Carl Jones, Jr., who grew up in SF’s Fillmore District, was fatally shot on Sixth Street on March 3, and a neighbor who rescued Jones’s dog Teddy G at the scene collaborated with others to reunite him with one of Jones’s siblings.

As Mission Local reports, 43-year-old Jones lived at the Henry Hotel on Sixth Street with his small dog Teddy Graham. In the early morning of March 3, Jones was shot near Sixth and Mission streets in the SoMa neighborhood.

Neighbor Charles Toyner told Mission Local he was walking up Sixth Street when he heard two shots and quickly hid behind a pole. He then saw Teddy G run across the street in distress. Toyner caught Teddy G and told officers he’d take care of him.

Jones died at a hospital shortly after the shooting, and police arrested 33-year-old suspect Siaosi Aleamotuay later that day.

As Bay City News reports, the San Francisco District Attorney's Office charged Aleamotuay with murder, along with an allegation that he personally used a deadly firearm, and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. According to prosecutors, Aleamotuay was seen on surveillance footage removing a gun from his backpack, crossing the street, and shooting Jones, who didn’t appear to be armed, per Bay City News. A possible motive has not been released.

Mission Local reports that Jones grew up in San Francisco’s Fillmore neighborhood with his siblings, and his family sometimes struggled with food and stable housing.

Jones lost both of his parents as a teenager. His father died when he was 16, and his mother died two years later. He spent time in the foster care system and eventually lived at Edgewood, a group home in the Ingleside neighborhood, per Mission Local.

Despite those challenges, Jones excelled in school and earned a 4.0 grade point average, particularly in reading and English. His sister told Mission Local he toured several historically Black colleges and universities and had the potential to attend nearly any school he wanted, but life circumstances ultimately got in the way.

“He never lost his big heart,” she said. “He was always loving. He always had a smile on his face. He would give you advice, and it would always be supportive.”

Mission Local reports that after the shooting, Toyner contacted the Gubbio Project for help locating Jones's family. Outreach worker Terry Morris told Mission Local Jones was remembered for having “bright eyes” and a warm, approachable presence. Morris also recalled how devoted Jones was to Teddy G.

Rio Amor, a drug-overdose educator and substance-abuse specialist at the nonprofit, helped Toyner track down Jones’s relatives. In the meantime, people who met Teddy G offered to adopt him.

Per Mission Local, Amor reached Jones’s sister Amelia in San Jose the following day, and she and other relatives drove to San Francisco to bring the dog home.

Photo of Carl Jones via Amelia Jones/Mission Local

San Francisco dog owners are spreading the word about a popular local dog sitter who’s accused of mistreating numerous animals in his care at his Lake Merced condo, leading to the deaths of two dogs over the Christmas holiday.

As KGO’s “7 on Your Side” reports, San Francisco residents began posting to social media last week warning others about a pet sitter who was accused of unsafely boarding and neglecting several dogs in his condo in the Lake Merced neighborhood. The sitter was using the Seattle-based app, Rover, until the app permanently deactivated his account.  

A neighbor first posted about the sitter in a local Facebook group, where they shared two videos of several dogs sitting in the sitter’s Prius at night, which was parked in an outdoor lot during a storm with the windows cracked. In one of the videos, vomit can be seen on the back seat.  (The below clip does not include vomit.) The Facebook post also mentions that the sitter has a female companion who also interacted with the dogs.

“He had at least 7 dogs boarded in their Prius overnight (sitting in their own vomit) in the SF storm + in law unit in my complex,” the Facebook post reads. “Their whole backyard area smells like vomit and dog food and their neighbors have complained about the smells to our property manager.”

“Our HOA fined his landlord for violating HOA rules,” the post continues. “Owners/friends were picking up dogs all day as I believe he was told to shut his operation down ASAP or he could be removed from the unit.”

The Facebook post was then shared to Reddit, where former clients began chiming in with harrowing accounts of the sitter’s neglect, including owners of the dogs filmed inside the Prius. One client wrote about having to fly back home mid-trip to get their dog whose medications were missing and their ten-pound bag of food nearly empty after just a few days in the sitter’s care.

