Valley Pet Run

Three shopping days ‘til Christmas, and Tyrone Tann wasn’t about to leave the East Valley Animal Shelter without a dog.

He wanted to spend the holidays with his new best friend--he could just imagine her, playful yet protective, curled up on the couch. But first he had to find her, and he already had his heart broken once Wednesday morning.

Tann had fallen hard for a golden retriever mix at the Burbank shelter. Determined to take her home, he dragged his sleeping bag out to the sidewalk and spent a blustery night camped out at the kennel’s door.

But when the day dawned, the Northridge man found his dream dog had other suitors--12 of them. The lucky owner, some Johnny-come-lately who showed up five minutes before the shelter opened, was chosen by lottery.

“I’m just trying to mend my heart now,” Tann said as he gazed at a sad-eyed husky.

All around him, would-be pet owners peered into cages and poked their fingers through the bars to stroke the animals. As the holiday approaches, pet adoptions have more than doubled at the city’s East Valley shelter. At the county-run Agoura Animal Shelter, adoptions have tripled since Dec. 15, manager Bruce Richards said.

Shelter workers are keeping a close watch on the brisk trade, making sure people have considered the prospect of a dozen years of late-night walks with the pooper-scooper before rushing home with a new companion.

Youth, Looks in Demand

For those ready to adopt, first impressions matter. Like people, the popular animals tend to be young and good-looking (“You’re pretty. Maybe I’ll take you home,” one woman said to a calico cat.)

Personality counts too. George Snider, a Sherman Oaks resident, was eager to adopt a cat. But the only one available was a reserved tabby huddling in the back of his cage.

“Come on, man,” Snider coaxed. “You don’t want to get scratched on the ears?”

And then there are the lifestyle considerations.

Mary Jane Wohlers and her son Spencer were in the market for a dog, but they wanted one young enough to adapt to their other pet, namely a duck.

“That way, we could introduce him to the duck and say, ‘This is our duck. Do not eat it,’ ” Wohlers said.

Some shelters are just as choosy about people, especially during the holiday season. Nobody wants to hand over to a family a fuzz ball kitten that might wind up back at the shelter a week later, after the kids tire of their new pet.

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals/Los Angeles denies adoptions to people planning to give pets as gifts. Instead, the organization offers gift certificates so people can choose their own companions, spokeswoman Kimberly Little said.

Sure, it’s less romantic than finding a puppy snuggled inside your crimson stocking on Christmas morn, but shelters want to be sure animals go to homes that really want them.

A Match Meant to Be

Some shelters ban pet adoptions the week before Christmas. The same principle applies before Halloween, when many shelters forbid adoptions of black cats for fear the animals will become the objects of pranks rather than affection.

Tann, a 27-year-old film producer and actor, was already the proud owner of a tiny flying squirrel known as a sugar glider. But try teaching a marsupial to fetch a tennis ball.

“It’s just time to have a dog,” he said.

So he escorted the husky on the kennel’s equivalent of a first date, leading her outside to a fenced-in patch of grass. But something didn’t quite click. The dog was a bit too big and furry for Tann’s taste.

Then he met Dolly, a short-haired, wriggly corgi already spayed and housebroken. After a quick romp outside, Tann gathered the dog into his arms. She nuzzled against his shoulder.

Memories of the golden retriever from Burbank were clearly fading. For $40, Dolly was his--though Tann planned to rename her, perhaps after Cindy Brady. “I think,” he said, “this was meant to be.”