Page 6 March 31, 2016 TORRANCE TRIBUNE Purrrfect Companions Hiccup Willie Share springtime with a wonderful feline friend and adopt your purr-fect match. Not ready to adopt, but need your “kitten fix”? Check out our Kitten Cam and watch this beautiful mama and her five kittens who we recently rescued from a city shelter - http:// explore.org/live-cams/player/kitten-rescue-cam. Hiccup and the rest of the “how-to-train-yourdragon kittens” were rescued from the streets of Los Angeles. It is very scary to be scooped up and whisked off to the unknown, but this little pipsqueak is positively adorable! Hiccup loves to cuddle with your ankles, whether on the bed at night or hanging out watching TV. He will sit on any ankles available, including the ankles of a stranger if that’s all he can find. Hiccup is a bit flighty when it comes to sudden movements, so a calm, quiet home would be best. He would not do well with small or energetic children. Hiccup would do best with a confident, outgoing kitty who can continue to show him how to be brave. He needs a forever feline friend as he loves to cuddle with other cats. Hookfang (another of the “how-to-trainyour dragon kittens” ) is a handsome little guy who is incredibly sweet and loving. He would do best in a calm, quiet home where he can Stella and Bella are two stunning eight month old sister kittens. Together since birth, these two are truly best friends and inseparable. They love to run and play and be loved. They like to look outside and sleep under the bed. Stella and Bella are very good with children and tolerant of other pets! Just like a couple of pups, they are trained to come for food when you whistle. These gorgeous girls are waiting for their forever home; come and meet them! Willie was rescued with his four siblings and another litter of kittens from a storage facility. He was one of the tiniest of the group, but has since grown into an amazingly handsome boy reflecting his mixed Maine Coon heritage. This little love bug loves cuddling and playing. Being raised with so many siblings, Willie would do best in a home that already has a resident cat or kitten. Or he would happily be adopted with one of his siblings or cousins. These kitties are available for adoption through Kitten Rescue, one of the largest cat rescue groups in Southern California. All of our kitties are spayed/neutered, microchipped, tested for FeLV and FIV, dewormed and current on their vaccinations. For additional information and to see these or our other kittens and cats, continue to learn just how awesome people really are. Hookfang sleeps on the bed, loves to play with toys, and will snuggle on your legs when you watch TV on the couch. . He loves one of his foster friends, Dita, but can be adopted with any kitty. Hookfang would likely do best with a kitty friend, but could be a single with someone who is home all day and can give him lots of love and attention. Little Dita was rescued from the LA City Shelter system when she was very small. Tragically, she was the only survivor from her litter as they were very small, malnourished, and sick when rescued. Dita, however, has flourished and is rapidly turning into a stunning little kitty. This girl is a spunky, diva with hints of an alpha personality. She bosses all the other kitties around, always bouncing through every room, and clambering all over her foster mom. Dita loves to burrow under the covers, attack the strings on your hoodie, perch on your keyboard, and snuggle in your lap. She loves other cats is a mega cuddle bug. Dita needs a forever kitty friend in her home. She’d love to be adopted with one of her foster friends or can go to a home with a resident kitty who will let her be the boss. Stella and Bella Dita Hookfang please check our website www.kittenrescue.org or email us at mail@kittenrescue.org. Your tax deductible donations for the rescue and care of our cats and kittens can be made through our website or by sending a check payable to Kitten Rescue, 914 Westwood Blvd. #583, Los Angeles, CA 90024. On Saturdays, we have adoptions from noon to 3:30 p.m. in Westchester at 8655 Lincoln Blvd. just south of Manchester Ave. and also in Mar Vista at 3860 Centinela Ave, just south of Venice Boulevard. Our website lists additional adoption sites and directions to each location. • By TerriAnn Ferren Tomorrow we enter into the fourth month of the year. The first day of which also happens to be April Fools Day. Where this custom actually originated I can’t say, but as long as I can remember lots of harmless practical jokes have been played on and around me. Most of the tricks I played as a child were similar to moving the salt into the peppershaker and the pepper into the saltshaker. My sister, Linda and I would try and fool each other with things but I must admit the efforts weren’t elaborate or serious. Have you ever played an April Fools joke on someone? Or have you been on the receiving end of an April Fools joke? One of the reasons I usually don’t play pranks is I’m not very good at it. I wondered if others in our city of Torrance have played a practical joke or been the recipient of an April Fools prank. I decided to find out. Later the next evening, I asked Hannah Findling if she ever played an April Fools joke on