“He texted us on Christmas Eve saying he ‘hurt his leg’ and that we had to come get our dog,” the comment says. “We were 2,000 miles away with family, leaving us to get emergency plane tickets across the country.”

Scott Hallman, who spoke to KGO about the death of his dog Zeb, commented on the Reddit post saying that he filed a police report about the incident, which prompted SF Animal Care & Control and Rover to take action. Hallman also said Zeb tested positive for methamphetamine. “Our baby died in his care,” Hallman wrote. “Severely dehydrated, tested positive for methamphetamine.”

"As our flight was taking off, we got a message on Rover saying our dog had bloody stool and had fainted," Hallman told KGO. “We were in the air flying and my heart just sank, and I cried the rest of the flight.”

KGO spoke to Tran and Amy Dinh, whose dog Aku also died in the sitter’s care. “We got a call on the night of the 23rd, right before Christmas Eve from the vet,” Tran said. “They asked if we were the owner of Aku and said he wasn't responding and his reflexes weren't intact.” Per KGO, Aku later died from complications related to dehydration.

Per KGO, the police investigation is ongoing, and no charges have been filed. Rover did its own investigation and is working with law enforcement.

Felipe Morales-Torres, a former client who told KGO his dog ​​was picked up on Christmas Day covered in bodily fluids, made an online form collecting information from other clients interested in filing police reports.

The original Facebook user added an update to their post saying the sitter’s business appeared to be successfully shut down by the condo’s HOA, as the Prius was no longer parked in the lot.

Per Hoodline, advocates recommend that pet owners request in-person meet-and-greets, written care plans, and frequent photo updates, to ensure the safety of their animals.

Image: ozgurdonmaz/Getty Images

An indoor cat named Pepper recently had the adventure of her life when she slipped through the door of her family’s home in Boise, Idaho, only to be found weeks later hundreds of miles away in San Francisco’s Mission Bay.

As Boise’s CBS2 reports, the adventure-seeking cat fled Boise in early October and wasn’t heard from again until mid-November when she was brought into San Francisco Animal Care and Control from the streets of Mission Bay. Luckily, Pepper was microchipped, and her owners drove 645 miles overnight to retrieve her.

Pepper was reportedly very expressive about her adventures. “She let out this huge meow...you came and got me, it was so great. And then she talked to us all the way home, all about her adventures,” Pepper’s owner, Lindsay Jensen, told KPIX. “I wish we could understand, but it was great.”

As to be expected, Pepper returned from her epic travels a changed cat. In addition to losing a significant amount of body weight, some of which she’s since gained back, she’s no longer the wild and carefree kitten she once was.

"She just sticks real close to us now," Jensen told KPIX. "She was a wild, crazy, run around the house-type kitten and I think this traumatized her a little bit. She's just been sticking close to my husband and I."

In a social media post, SF Animal Care and Control used Pepper's globe-trotting experience as a reminder for residents to microchip their pets. "All’s well that ends well because of a microchip! Microchip your pets! This announcement brought to you by Pepper."

Image: SF Animal Care and Control

The Mission District location of Wag Hotels received a visit last week from Animal Care & Control, which followed a Chronicle investigative report into over a half dozen cases of dogs allegedly being neglected or injured while in the hotel chain's care.

It all started with a TikTok video last summer. A popular TikToker, Michelle Nguyen, posted a highly negative review of the SF location of Wag Hotels after her dog Miso came home covered in urine and, she said, in a "horrifying state." That led directly to the Chronicle doing their own investigative footwork, looking into other reported incidents of dogs being returned to their owners dirty, unfed, or in some cases with injuries they allegedly received while in the hotels' care.

SF Animal Care & Control conducted an inspection of the Mission facility last Wednesday, a day after the Chronicle story came out. And they only confirmed to the Chronicle today that, yes, an inspection occurred.

As for the mistreatment or neglect of dogs, Animal Care & Control spokesperson Amy Corso only told the paper in an email, "We are looking into the matter."

