Long Beach veterinary clinic and animal-welfare organization team up to spay and neuter pets

Dr. Ata Abrishani has supported Friends of Long Beach Animals since shortly after he opened Bixby Animal Clinic in late 2005. In fact, the location that Abrishani — aka Dr. A — chose for his veterinary hospital, a toy store on Atlantic Avenue in Bixby Knolls, had an auspicious vibe from the get-go.

“The store owner was selling because she herself had been accepted into veterinary school,” Abrishani said. “She told me, ‘That’s a great sign that you, a veterinarian, came at a time when I’m applying for vet school and I got my acceptance.”

Bixby Animal Clinic opened with one location and one doctor. One doctor became two doctors, as Abrishani said, and now seven veterinarians work at the Bixby Knolls location. Abrishani has since opened two more clinics, Lakewood Pet Vet in Lakewood and Lincoln Animal Hospital in Cypress. His older daughter and his son work as veterinarians in the clinics, and his younger daughter is applying to veterinary school.

“We know there’s a veterinary shortage, so we have to produce veterinarians,” Abrishani said with a chuckle.

After he opened Bixby Animal Clinic, Abrishani met Shirley Vaughan and Nona Daly, president and vice president of Friends of Long Beach Animals. FOLBA had been displaying adoptable shelter cats in large kennels in a couple of local businesses, and the visibility increased adoptions (I know: I adopted two of them several years ago). Abrishani readily agreed to feature one cat at a time in the clinic lobby.

Educating people about the importance of spaying and neutering pets has always been one of FOLBA’s goals, and equally important is making it available for people experiencing economic hardship. At the time the Bixby clinic opened, FOLBA, in partnership with Long Beach Animal Care Services (then Long Beach Animal Control) was offering vouchers for free or low-cost spay/neuter procedures as part of its Spay/Neuter Incentive Program (SNIP). The SNIP vouchers have since discontinued in favor of shelter vouchers.

A couple of years after Bixby Animal Clinic opened, Vaughan and Daly asked Abrishani if he could donate spay/neuter procedures for cats for one day. He agreed and asked his staff to volunteer to provide the $15 procedures for one day.

“There was a big line at the door — everybody with a carrier!” Abrishani said. “We did 58 procedures from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. All the money the clinic made, I gave to the staff that helped volunteer. Every time I remember the 58 pets, I get a great feeling!”

Two free fixes per month, multiplied by 32 clinics

Vaughan died suddenly in 2022, and Daly is now a FOLBA member emerita. FOLBA’s new leadership maintains efforts to provide spay and neuter procedures to community cats and personal pets. This summer, they’re launching a Fix Frenzy initiative in partnership with other rescues, dedicated to getting every Long Beach pet spayed or neutered.

“By increasing access to spay/neuter services, we aim to address the city’s unfixed pet population and promote responsible pet ownership,” said Lauren Campbell, FOLBA’s current president.

Campbell and Abrishami have known each other in a professional capacity for 13 years. They came up with the idea for Bixby Animal Hospital to offer two free spay/neuter procedures a month for Long Beach residents in financial hardship in the hope that other local clinics will follow suit with at least one free monthly procedure.

“There are 32 animal hospitals in Long Beach,” Abrishami said. “If each hospital would do one spay or neuter free per month, it would give us 384 a year. A lot of good things come out when you start to move, so I told Lauren, let’s move!”

Abrishami has guidelines for his clinic only: Size, breed or species doesn’t matter, but prospective patients for the free procedures at the Bixby clinic must be free of disease and fleas, and their vaccinations must be up to date so as not to jeopardize the health of his patients. The pets must be 2 years old or younger.

“That encourages the people to do the spay and neuter at the right time before any kitten or puppy comes,” Abrishami said. “It’s easier to do a spay or neuter on a younger dog or cat. When they get older, doing a spay is the hardest surgery you can do. There’s too much fat inside the abdomen, everything is fragile. It can be a nightmare for veterinarians.”

