm very excited because at some point during the contest one lucky winner will receive a copy of the brand new novel, Helen of Pasadena, by Pasadenamanian Lian Dolan. The book won't be available on Amazon until November 1st but I saw it at Vroman's yesterday. And you can whet your Helen appetite by reading chapter one here.

Many thanks to Colleen, Lian and all the Prospect Park Media writers for making this contest possible!

And a Happy Birthday shout-out to my sister, Ginab.

It's All High Tech To Me

I was going to post a photo of the entryway to the Guggenheim building at Caltech, but I like this shot better. Like yesterday's photo, I took this one inside on the second floor.

From the two shots, yesterday's and today's, you'd might guess the Guggenheim is a sleek, 21st century building but the exterior is actually more classic-looking. Inside, though, it's all high tech with natural light, modern art and glass display cases showing old documents and artifacts from early Caltech work.

The transition from classic, late 1920's exterior to modern interior is due to a renovation by John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects, completed in 2008. The linked article shows a photo of the interior of the conference room above; be sure and check out the slide show, too.

I'm intrigued by the document on display in the foreground. Could it be some world-saving formula, typed by Einstein's secretary?

Some of my titles are better than others.

For more Caltech photos, click on the Caltech label below.

Serene Science

Speaking of happy accidents, today I came across this photo in my files. I knew I had taken it at Caltech, but couldn't remember exactly where.

One day nearly two years ago (and I assure you I'm not digressing), Boz and I met a woman walking her dog. I had my camera, as always, and when I called to Boz the woman recognized his name. "You're the Pasadena Daily Photo lady," she said, or words to that effect.

Long story short: we became friends. It turned out she worked at Caltech and she invited me for a tour of the campus. I took this photo on that tour in March of 2009.

I don't know why I haven't posted it before except I forgot I had it, and in all that time I forgot what it was. So when I came across it I dashed off an email to my friend to ask her what it is.

She said this room is "on the second floor the Guggenheim building on campus (one of those flanking the Olive Walk between the Athenaeum and the turtle pond). This building houses GALCIT, the Graduate Aeronautical Laboratories of the California Institute of Technology." She sent me the link, too. If you click it you'll see a photo of a fantastic balloon. I got a picture of it deflated, which is cool but not as cool as seeing it full-blown. The Guggenheim building has an attractive entryway. Maybe I'll post that tomorrow.

My generous friend is Bellis, a regular commenter here. I'd say meeting her was a happy accident except it wasn't an accident. We both have dogs, we both live in Pasadena, and we both like to walk our dogs in natural settings. You could say our meeting was a happy accident waiting to happen.

The Caltech campus is one of Pasadena's most beautiful places to walk. The sun has returned and we're having a gorgeous autumn. Enjoy.

Happy Accidents

This isn't at all what I was trying to photograph, but some accidents are happy ones:

like how I ended up at a temp job in the 90's with a supervisor who is still my best client;

like when my regular doctor wasn't available and the nurse practitioner diagnosed and treated my problem that he couldn't help me with (poof! new regular doctor);

like when I stumbled upon Paris Daily Photo online and it inspired me to create Pasadena Daily Photo;

like how the rental house fell through at the last minute and John and I had to take a place in Altadena, thereby discovering the good life in The Dena (we got married in that back yard);

like when we ended up at the wrong animal shelter and instead of a vanilla lab we adopted Boz;

like when I went to see my friend perform in an improv show and her friend John was there too (see photo);

et cetera.

Got a happy accident? Let's hear about it.

Zen Monday: #118

Zen Monday is the day you experience the photo and give us your thoughts rather than me telling you what I think the photo's about.

I look for a photo worth contemplating or, failing that, something odd or silly. And unless I absolutely must say something, I stay out of the comments box until the end of the day to avoid influencing the discussion. You know, because it's so deep and meaningful.

There's no right or wrong. We're here to have fun.

************

Thank you all for entering the PDP/PPM Books contest Friday. I promised to announce Friday's contest winner today. Tracie Cohen, you are the big winner! I'll email you and make arrangements to send you your book, Hometown Pasadena 2009-2010 from Prospect Park Media.

22 out of 23 entries got the right answer to the question, "What's the closest cemetery to Pasadena's northern border?"  It's Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena.