Wag Hotels spokesperson BJ Kalay put out a statement saying, "During [Animal Care & Control's] visit, we gave their team access to all of our operations, as is common practice in our industry. We have already requested a copy of their report findings and are happy to share the document with you as soon as we receive it."

Complaints seem to stem from both the alleged overcrowding of dogs in a group play area — where, some anonymous staff told the Chronicle, dogs are walking or rolling in each others' urine and excrement — and from under-training of staff and understaffing overall.

Wag Hotels has only admitted to the fact that "during COVID, there were cases where the care we provided fell short," and they say that 93% of customers are fully satisfied with their dogs' stays.

SF Animal Care & Control only has jurisdiction over the SF location, but some of the most serious dog injuries the Chronicle looked into occurred at other locations, including a location in Los Angeles. The company was founded in West Sacramento, and there are five total locations in the Bay Area alone.

In a city that's notoriously home to more dogs than children, with plenty of residents with the disposable income to pay for $155-per-night stays in a "luxury" kennel and the desire to see their "fur babies" well care for, the story takes on bombshell significance. And now it looks like a city agency will even be making an official report.

"Hopefully, somebody will be held accountable for how terrible these dogs have been treated," says Josue Rodriguez, who formerly worked as a bather at the SF location and who spoke to the Chronicle on the record.

BJ Kalay, the Wag Hotels spokesperson, said in a statement, "From our inception, we have been on a mission to provide the highest level of care and service in a clean, safe and hygienic facility designed specifically for dogs and cats."

There is no timeline for Animal Care & Control's investigation, but we'll update you if we learn more.

Previously: Chronicle Investigation Finds Multiple Instances of Dogs Neglected and/or Injured at Wag Hotels

Photo via Wag Hotels

A fire at a suburban residence in Martinez on Tuesday revealed an apparent pet hoard that included around 70 dogs and cats, all of which suddenly need new homes.

There were apparently three humans and about six dozen animals living at a home on Barber Lane Martinez before a fire Tuesday displaced them all.

The Contra Costa Fire Protection District tweeted out images of the extraordinary find, after reporting that two people at the home were uninjured and one was treated for smoke inhalation.

Contra Costa firefighters responded to the scene around 11:25 a.m. Tuesday, saying it was a residential structure fire.

The photos, taken after the fire was under control, show a fenced in backyard area and dozens of what look like Pomeranians running around. One could give the residents the benefit of the doubt and say they were breeders, but reputable breeders wouldn't be operating a puppy mill of this scale in a home. 70 dogs and cats?! Did they all live indoors?

A Google Street View image of the home from 2019 shows it in serious disrepair, with tarps over the peak of the roof apparently to address leaks.

"Con Fire, assisted by Martinez PD, CCC animal control & many helpful neighbors, safely removed as many as 70 dogs & cats from today's Barber Lane fire in Martinez," the department tweeted. Now all those animals, as well as the humans, are displaced.

Con Fire says that the cause of the fire does not appear to be suspicious.

Pet hoards like this are typically dealt with by county authorities as they pose health issues for the animals and humans. A hoard of some 80 dogs, cats, and other animals were rescued from a home in Los Angeles County last March. The resident, an elderly woman who was reported by a neighbor, had reportedly been living in the home without electricity or water for five years.

There have been small news items over the last month about cats and dogs testing positive for COVID-19 — including four tigers and three lions at the Bronx Zoo — and now the U.S. Centers for Disease Control is cautioning pet owners from allowing their pets to get too social.

"While the risk of animals spreading COVID-19 to people is considered to be low," the CDC writes in a new advisory, "a small number of pets have been reported to be infected with the virus that causes COVID-19, mostly after contact with people with COVID-19."

Because of this, dog owners are being told to keep dogs leashed and at least six feet away from other dogs and people, and cat owners are being told to keep cats indoors if at all possible. And the CDC is suggesting that people who show symptoms of COVID-19 need to isolate themselves from their pets.

