COUNTYWIDE : Pet Lovers Doing All the Traffic Will Bear

When Carol Stewart plunged into evening rush-hour traffic on Garden Grove Boulevard to rescue a lost dog, getting hit by a car was about the last thing on her mind.

“I walked right into traffic,” the Santa Ana woman said, remembering that June night at the intersection of Garden Grove and Harbor boulevards in Garden Grove. “Cars were going around him, swerving not to hit him, but no one really seemed to care. I just couldn’t leave without doing anything.”

Stewart not only saved the dog, she found a home for it.

As a result of her action, Stewart will be one of five Orange County residents to receive special recognition Sunday from the KDOC-TV Channel 56 show “The Pet Place.”

Fred Bergendorff, executive producer of “The Pet Place,” said he decided to honor people who help animals after seeing a young boy stop traffic on Pacific Coast Highway in Long Beach in order to allow a family of ducks cross the street.

“It is to acknowledge people who are voices for animals,” Bergendorff said.

In all, 15 Southland residents will receive a “Pet Place Special Recognition Award” at a banquet in Huntington Beach on Sunday afternoon.

Christine Freeman of Irvine is another Orange County resident who will be honored Sunday. When Freeman’s beloved cat Cassandra disappeared this summer, her search led her to speak with more than a hundred other people also searching for lost pets.

“It evolved from me networking with a lot of people,” Freeman said. “I would read the want ads, and I began calling people and telling them if I thought I saw their cat at a shelter.”

Cassandra was never found. But area pet owners began to hear about Freeman’s work, and soon she was advising people on the most effective ways of finding lost pets.

The other Orange County residents to be honored are Sheriff’s Reserve Lt. Lawrence Harris for his work with bloodhounds used to track missing people; Mary Bavry of Santa Ana, for her work with the Orange County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals; and Gordon Perrine of Orange for paying to have more than 50 stray cats in his neighborhood spayed and neutered.

“The Pet Place” began airing in Long Beach in 1990 and now airs on five cable stations and KDOC-TV. Besides discussing topics of interest to pet owners, about 15 dogs and cats in area animal shelters are featured on the show each week in an effort to increase adoption rates.

Since 1990, more than 2,500 pets have been adopted as a result of the program.