Thanks for entering! Another chance to win comes around this Friday.

Time Skies

Looking north to Pasadena from Raymond Hill.

On a fall day in Illinois when I was about fifteen, the skies were like these skies--cloudy and restless. It was my first year in high school. The route home from school was about a mile, maybe a little more. I could have cut through the neighborhoods to Lions Park but instead I took Taylor Street, because it was straighter and it got me to the same place. I guess I was in a hurry.

As I crossed the bridge over the Kishwaukee River a feeling of sadness overwhelmed me. It was a beautiful melancholy, an adult feeling I'd never felt before. I wanted to understand it, to keep it.

I slowed down and cut through the park, shuffling through the mixture of pine needles and autumn leaves on the ground. I didn't have words for the feeling, but I knew Time was moving--I was moving. There was no stopping either of us and precious things were being left behind. The brand new knowledge of that enormity was what I wanted to savor.

I stayed among the pine trees, as though stepping out into the open would end the spell. A trickle of river ran alongside the grove, and from where I stood I could see the small shelter by the baseball diamond. The park was empty. I waited as long as I could, hiding in the trees and holding my new feeling until some kids came along on bikes, breaking into the autumn silence. It was time to go home.

Fleeting time is a familiar concept to me now. It's just as enormous as it was then--no less beautiful and no less sad.

Fun With Flowers

We rarely get driving rain in the Los Angeles basin--the kind that pelts buckets and makes you pull off the road because you can't see. We do get rain, however. (We'd almost forgotten it.) This past week we had several days of constant, gentle showers. The drought-dry soil just drank it up and all the plants are dazzled.

These miniature roses are delovely the way they are. Then again, they begged to be messed with in post.

What do you think? Anniversary card "to the one I love?" Get well card?
Maybe a sympathy card.

The black and white doesn't quite work, I suppose because the color values of the leaves and flowers are too much the same. I kind of like it, though. Now there's your sympathy card.

This could go on, but you get the idea. How will you be wasting away your weekend?

PDP/PPM Books Contest, week 1

Honestly, I don't know what this is. It isn't a grave stone, but I took the photo at a cemetery.

We don't have cemeteries in Pasadena, did you know that? Not a single one. That may be disappointing for anyone who loves Pasadena so much they'd like to remain here for eternity. However, there are several lovely cemeteries nearby.

What's the closest cemetery to Pasadena's northern border?

That's where I took this photo, and it's the contest question for today. I've given you all the information you need to Google the answer, so even if you're not a local you should be able to figure it out.

Here are the contest rules:

1. Email the answer to me. There's a link to my email in my profile at the upper left. You have until midnight tonight, Pasadena (Pacific) time. Answers in the comments section will be rudely ignored.

2. That's all you have to do.

3. This weekend I'll toss all the correct answers into a hat and ask my cutest, most innocent neighbor child to draw one name. (The job of cutest/most innocent neighbor child will revolve throughout the duration of the contest.) I'll announce the winner in Monday's post.

4. PRIZES! This week, the prize will be a brand new copy of Hometown Pasadena 2009-2010, thanks to Colleen Dunn Bates and Prospect Park Media. I have five of these to give away (maybe more, hint hint), so the contest will go on each Friday for five weeks--plus an additional week (that would be SIX weeks, Petrea), when Colleen and I will give away a copy of At Home Pasadena, the lovely, hardcover coffee table book about beautiful living in our beautiful town.

I'm very excited because at some point during the contest one lucky winner will receive a copy of the brand new novel, Helen of Pasadena, by Pasadenyite Lian Dolan. This book is so new it isn't available until November 1st. But you can whet your Helen appetite by reading chapter one here.

Many thanks to Colleen, Lian and all the Prospect Park Media writers for making this contest possible!

Locals Only

The skies should be clear for Locals Only Thursday in Old Town. Today's the day to get your shopping done.

Locals Only Thursdays rewards people who live and/or work in Pasadena for spending their money here. And why not? You might as well put money into the economy where it can do you and your city some good. Just show your driver's license or business card at participating businesses on Thursdays during October to receive specials, discounts and/or premiums.

I recommend you check out the link. Some offerings are better than others.

Most clothing stores on the list offer good discounts and perks. There are several decent restaurant bargains, too, although if you ask me, "two free English muffins" isn't nearly as enticing as "$3 martinis, mixed drinks, appetizers and beer." (Is that just me?)