As KRON 4 reports, dog owners are also being told to steer clear of dog parks and public parks where a lot of other dogs are congregating.

"Treat pets as you would other human family members – do not let pets interact with people or animals outside the household," the CDC writes. "If a person inside the household becomes sick, isolate that person from everyone else, including pets."

Pets are apparently susceptible to the same respiratory infection from this virus as people, though it is not clear if any human cases have been linked to a transmission from a pet.

Given that dog parks are an essential part of life for many San Franciscans and their pooches, this is going to be a tough pill to swallow.

"Further studies are needed to understand if and how different animals could be affected by the virus that causes COVID-19 and the role animals may play in the spread of COVID-19," the CDC says.

Nearly 50 three-legged dogs and hundreds of human companions turned up Sunday for the 9th Annual Tri-Pawed Dog Picnic, a party for amputee canines plus dogs with cones, casts, one eye, one ear, wheelchairs, blindness, deafness, or toothlessness.

Not all San Francisco dogs lead fancy lives with luxury $100 ceramic water bowls, some pups have endured injury or trauma that required one of their legs to be amputated. Even though one (or more) of their doggone legs are gone, these dogs enjoyed their yearly meetup in Duboce Park Sunday afternoon for the 9th Annual Tri-Pawed Dog Picnic. SFist captured these pup-arazzi photos of the informal and loose meetup, also attended by Family Dog Rescue and Muttville, that celebrated the bravery and cuteness of San Francisco’s three-legged dogs who are undaunted despite having endured a ruff experience.

Tri-Pawed Dog Picnic organizer Franny Corsick told SFist that the event isn’t just for three-legged dogs but also for “dogs with cones, casts, one eye, wheelchairs, blind, deaf, toothless, vintage, lumpy; they’re all welcome.”

It’s not really a structured event, just a meetup of dogs and their dog people, but it’s continued now for nine years. “My first picnic, I just wanted to see more than one three-legged dog in one place. I’m a dog lover,” Corsick said. “So I put up flyers around San Francisco.”

“It’s grown to about 40-plus dogs,” she told us. “It’s maintained a picnic quality. People won’t be sold anything. We have ‘prizes but no contest’ as part of the picnic. People bring prizes and share them with other dog owners.”

Do the dogs realize they are partying with other amputee pups? They might. “I’ve seen dogs get very excited when they come and sniff the empty spot,” Corsick said. “So I think they’re curious about it, maybe there is a familiarity there. But then they’re also dogs, and they just sniff each other.”

This mosquito-sized little lady above actually “works” as a therapist for other recent amputee canines. Her human companion Corene Carpenter does overnight care for recovering dogs at a shelter, and her two three-legged dogs help the shelter dogs acclimate to the loss of a leg. “They often wake up in a state of shock that their limb is gone,” Carpenter told SFist. “What helps is I have my amputee [dogs] with me. I always show them how happy they can be. I take my dogs out to walk with them, it makes them less afraid when they’re freshly amputated.”

Many of them recover quite well. Just look at the magnificent form of this ball-chasing pup, who has learned to change his center of gravity to maintain a nearly perfect stride. The large tail probably helps, but this very handsome boy seems to have no concept that he might have a disability.  

The full spectrum of canine infirmities was on display, and you couldn’t help but notice how many doggos had developed clever coping mechanisms.  This completely blind poodle, for instance, was far more ruthless than the others at sniffing out which humans had the treats.

Here we see Twyla Twinkletoes, who suffers from a condition called angular limb deformity. She requires a carrying bag, but can also scoot around with a contraption called a Hoppy-and-Wheelie vest. “The wheels cost $700,” her human sidekick Eve told us, describing the substantial medical costs that often come with caring for these pooches. “I’ve probably thrown a few thousand on her.”

As is the custom at most Tri-Pawed Dog Picnics, the dogs receive blessings Sister Chola de Dah of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (as well as a ukelele performance by Belinda Blair). “They always inspire me to not give up,” Sister Chola says of the poocheroos. “And they’re always smiling.”

