When we got the news last night about the safe return of the stolen Arbor Heights pugs, we asked owner Marsha Lubetkin if she could send a photo when she got a chance to catch her breath. The photo you see above just came in tonight, along with this note explaining more about the circumstances of the pugs’ return:
I wanted to thank your blog and everyone who helped us search for our pugs, Bandit & Pippin. It is such a happy ending and they are both fine and very glad to be home.
I do want to let everyone know that today I spoke with the woman who took them to the King Co Animal Shelter and she really was a good samaritan. She lives in the Skyway area near Renton and returned home from shopping about 5:00 yesterday with her brother and cousin and found 2 pugs in her yard. She had not watched the news or read the newspapers, so had not heard about Bandit & Pippin. They checked with all their neighbors and no one knew who owned the pugs. Her father told her to take them to a shelter, so she and her brother googled where the nearest shelter was and took them to Kent. She just wanted the dogs to get back to their owners, but felt the staff at the shelter were very suspicious of her and wanted all kinds of ID and she felt she was treated with disrespect. I think it was all a misunderstanding on each side. … After talking with her, I do believe her and thanked her for getting our pugs back to us. She did exactly the right thing and without her they could still be missing. She refused the reward, but I told her I was sending her a check anyway. She is the reason our pugs are home tonight. Thanks for spreading the word.
As for how the dogs got into that yard — still a mystery.
Since we’ve covered more than the usual share of disheartening news this week – although with the heartening flip side of people reaching out to share information and help – we thought we’d call attention to a few ways you can do good this weekend. First, please note there are many MORE ways to do something good, listed in the West Seattle Weekend Lineup, including work parties in West Seattle green spaces, the North Delridge Adopt-a-Street cleanup we mentioned here on the main page a few days ago, etc., so please check out the WSWL too. But right now, two more that aren’t on that list – one of which involves a yard sale:Read More
You have to look closely to notice, but there’s a sign down and a couple of those newly planted trees snapped in that median directly across from the Admiral Viewpoint. We checked this out on a tip from Robert a couple days ago but didn’t get too far – here’s a slightly closer view from our visit:
Then it came up in the WSB Forums today, and we pursued it with SDOT, whose communications boss Rick Sheridan tells us there’s no record it had been reported, but now that we’ve passed the word along (thanks, WSB’ers!) the Urban Forestry team will get over to check it out. (First photo is courtesy Meredith K. Hailey, whose guess is that a driver “straddled” the median — though you can’t tell from the photos, looking at it closeup, you’ll notice the soil isn’t disturbed.) We covered the original tree planting just eight months ago, by the way, including this photo taken 12/20/07 to the northwest of the photos above:
FANNA, the group proposing a “play area” and/or expanded “beautification” in the area of California Place, the Admiral District mini-park shown above, just got word of city grant approval – here’s how it was announced on the official mailing list:
We’ve just received word from the Department of Neighborhoods that our application for funds to plan improvements at California Place Park has been approved! We’ve been awarded $15K to hire a landscape architect to help take us through the planning process. Along with our letter was a personally written note from Mayor Greg Nickels who said, “As a neighbor, I’m looking forward to seeing your project!”
Next steps are to align with our Project Manager at the Dept of Neighborhoods and our representative at the Parks Department to define scope and refine our work plan.
Enjoy the outdoor activities while they last: Arts-in-Nature Festival, Duwamish River Festival, final concert at The Mount, final Movie on the Wall, a free beach-volleyball class, a block party, North Delridge’s next Adopt-a-Street cleanup (and picnic!), a graffiti paintout, the Great Cross-Sound Race (2007 WSB photo above), 48 events on the list ahead:Read More
That’s Coco the dog, wearing bandages where she needed IV treatment for medications and fluids after an apparent poisoning right in her own yard in the 47th/Genesee vicinity (here’s a map). We first heard from Coco’s owner Kate K very early this morning, and then a followup after they visited the vet – she’s also put up flyers to get the word out (we just got e-mail about one of them) – here’s her story:Read More
What you see in those photos are two displays (first one, “blackberry root ball”; second one, “red elderberry”) in the main hallway at Youngstown Arts Center — part of an ongoing exhibit by young artists, presented by the Nature Consortium at Youngstown through next month (drop by any time). We found out about it while chatting with NC executive director Nancy Whitlock in that hallway during our stop yesterday afternoon to preview the art being created for last night’s “Skiffle” event (waiting to hear some final numbers on that, by the way). She was on her way over to Camp Long as setup continued for this weekend’s biggest West Seattle event, the Arts-in-Nature Festival tomorrow and Sunday — you can see the schedule online here — they’ve added some new features this year, so even if you’ve been before, it’s a must-see.
We’re checking to confirm this but West Seattle CoolMom.org leader Abby Suplizio tells WSB there’s word the grocery/chemical-industry-backed (references here and here) bag-tax referendum petition drive already has enough signatures to get it before voters next year, less than two weeks after they started circulating petitions (here’s our report from the Thriftway sighting August 10th). We’ll update this item when we hear back from the organizers. The bag-fee battle was featured on National Public Radio yesterday (Suplizio gave us this link, where you can find the audio) — says the Sierra Club “is organizing a campaign about the petition gatherers misleading people all over Seattle” and asking people to send their stories to bradym@balestra.org – here’s what she sent about a West Seattle encounter (followed by some other info we found):Read More
That’s Steve Rice and Big Squeezy, specializing in Cajun/Zydeco music a la New Orleans, and they’re playing tonight as Providence Mount St. Vincent (WSB sponsor) wraps up its monthlong series of free outdoor concerts. As you know if you’ve been to one or more of the concerts, they’ve drawn all-ages crowds (our reports, with photos/video: 8/1, 8/8, 8/15); the evening starts with food/beer/wine available for purchase starting at 5, then music at 6, all in the courtyard/parking area on the south side of The Mount. See you there!
We told you last month that Mars Hill Church was planning water baptisms at Alki again this year. Tonight the church has posted an update on the event planned for next Tuesday night, including an FYI that “This event pertains to the West Seattle campus only and is not an all-campus event like last year.” The update also says the event will include “BBQ, epic beats via DJ Sandman, a brief message, testimonies.” (Here’s our coverage from last year.)
We’re checking to confirm this but West Seattle 
less than two weeks after they started circulating petitions (
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