Steve Harvey will be on vacation until...

Steve Harvey will be on vacation until Tuesday. While he’s gone, this space will be filled with excerpts from his book “The Best of Only in L.A.,” just published by the L.A. Times Syndicate. Here are some items from the “Animals” chapter.

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SADLY, HE LATER FORFEITED HIS NOBEL PRIZE: Where dogs and homeowners are involved, snits happen. Perhaps the most creative lawn sign was posted by Milton Kagen of Hollywood, a warning that his plants were sprayed with “dioxinleucomaine.” No mutts left deposits on Kagen’s lawn after that. “Dioxinleucomaine,” he later confessed, was a word he made up.

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IT WAS NO PICNIC FOR AUTHORITIES: A colony of ants knocked out several traffic lights in Temple City after eating their way through electrical wires. They gained national renown after broadcaster Paul Harvey told his listeners about the “power lunch.”

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FORGET ABOUT FIDO AND ROVER: Those names are far too drab for Southern California. Here are the most common names of pooches in the city of L.A., according to dog license records:

1. Lady, 2. Max, 3. Brandy, 4. Rocky, 5. Bear, 6. Princess, 7. Duke, 8. Ginger, 9. Lucky, 10. Blackie, 11. Pepper, 12. Sandy, 13. Sam, 14. Samantha, 15. Muffin, 16. Sheba, 17. Shadow, 18. Coco, 19. Maggie, 20. Missy.

Some eye-catching names: Apricot Moose, Smut the Mutt, Cat, Did He Bite, Cocaine, Trust No Friend, L.A. Puke, Rolex, Hey You.

True L.A. names: Freeway, 405, On Ramp, Tail Light, Ozone, Smog, Hollywood, Quake.

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BETRAYED BY HIS SWEET TOOTH: A pot-bellied pig running loose in Pasadena had police stumped for a while. Then they put down a trail of cake crumbs leading to the backseat of a patrol car, and the pig ate his way into custody. “He was sitting on the backseat kind of oinking and snorting,” one officer said proudly.

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TALK ABOUT OUT OF BOUNDS! Golfer Fred Van Allen, playing the Mile Square course in Fountain Valley, hit a tee shot just short of a sand bunker. A fox emerged from the nearby trees, picked up the ball in his mouth, walked about 15 feet and then dropped it.

“I thought, ‘Great, he gives me a better lie [position],’ ” said Van Allen. But the fox had one last task to perform: “He takes about half a step, squats over the ball and urinates on it. Then he looks over his shoulder at me and runs off into the lot next door.”

Van Allen disposed of the ball by smacking it in the direction of the now-vanished fox.

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EVEN HER AGENT DIDN’T KNOW WHERE SHE WAS: During a Hollywood rehearsal for an Academy Awards telecast, belly dancer Veena Bidasha’s python disappeared. Bidasha camped overnight in the studio in hopes the snake would appear, but to no avail. Finally, five months later, the python was recaptured near the stage for the “Empty Nest” TV show. “She looks great,” a spokeswoman said. “We think she may have been hibernating.”

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June Lockhart, who acted in the “Lassie” TV show for six years, confirmed the gossip that had long circulated through Hollywood. All the dogs that portrayed the brave female star of the show were males. “Male dogs are easier to train,” Lockhart explained. “They’re bigger and they don’t have the problem, to delicately put it, of coming into season.”