When speaking to people who brought their three-legged dogs to this event, we noticed that the vast majority of them adopted them as rescue pups after they’d already had the amputation. These are people who consciously chose to take in dogs with serious medical conditions, and all the extra work, cost, and TLC that entails. And as you see from these pictures, they’ve done magnificent work in helping these dogs shed their trauma.

Related: These Pics Of Dogs In Giants Gear Are The Most Important Thing To Come From Baseball Season So Far [SFist]

After more than a week the the Northern California wildfires are finally beginning to approach containment. As officials continue to search for the missing and survivors return to what's left of their homes, we're just beginning to comprehend the massive devastation the blazes have wrought. It's times like these that we have to cling to what author Raymond Carver referred to as the small good things — the little flashes of hope in what's otherwise a tragic world.

For me, many of those small good things are animals. The same seems to be true of many of the victims (both still with us and not) — think of the number of times you've read in the past week about folks who packed the pets in the car as they fled the flames, or pups like Odin and Izzy who were happily reunited with their families.

So here are some more small good animal stories we've heard during these terrible fires. Spoiler alert: In each one of these tales, the beasts survive.

Santa Rosa resident Linda Hamik has been trying to catch this chubby stray chihuahua for months, and when she was evacuated (twice) the dog remained on her mind. When she was able to return home, she tells SF Gate, she found that the dog had miraculously survived though it was only about a mile from Coffey Park, one of the worst-ravaged areas. Not only that, but around the time the fire broke out Sunday night, the chihuahua was giving birth to six puppies. Hamik's taken the whole family into her garage for fostering until they can be scooped up by an area animal rescue org.

There are a lot of great, happy cat stories out there! Milo, seen in the video above, was rescued from beneath a car by a Sonoma County Sheriff's Deputy. KTVU reports that Ed Ratliff (Milo's guardian) says the cat ran off during the rush to evacuate. The resulting fire took Ratliff's home and all his possessions, but other than a bit of dehydration, Milo's fine and back with his family.

Meanwhile, ABC 7 reports, a PG&E worker tasked with fixing Santa Rosa's power lines is operating a side project rescuing cats. So far, she's "reunited two with their families and has taken one to the vet," they report.

Kids with Napa's Vintage High School FFA have also gone into the rescue game, "heading out into the night to rescue livestock in harm's way," ABC 7 reports. The kids picked up 250 horses, goats, sheep, pigs, llamas, and chickens and are caring for them at the school's farm until they can be reclaimed by their guardians. Though the some of the beasts suffered "smoke inhalation and stress," they're all expected to recover.

I don't have any backstory here, but I appreciate the firefighter's knife technique.

The fire approached Paul and Drusilla Robinson's Santa Rosa home so swiftly that even though they searched for their dog Bill, they had to leave him behind. They were sure he had died, a Marin Humane spokesperson told the SF Gate. According to NBC Bay Area, a "police officer found Bill in a field, shaking with fear as fire and smoke surrounded him." Bill's collar showed his home address, but the residence has been consumed by flames. The folks at Marin Humane managed to track the Robinsons down and they reunited with Bill this weekend.

Napa County Animal Control worked with vets from Napa Valley Equine to save this "85 year old, 200 lb tortoise" as the fire approached. They say via Facebook that "it took 4 people to lift it up into a wheel barrow so they could get it off the property, which had limited road access." The rescue is "a unique highlight," they say, "during such somber times."

Related: Hero Dog Who Stuck With Rescue Goats During Wildfire Reunited With Family

As we continue to hear stories of the dead and as some Northern Californian residents are slowly making their way back to where their homes once stood, some families are finding small pockets of joy as they reunite with the pets they thought they lost in last week's wildfires.

ABC 7 reports on one especially heartwarming reunion, as Roland Hendel was reunited with his Great Pyrenees, Odin, who stayed behind to protect the family's eight rescue goats located on their property in unincorporated Sonoma County. Hendel recounted the tale to ABC 7, saying that as the Tubbs Fire bore down on his home, he felt forced to leave the dog behind with the goats. "He was determined to stay with the goats and I had to let him do it," he said.

