Crazy Critters Produce Odd Tales for Laguna Beach Animal Control Officer

When an unidentified critter fell through a Laguna Beach resident’s skylight, animal control officer Joy Lingenfelter showed up prepared.

“The resident thought it was an injured raccoon,” Lingenfelter said. “I had gloves and nets and poles and a cage.”

The animal, hiding behind a desk, growled but didn’t sound like a raccoon to Lingenfelter’s practiced ear. She called out, “Here kitty, kitty.” A gray cat leaped out--and promptly wedged itself inside the mechanical workings of a nearby recliner chair.

“She had gone from bad to worse,” Lingenfelter said.

The discombobulated tabby, which lived down the block, was rescued--after the chair was disassembled.

It’s a jungle in Laguna: Lingenfelter said when she meets with other animal control officers, “everyone has odd stories, but we seem to have more in Laguna Beach.”

Vivid memories for her include:

* Chasing down a 4 1/2-foot-long abandoned iguana in a hotel room. “It had really sharp nails and used its tail like a bull whip,” she said. “It really trashed that hotel room.”

* Finding a cat wedged in a car engine. “It had ridden here all the way from Riverside,” she said. “The driver heard something scratching. When I popped the hood, it was really filthy. The driver said he had seen it at the construction site where he worked.”

* Breaking up a fight between a llama and a pig in a backyard. “When I arrived, one police officer was standing on another’s shoulders and he said, ‘You’ve got to see this,’ ” she remembered. The combatants “were in a courtyard that was too small for them. The fight was mostly vocal. The pig was squealing and the llama was spitting and screaming back.”

At least no iguanas were involved.

Turning to the weather and sports . . .: I knew that universities, like pro teams, marketed various products.

But I was a bit surprised to see USC’s name associated with air pollution just a few blocks from campus (see photo).

Then again, the school’s football team has lost its last two games, so I guess you could say its prospects are hazy.

Low-tech forecasting: A photo recently appeared here of an Australian restaurant’s “Weather Stone,” which was accompanied by a sign with helpful hints such as: “A dry stone means it is not raining . . . If the stone is swinging, the wind is blowing.”

Terry Norsian of Norwalk wonders if that stone is a chip off the “Weather Rock,” a booklet with similar instructions that was copyrighted in 1976 by one Lloyd Howell of Trona, Calif.

Some mention also should be made of Chaffey College’s research into “wind identification,” which was contained in an otherwise serious booklet issued by the school a few years ago (see accompanying).

I’m not sure about the wind’s effects on USC smog.

miscelLAny:

Too much of a good thing? The Los Alamitos News-Enterprise said a Cypress resident “reported excessive honking due to a sign at the corner that stated, ‘If you love America, honk.’ ”

Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LA-TIMES, Ext. 77083, by fax at (213) 237-4712, by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A., 90012 and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com.