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
Passion For Pottery
Clay bowls, cups, vessels and vases crowd open shelving. Some of the ceramic pieces are finished with swirling earth-toned glazes. Others await their turn in a kiln.
Buckets of home-mixed glazes line one wall from top to bottom. Ceramicist tools and art supplies fill plastic bins. Pottery wheels sit side by side, adjacent to long high-top working tables.
23C Studio is a ceramic arts cooperative tucked away in a warehouse at 23rd and C streets in Midtown. The space is dusty and rustic, open to the weather, no air conditioning and limited heating. But the studio is fully equipped for wheel throwing and hand building, creating and collaborating.
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Service Call
Most city residents never heard of Matt Hertel. Yet sooner or later, many will interact with the department he runs, the Community Development Department.
Want to build an addition to your home? Community Development.
Opening a restaurant or small business? Community Development.
Reporting a nuisance property? Community Development.
Looking to adopt a pet? Community Development.
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Wrong Way
Five years ago, the state Legislature budgeted $50 million to stop killing “adoptable” and “treatable” dogs and cats in California animal shelters.
Today, the $50 million is gone. The killing continues.
In 2025, the city’s Front Street Animal Shelter euthanized 1,823 companion animals. The county’s Bradshaw Animal Shelter killed 2,603. More than 110,000 dogs and cats were euthanized statewide, second only to Texas.
Where did things go wrong?
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Snake Safety
There are two reasons I don’t walk my dogs along the American River Parkway this time of year: foxtails and rattlesnakes.
Foxtail grass has a bushy seed head. As it matures and dries under Sacramento’s hot summer sun, the spiked “tail” becomes rigid and barbed. It can lodge in fur, skin, eyes, ears and nose. The result is painful for the pet and expensive for the owner.
Then there are rattlesnakes. Fear them or endear them, this native reptile lives among us.
Active spring through fall, Sacramento’s late winter heatwave “caused the snakes to jumpstart their seasonal activity,” Michael Starkey, founder of the local nonprofit Save The Snakes, says. “If it’s warmer, you’ll have more activity. If it’s colder, you’ll have less activity.”
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If Not Now, When?
Thousands of unwanted dogs and cats have flooded the city’s Front Street Animal Shelter in recent years. City officials faced a decision. They could promote adoptions and spay-neuter strategies. Or turn to euthanasia.
The city chose euthanasia. In 2024, Front Street killed 1,463 companion animals. In 2025, deaths jumped to 1,823. That’s five animals intentionally killed every day.
Most died due to limited capacity and escalating behavior issues, no surprise given the stressful environment in which they landed.
So when a recommendation came before the city’s Animal Wellbeing Commission for a six-month pilot program to promote adoption and rescue of senior animals and those at-risk of euthanasia, why would anyone vote no?
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