Not all Old Town businesses are participating, so check the link and plan accordingly. There are only so many hours in one shopping day, and you still need to get over to Burke Williams and get 15% off that mani-pedi.

Aerial

I took this photo last year at about this time, then forgot about it. I ran across it last night, messed with the color and contrast, and came up with this.

I'm not sure what to say about it except I like it.

Yes, I took it in Pasadena. It's not an aerial shot. I was gazing out over the Devil's Gate Dam, looking north. This area is all overgrown now, but a year ago after the Station Fire and before the winter rains, the land was bare and a little stream trickled through it. We had ceased to take the dogs down there because of the color of the water. It was orange, though not this bright, from the fire retardant run-off from the Station Fire, according to Bellis. Dogs just don't care. They'll splash about in liquid plutonium if it looks like fun.

I detect footprints in this photo. They could belong to me, and to a certain canid I know.

The Real Thing

This moss-covered bust of Shakespeare stands (where else?) in the Shakespeare garden at the Huntington Library and Gardens. He looks like a friendly, handsome guy, doesn't he? Maybe, maybe not.

The Huntington owns many fine portraits. I especially admire those by the great Sir Joshua Reynolds, who knew how to make a likeness look like it was painted from life. But none of the portraits in their collection are of Shakespeare. Only two likenesses of Shakespeare have been proven to be definitive. Both are posthumous. One is the funerary monument that looks over his grave inside Holy Trinity Church at Stratford-on-Avon, England. The other is an engraving by Martin Droeshout, printed in the First Folio of Shakespeare in 1623 (Shakespeare died in 1616). Many have claimed to own a portrait of Shakespeare, but only these two are proven to be the real thing.

It's thought that about 1,000 Shakespeare First Folios were printed back in 1623. Of the 228 still extant, one is housed at the Huntington Library. It's one of the most valuable books in the world and it's often on display for viewing by the likes of you and me.

I had long been using the Folio in my research when I had the good fortune to study Shakespeare in England one summer. My teachers included members of the Royal Shakespeare Company. I got to walk the ground Shakespeare walked. I went to Stratford-on-Avon and visited Shakespeare's grave. I returned to the States with a reverence for the bona fide genius of the man.

My First Folio is a 20th century facsimile copy of the original. Every once in a while I like to make a pilgrimage to the Huntington to see the real thing.

Zen Monday: #117

Zen Monday is the day you experience the photo and give us your thoughts rather than me telling you what I think the photo's about.

I look for a photo worth contemplating or, failing that, something odd or silly. And unless I absolutely must say something, I stay out of the comments box until the end of the day to avoid influencing the discussion. You know, because it's so deep and meaningful.

There's no right or wrong. We're here to have fun.

Good Souls

This is Boz. We're not sure of his history but after having lived with him for 7 1/2 years I can tell you it was probably something like this: he was loved and well treated. One day, someone left a gate open or a door unlatched. Boz got out and wandered. Dogs are like that. They're innocent creatures. They don't know it's dangerous out there. They just want a little adventure.

Boz (or whatever his name was then) didn't have a nametag and he didn't have a chip. He got lost. He got scared. Luckily, a good soul found him. Luckily, he ended up in a no-kill shelter. Lucky for him and lucky for us. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but we're madly in love with him.

A good soul put up signs in my neighborhood today:

I don't know this little guy's name. If you do, that's lucky for both of you. Please call the Humane Society at 626-792-7151 and claim him. Then get him chipped. Put a collar on him with your phone number on it. Then give him a kiss and be happy you're both so lucky.

Which brings me to Keera.

I wish I'd thought to post about Keera before, but the other dog's poster is what made me think of her. Keera's signs have been up in the hood for a few weeks. The part of the story I know is that her owner's home was broken into, and in the melee she ran out the door and disappeared. Rumor has it she was last seen in Altadena, but rumor is a part of the story I don't know. Have you seen her? I keep hoping someone found her and took her in.

Maybe Keera wasn't meant to get out. The point is, you never know. A collar with your phone number (a few bucks at the pet store) and a microchip (about $10-$15), are for your dog's safety.

Dogs are such good souls. I hope you know these two and have a chance to be a good soul for them.