Dogs can have “oops” litters at the average age of 6 months. Small dogs can get pregnant at 4 months, and so can cats, which birth countless numbers of unwanted kittens during their lifetimes. Best to literally nip it in the bud.

Abrishani wants to contact every Long Beach clinic and ask them to make a matching gift to the community. FOLBA will screen potential clients for Bixby animal hospital and make the appointments so as not to inundate the clinics themselves with calls.

“I worked seven days a week for a few years [after I opened Bixby Animal Hospital,” Dr. Abishami said. “Healthwise, it was beneficial for the patients, and it was beneficial for me financially. Without the people in Long Beach, I never ever could have gotten to this position I’m in now. Every animal hospital in Long Beach — the reason they exist — is because of the people that live in Long Beach. I want to do this for a legacy.”

Long Beach residents only who want to be considered for free surgery should email Lauren@folba.org and type “Application for free spay/neuter” in the subject line. Do not contact Bixby Animal Hospital.

Long Beach veterinarians who want their clinic to participate in the free fix program for one or more procedures per month can contact FOLBA folbamail@folba.org.

YOURS DROOLY

Yep, more cats this week! Two Fridays ago, Scratch This! featured a column about kitten season, the warmer months when adult cats get frisky and birth thousands of unwanted kittens.

Two good ways to mitigate the kitten storm are adoption, which is great for existing cats, and targeted mass spay/neuter throughout the community, the most effective way to tamp down feline birth rate. Some rescues and shelters do both. Last Friday, the column featured The Little Lion Foundation’s opening of their brick-and-mortar Long Beach Community Cat Project clinic.

This week, we’re featuring Helen Sanders CatPAWS, a nonprofit long known for taking the “less” out of “hopeless.” The all-volunteer rescue pulls cats and kittens, some in horrible state, and bottle-feeding the newborns, giving medical care to sick ones, ridding them of treatable diseases, and giving final weeks or months of love and care to cats in hospice situations.

Nearly two years ago, the rescue rolled out — literally — a mobile spay/neuter clinic that has been taking on the community cat challenge ever since. Efforts for fundraising for the clinic are made continually all year — the upcoming event will bowl you over, again literally. (See Tail waggin’ and nose-boopin’ events for the bowling fundraiser.)

CatPAWS has received awards for its efforts, the most recent being a $10,000 grant from PetSmart Charities to help adoptable pets find people to love and love them back.

“As we strive to save more cats and get more cats into homes, this grant will help support cats in foster homes by providing formula, good food, vaccinations, spay and neuter surgeries as we prepare cats for adoption,” said Deborah Felin-Magaldi, CatPAWS cofounder and director. “We continue to be grateful for the depth and breadth of generosity from PetSmart Charities and thank the incredible team at our local PetSmart store for its support these many years — not only are the cats saved from uncertainty at overcrowded public shelters, but pets have a positive impact on physical and mental health for people in general.”

In the spirit of PetSmart Charities’ National Adoption Week, which takes place March 24–30, CatPAWS will showcase adoptable felines Saturday, March 29, 11 a.m.–2 p.m. at the Seal Beach PetSmart, 12341 Seal Beach Blvd., Seal Beach. The CatPAWS team aims to find homes for up to a dozen cats and kittens during the event.

You might meet some of these bewhiskered adorables, posing here with their fosters. It’s hard sometimes for fosters to give up these cats whom they’ve come to know and love, but they know that the kitties will be off to great things in their forever homes. After they wave goodbye, of course, they go home and sob uncontrollably.

To see who else is ready to go home and find out how to adopt, access this link. To donate, click here.