The dogs suffered only minor injuries, along with the eight goats accompanying them. ABC 7 also writes that as soon as they were reunited, Odin, his sister Tessa, and all the animals vanished once more from the property where the family was staying. Thanks to tips sent in after ABC 7 ran an earlier story about Odin, they were reunited once again on Saturday.

Another dog, Bill, had to be left behind as his family, the Robinsons, fled Santa Rosa. But luckily, as ABC tells it, Bill was found by a police officer and taken to the Marin Humane Society. There, he was reunited with his family thanks to his microchip tracker. One of the Robinsons told ABC, "We thought he was so gone."

CBS has details of another particularly heartwarming reunion: Izzy, a Bernese Mountain Dog, came bounding out of some rubble as Jack Weaver and his brother-in-law Patrick Widen searched for her so that his mother, Katherine Weaver, wouldn't have to. The Weavers believed Izzy to be dead, as she was left behind in the panicked evacuation that sent Katherine Weaver fleeing in her nightgown.

The Facebook video of the reunion with Izzy, which you can watch below, has been watched 2.2 million times as of this writing.

It's long, and shows Weaver walking up to the burnt-out remains of his family's home, periodically calling for Izzy. There's hardly anything left, but as the video comes to a close, Weaver spots Izzy, and calls out to her. He described the reunion to CBS 5, saying, "She was very happy to see us,” Weaver said of Izzy, a 9-year-old Bernese Mountain Dog. “She’s such a brave dog. She was panting a lot and clearly stressed. But she was not frantic or anything.”

Beckyjean Widen, who posted the video to Facebook, described a bit of the journey that her husband and brother-in-law went through to get to the property, as apparently they were stopped by authorities on their way up. She wrote:

They were turned away by police officers, but if you know my brother Jack or husband Patrick...neither one likes to be told no. They ended up hiking just under 3 miles to my parent's property.

According to KRON 4, a veterinarian believes Izzy survived because of her thick fur coat, which could have insulated her from the fire's intense heat. Laughing Squid also spotted this video from The Guardian, which shows Izzy doing just fine, as she's been showered in love and good pets since she was found.

All previous coverage of the Northern California Wildfires on SFist.

The Sonoma-Marin Fair held it's now nationally famous, 29th Annual Ugliest Dog Contest on Friday and a winner has been crowned.

Behold Martha, a 125-pound Neapolitan Mastiff who beat out 13 other dogs for the title of World's Ugliest Dog. According to KRON 4, Martha is a 3-year-old who was left nearly blind by neglect. She was rescued from a Craigslist ad (of all godforsaken places) by the Dogwood Animal Rescue Project in Sonoma County, had several surgeries to correct her vision, and can now see. Martha was fostered by Dogwood's Shirley Zindler and has since been adopted by Jessica Burkard of Penngrove, California.

"Never did I imagine that she would be ending up on articles and onstage and on TV," Burchard told the New York Times.

As the winner of the contest, Martha and her minders will take home $1,500, a huge trophy, and planned media trips to NYC. The contest promotes the adoption of pets who may have been neglected and abused, celebrating the traits many consider to be ugly as beautiful and fun instead.

Not everyone gets it.

ABC 7 reports that this year's judges are media consultant Brian Sobel, illustrator Paige Braddock and NBC correspondent Kerry Sanders. And prizes aren't just awarded for hideousness. A "Spirit Award is presented to a dog and owner who have overcome obstacles and, or are providing a service to the community."

Here's a whole Today Show (weekend version) segment about the contest — with one host wearing green rain boots in the New York City studio:

If anyone is worried about Martha's self-esteem following her entry into the Ugliest Dog contest, much less her being crowned the winner, she's cool with it. "Martha thinks she's beautiful. We tell her every day," said Zindler.

Related: Election Scandal Threatens To Undermine World's Ugliest Dog Contest

Where, oh where has Pig-Pig gone?

