If you’ve driven down Folsom Boulevard—right at 60th Street—you’ve past the Zoe McCrea Feline Sanctuary, a two-story cat habitat at Happy Tails Pet Sanctuary.
If you’re a Sacramento SPCA supporter or have recently taken your pet to the SSPCA spay/neuter clinic, you’re familiar with the new Zoe K. McCrea Animal Health Center.
Unlike other big benefactors in Sacramento, McCrea might not be a name you recognize. But it’s time you did.
Take a close look at the photo. Chain-link kennel, maybe 4 feet by 6 feet. Hardpan dirt. Feces underfoot. Empty food bowl. Filthy water dish. Solitary confinement. Here in Sacramento. And it’s legal.
My husband and I foster dogs for a local rescue group. In August on a 100-plus-degree day, I stood in the backyard of Becky Browning’s South Sacramento home. She had applied to adopt one of our foster mutts and I was performing a home visit.
Vine-covered arches and vintage brickwork. Quaint gabled dormers. Hand-blown antique glass windows. Storybook turrets.
The English-style Tudor, built in 1938, is the creation of famed architect and builder Frank “Squeaky” Williams—and was once home to Sacramento native and renowned author Joan Didion and her family.
Scattered patches of smoldering ash emit wisps of grey smoke—10 days after the fire. The once verdant flora is now black. The air hints of scorched grass underfoot.
“These hot spots are not out. I worry about what’s going to happen,” says Dr. Michelle Stevens, professor of environmental studies at Sac State. “Just let it all burn? Will we have nothing left?”
Bushy Lake, 20 acres of riparian landscape and wetland, located behind Cal Expo along the lower American River Parkway, has burned three times in recent years—2014, 2017 and this past June.
Soft mews came from the church ceiling. Staff could hear the kittens crying, but could not access the fragile felines.
Kitten Connection to the rescue.
“I could see the kittens in an AC duct,” says Stephanie McCall, a Kitten Connection volunteer. She grabbed a cardboard box, climbed a ladder and opened the air conditioning grate. “They all fell right into the box. I felt like Wonder Woman.”