If Finn were to access an ancestry website, he’d doubtless find some flame point Siamese genes in his DNA! Finn is a young-adult boy with a sweet disposition — he’s trusting and easy to hold, as foster Brian shows you, and likes the upside-down baby pose while held. Finn has feline herpes virus, which over 90% of felines carry but not all are symptomatic. It’s similar to allergies in humans and includes congestion or runny eyes. It doesn’t affect Finn’s sweet, cuddly personality, though!

Jasper is a sweet adult fellow who came to CatPAWS after his human passed away. Jasper was nervous when he first came to his new foster home, but once he realized it was a safe place, he became best buddies with his foster mama, Ryley. As you can see, they share a sense of humor! Jasper loves to chill with his person, watch cat TV (seriously, he looks at flat screen birdies and aquariums!), or perch on a high area and survey his kingdom. Although Jasper’s a grownup, he still loves kitten toys like the ball wheel, which Ryley thinks is very cute! Jasper is adapting well to foster life but would love having his own person (or persons!) to hang out with 24/7.

Finally, we have a fashion statement that you cannot buy online — the kitten shirt. In this photo, in no particular order, are Hoda, Fallon, Tamron, Colbert, Anderson and Carl. All of them, except for Carl, who’s the happy cat daddy, are getting spay/neutered this week and next. They’ll be available for adoption soon.

TAIL-WAGGIN' AND NOSE-BOOPIN' EVENTS

Kitten Shower fundraiser

Kitten season brings showers of kittens. TippedEars rescue is planning a shower for some of these kittens in the form of a fundraiser that will provide an umbrella for the organization as they deal with the downpour. Enjoy games, prizes and, naturally, the kittens. Presents for the kitties are welcome but not necessary.

TippedEars’ kitten shower takes place Friday, March 21, 5:30 p.m.–8:30 p.m. at Cool Cat Collective, 2741 E. 4^th St., C, Long Beach

Helen Sanders CatPAWS 12^th annual bowling fundraiser

Knock down some pins for the purrers at CatPAWS! This family-fun event includes two hours of bowling, shoes included; appetizer or pizza, with soft drink; opportunity drawings with great prizes; and a chance to win two JetBlue round-trip tickets to any city where JetBlue flies (JetBlue, for a fee, will fly your pets with you — just sayin’). If you don’t want to bowl, you can sit on the fence in bowling pin posture like a veritable cat and cheer on your friends! Proceeds will help feed, house, spay/neuter and vaccinate, and give any medical treatment needed to our adoptable cats. They will also help fund CatPAWS’ mobile spay/neuter clinic, which makes great progress in lowering the number of kittens born to the streets, who grow into unwanted, homeless cats.

The Helen Sanders CatPAWS bowling fundraiser takes place Saturday, March 29, 3 p.m.–6 p.m. at Westminster Lanes, 6471 Westminster Blvd., Westminster. Tickets available here, $45 general admission, $25 food only, spectator

Show Me Your Kitties: Cabaret variety show to sponsor Little Lion Foundation cats

Alley cats and kittens, come to the cabaret for a decadent evening of cat-themed performances: burlesque, ballet, belly dancing (no belly rubs, please!), fire dancing, musicians, contortionists (just like your cat!) and pole purrrr-formers! The performers love to interact with the crowd, so arrive early to get the best seat! We encourage our audience to dress up, whether it be your favorite cat-ears, leopard-print tee or glamorous gown!

Not included but available are craft cocktails and a limited menu of delicious dishes from The Carvery restaurant. Money raised from ticket sales will go directly to fund Little Lion’s brand-new on-site spay/neuter clinic for community cats. Enjoy a great show and help control cat overpopulation at the same time!

Show Me Your Kitties takes place Saturday, March 29 at the At the Top Club, 105 W. Broadway, Long Beach. Doors open 5:30 p.m.; show begins 6:30 p.m. Tickets from $35.60 at this link.

Need a low-cost veterinarian, information about trapping community cats, places to volunteer, rescues and shelters to adopt from — anything pet related? Follow this link for resources. Please add your own ideas in the Comments section.