Cathryn Rakich

Editor and Home Design and Pets Columnist

About This Author

Cathryn Rakich has been a writer and editor in the Sacramento area for 35 years, with articles in local, state and national publications. She is also active in the animal-welfare community, volunteering for local animal rescue groups. Her latest endeavor is as a ceramics artist.

Articles by this author

Criminal Intent

The heavy metal trap clamped down on the opossum’s neck with the power of a jackhammer.

Spring-loaded to deliver deadly force, the trap drove the young marsupial over a wood fence separating two Elk Grove homes where he hung for 24 hours before the neighbor called for help.

The old-style, body-gripping device “crushed his esophagus,” says Sandra Foreman, animal care manager with the Wildlife Care Association of Sacramento. “It was tight around his neck, like someone strangling you.”

River Rhetoric

Nearly 300 people tuned in for a recent virtual “community conversation” with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Residents expected an open dialogue and answers to questions about erosion-control efforts along the lower American River.

Instead, they got scripted presentations, a history lesson dating back to the Gold Rush, more than 20 charts and graphs— and were left with a lot of unanswered questions.

“We were disappointed there wasn’t any kind of dialogue,” homeowner Pete Spaulding says.

Walk This Way

At home, Albert is calm and relaxed, indifferent to cats and other canines. The scruffy mutt takes treats with gentility and shares toys like a gentleman.

Leashed walks are a different story. At the sight of another dog, large or small, Albert is a model for leash aggression.

“He barks and spins uncontrollably and aggressively,” Albert’s owner Nicole Martin says. “And lunges in the direction of the other dog.”

Dogs with leash aggression, also called fear reactivity, will bark, lunge, snarl and snap at other dogs, sometimes people, while on leash. An afternoon stroll becomes a physical and emotional struggle for dog and owner.

A Better Way

My husband and I live two blocks from the American River Parkway. Dog walks are daily events along dirt paths lined with old oaks and thick sagebrush. The river flows steps away.

We share space with snowy egrets, pond turtles, mallard ducks and Canada geese. Occasionally a family of mule deer allows us to pass.

The problem with having a majestic river in your backyard?

Sacramento is one of the most at-risk areas for flooding in the United States, reports the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

PAWS To Go

Dags was named for the dagger-shaped marking on the back of his neck. A mix of husky, pit bull and lab, the big mutt lives with owner Joey Rival at the Safe Stay Community on Florin Road.

The community offers cabin-style shelters for 125 unhoused guests and their pets.

“I take Dags everywhere I go,” says Rival, who moved to Safe Stay last November. At the time, his 2-year-old canine companion was not neutered.

That’s when Sacramento County’s PAWS (Pet Aid & Wellness Services) Mobile Clinic stepped in.