KRON 4 (naturally) has the story of the mysterious disappearance of Pig-Pig, a 3-year-old 100-pound mini pot-bellied pig belonging to San Jose residents Mark and Jeannie Ackerman. The Ackerman's last saw Pig-Pig when they fed her at around 9 a.m. on Sunday. When the couple returned home from a barbecue (ahem), Pig-Pig was gone and all of the security cameras aimed at her pen had been ripped down.

"I don't know if she's getting the proper care. She requires a lot of water. She requires getting a mud bath to coat her skin properly," Ackerman told ABC 7.

The Ackermans have set up a GoFundMe page to raise a $1,000 reward for the safe return of Pig-Pig. "We are desperate to find her!" the page reads. "She is vary sweet, friendly and adventurus."

But wait, crime sleuths! A scanning of messages posted to the Ackerman's GoFundMe page reads, "Tell the Ackermans to check their FB messages. Someone re-posted a picture of the pig with the words 'Pig on our porch.' I pm'd the contact info."

Could this be Pig-Pig?!? Did Pig-Pig just wander away after tearing down those oppressive cameras and stroll onto someone else's porch? It's not clear if the porch pig in question has Pig-Pig's distinctive black stripe but if I were one of the Ackermans, this is a lead I'd want to follow.

Meanwhile, NBC Bay Area has the news that this has happened before. Someone snatched the adorable black and white pig two years ago and later dropped her off at Emma Prusch Farm Park in San Jose.

Mark and Jeannie Ackerman don't care who has their pig, they just want Pig-Pig back home.

"Thank you in advance," The Ackermans GoFundMe page reads. "There is a police report for her theft, however, we are not looking to prosecute. Her family misses her."

Related: SFO Has A Therapy Pig Now

She might have been wrong about Diana but HRH Queen Elizabeth II was on the money when it comes to the sheer perfection of corgis.

Nor Cal Corgi Con, the bi-annual celebration of the beloved dog breed took place on Saturday between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. providing attendees an ideal blend of cool ocean breezes and hundreds of corgis.

It's unknown exactly how many corgis attended this weekends "convention," but according to the San Francisco Chronicle, upwards of 740 corgis showed up for Corgi Con last fall. So let's just all take a moment to appreciate that a lot of corgis were lounging around Ocean Beach on Saturday, competing in costume contests and dog races.

Behold the Instagram response:

A post shared by @sanfranciscobucketlist on Jun 17, 2017 at 5:41pm PDT

A post shared by Jared Forney (@jared_forney) on Jun 19, 2017 at 9:07am PDT

A post shared by Boomer And Tara on Wheels (@boomsilog) on Jun 18, 2017 at 10:17pm PDT

A post shared by Ben Wong (@twelveam) on Jun 18, 2017 at 9:34pm PDT

Hoodline has a pretty cute round-up of Corgi Con photos as well. Corgis have enjoyed a newfound popularity thanks to social media. In fact, according to the UK's Daily Express, corgi ownership went up 54% in 2015 thanks in large part to Instagram.

The next Ocean Beach Corgi Con will be sometime this fall. Obviously we'll keep you paw-sted on the date.

Related: Hundreds And Hundreds Of Corgis To Take Over Ocean Beach Saturday

Brace yourselves, cat people.

A kitten was discovered clinging to the underside of a California Highway Patrol car as officers responded to the scene of an accident on I-880 Sunday morning. The officers kept hearing a cat "meowing" but couldn't figure out where the sound was coming from. Suddenly, and I'm paraphrasing here, everyone realized OMG there's a kitten hiding under the patrol car and it's been there since we left the station!

In a social media post titled, "A Mother's Day Surprise," the CHP explained, "While at a collision scene early this morning, officers kept hearing a cat meowing but couldn't locate the kitten. Eventually, they discovered the cat underneath their patrol car and discovered that this feisty feline had been hitching a ride since they left the office for over an hour! The poor kitten was terrified after hanging on while the officers responded 'code-3' with their lights and sirens to calls, and was more than willing to let the officers pick her up and give her some food and water."