anyone and she told me, “Yes, I took Oreo’s and I opened them up and I scraped out the frosting and put white toothpaste inside. You have to do it fairly quick ‘cuz they get just a bit soggy after some time but I brought them to school. I was in high school.” I asked Hannah if her friends got mad but she told me they just laughed and thought it was pretty funny. “I did give one to a teacher but he smelled it – ‘cuz it was April Fools Day. You have to be aware of food students were giving you on April Fools. But one person did try the cookies and asked if it was a new mint flavor… but most everyone else spit it out and thought it was gross,” said Hannah. Then I asked Jordan Munsell, age 18 if she ever had anyone play an April Fools joke on her and she said, “Yes, my principal actually pranked us last year. He went on the loudspeaker and he said, ‘Spring Break is cancelled.’ He was on the speaker and said, ‘I don’t know what to say this, but Spring Break is cancelled,’ and went on and on and we thought that can’t be real. It was good and we all fell for it too. It was bad. Then he came on two seconds later with, ‘April Fools!’”. Jordan told me she would do little things but nothing could compare with the principal’s wild tale. Later that night, I called my mom and asked if she ever played jokes on April Fools and not surprisingly, she said no. She told me, “We are not a jokester family.” That I know. I suppose the worst April Fools joke I can remember was one my cousin, Jacquelyn played on her husband. She told him she was expecting! (She wasn’t.) Somehow, I thought that was an eyebrow lifter. All this talk about pranks got me thinking. What is the best prank I ever saw? Well, it was one Tuesday evening long ago, during the term of Mayor James Armstrong, who played one of the best April Fools jokes on record when he, at a city council meeting, announced that although he was termed out as mayor of the city of Torrance, he was pondering whether he might take on a run for city council again. As you can imagine, all of the council members (some of whom were running for mayor and council at the time) commented on his surprise announcement. And the comments went on at length, as you can imagine. When all of the councilpersons ‘endorsements’ finally ended, Mayor James Armstrong sheepishly admitted, he had played an April fools joke, and hadn’t meant for the announcement to be taken so seriously. I think that stands as the best public April Fools prank I ever witnessed in the city of Torrance. Not only was it clever, it was harmless. I asked a friend if he ever played an April Fools joke on anyone and he told me he rarely does because he puts too much work into them. Really? After that answer, I didn’t want to know what he had done. Next, I listened to Cydni Peppers who works at a bank in Torrance who told me, “My [eleven year old] brother would come home from basketball practice and my mom would be cooking and cleaning and getting everything ready for the next work and school day and I would always hide in the hamper. Always. He would tell my mom he didn’t know where I was. I stayed in the hamper for thirty minutes [one April Fools]. I was about 7 years old…my mom didn’t know where I was and she started crying – and I popped out of the hamper – and I think I got in trouble for my prank.” Cydni told me she still likes to pull off April Fools jokes, which usually consist of surprising people. Guess that little girl fooling her mom is still with Cydni. Later that night at a Lakers game, I asked Aubree Connors about her stories and she told me, “My friend actually tricked her mom once in high school. She called her mom at work and said she was pregnant – and we were 15 – her mom freaked out, and drove to my house, and like hung up – so there was no time to call her back – flipping out and we said, no, no, no, April Fools and she said, ‘that is not funny and don’t ever talk to me like that again – we’re not talking now.’” Somehow, I can understand that particular ‘practical joke’ freaking out the mother. Not funny. Then she added, “My grandma was born on April Fools.” “There was a time I put a rubber band on the nozzle on the sink, so when my mom would turn it on it would spray her in the face,” said Zach Zumbusch, age 22. He also told me another trick but I decided not to mention it. You can just imagine. Principals, as we have found out do play April Fools jokes on their students. A third grader told me when she was in the second grade, her principal told the whole school that they had to get a book from their classroom libraries and take it outside and read for the entire recess. The children began choosing their books – then the principal came on the loudspeaker said, “April Fools”. After talking with many other people I discovered most people play harmless pranks on April Fools, but some I heard weren’t very funny. Maybe there is a thin line between a prank and just being mean. It made me think about my mother’s comment and how she isn’t very fond of April Fools Day. Well, whatever you decide to do on April Fools Day, I suggest it be fun, and light-hearted. Happy April Fools. • TerriAnn in Torrance April Fools in Torrance Cydni Peppers Aubree Connors
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