The kitten is believed to be one of the feral cats that live around the unit's parking lot. A tow-truck driver who assisted in Sunday's collision asked to adopt the kitten, who's since been named 'Chip' by Oakland CHP officers.

Related: Meet 'Ponch,' The Chihuahua Involved In Sunday's Bay Bridge Police Pursuit

Late Friday night, Ashley Aleman of Watsonville, California got a call she wasn't expecting: The Guelph Humane Society of Ontario, Canada rang her up to say that her cat, BooBoo, was safe at their shelter, identified by microchip. But BooBoo was lost four years ago, in California, and Aleman had assumed the worst.

"We though we had lost our cat BooBoo out to the wild life but it turns out that she was out having a trip to Canada," Aleman writes to a gofundme page where she's hoping to round up $600 for travel fees for BooBoo, who apparently doesn't remember the way back.

Melissa Stolz, an animal program co-ordinator at the Guelph shelter, tells the local Mercury Tribune that the brown tabby was in good shape when she got to the shelter. As far as the long distance BooBoo travelled, "All we can do is wonder," Stolz says. "Maybe she accidentally got into some sort of vehicle," Stolz said. "It could have been anything, but I don't think we'll ever know."

Aleman tells CBC she's very emotional over the prospect of a reunion with her lost pet. "I already told my husband, you better prepare yourself because I'm going to lose it," Aleman said, "I'm going to break down and I'm going to cry, because it was a hard thing to lose her."

Whether BooBoo will feel anything, however, we'll never know. Judge according to your thoughts about the emotional capacity of cats, I suppose. "We are still in the same exact house she actually left us in so we are hoping it will be a little remembering for her," Aleman says

Related: Dog Lost For A Decade Found In Fort Funston, Identified By Microchip

“I hope everybody peed and pooped outside,” Dog Film Festival founder Tracie Hotchner announced humorously but earnestly, kicking off a Sunday afternoon show featuring this year's finest short films from the canine canon. The Dog Film Festival is a traveling show that’s playing in a total of 15 cities nationwide, and SFist was on hand this weekend at the Roxie Theatre to catch the proceedings as the festival came through San Francisco.

A post shared by Jody Hackerott Gibney (@jodyhackerott) on Feb 19, 2017 at 4:25pm PST

The festival is the pet project of Tracie Hotchner, better known as the Radio Pet Lady and host of NPR’s Dog Talk (and Kitties Too!). Dogs were actually allowed inside the Roxie for the show — a request most theaters balk at when she tries to book festival venues. But Hotchner insists dogs should be the least of the theaters’ worries.

“They serve food and they say it’s against the health rules, or they’ve recently renovated and they’re fearful of their carpet being stained,” she told SFist. “Dogs haven’t done anything in theaters. It’s more likely that people would drop their Coca-Cola than a dog would pee.”

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Festival attendee and Instagram enthusiast belindacherie observes that “Taking Oona to the movies was very much like taking my 4-year old niece to the movies, only with different snacks. Instead of goldfish crackers and M&Ms, dried beef esophagus and bully sticks.”

Image: Joe Kukura, SFist

Though it was raining — cats and dogs, you might say — on Sunday, pets and their people still posed Hollywood-style with a movie premiere backdrop outside the Roxie. The films themselves, all shorts about dogs, ran the gamut. Some of the films are dog-umentaries, others were doggie parodies with names like “Game of Bones”, and others tackled complex social issues to examine dogs’ roles in rehabilitating prisoners or the pups’ tragic plights in the home foreclosure crisis.

Image: Joe Kukura, SFist

The festival benefited dogs and other animals: Half the proceeds from the show went to San Francisco Animal Care & Control. “We have a new shelter that’s being constructed, so we’re looking for more funds,” SF Animal Care and Control Sgt. Eleanor Sadler told SFist. SF Animal Control isn't dogmatic, either, “We’re an open-door shelter, which means we take in every animal that we find and we help it however we can.”

Image: Joe Kukura, SFist

For it's next stop, the Dog Film Festival travels to Marin today, marking the first time ever that dogs will be allowed into Larkspur’s historic Lark Theater.

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