Brynn Grimley writes:

In today’s paper I wrote about a rescue effort that happened over the weekend where 34 small dogs made the long trip from Porterville, Calif. to Washington — eight of them landed here in Kitsap County.

The back story of how this came to be is fascinating. If I was a reporter working for the newspaper that covers Porterville I would write a story about Amanda Corbit. She’s 17 years old and she’s responsible for getting the dogs out of the animal control shelter there and into our state with the help of Karla Mattila (she founded Another Chance Rescue in SW Washington).

Corbit started her love affair with animal shelters in sixth grade when a teacher had their class volunteer at a shelter to teach them about community service. She’s been volunteering ever since, and has now her whole family involved. They set up a nonprofit and offer a safe place for dogs to come to find a new home, instead of facing the alternative.

I was astounded to to learn from Corbit how overpopulated their shelters are with small dogs. She told me when a dog comes into the shelter at Porterville Animal Control it has six days for its owner to either come and claim it, or for it to be adopted. If that doesn’t happen, the dog is euthanized. Spay and neuter rates are low in their area because people can’t afford the cost, she said, adding because their community is overrun with small dogs, no one wants to adopt them when they come into the shelter.

Unhappy that so many puppies and dogs were being put down, Corbit started using the volunteer network to contact shelters willing to take some of the dogs. She and Mattila connected, and Mattila called shelters in Washington to see if anyone would take the dogs.

The Kitsap Humane Society was one of those shelters. The society was also in contact with another rescue effort to save dogs from a Kern County Animal Control shelter, also in California (somewhat near Porterville). That shelter, like the Porterville shelter, is considered a “high kill” shelter. (Here’s a 2008 story the Bakersfield Californian newspaper did on the Kern County shelter in Bakersfield and its alarmingly high euthanasia rates).

Stacey Price with the Kitsap Humane Society said when they learned there were small dogs in need of homes coming from California, they made sure they had room in their Silverdale shelter to get them adopted. As my story stated, this is the first round of dogs to come to the shelter from out of state. The society hopes to get a rotation of dogs coming in so that it can diversify the sizes of dogs it has available for adoption (right now it primarily has large dogs), and to help high kill shelters reduce their numbers.

The first round of dogs to come to our area from Porterville were transported by Corbit’s mom and brother to Redding, Calif. where one of Mattila’s volunteers met them and brought them to their shelter in Cowlitz County. An animal control officer from Kitsap picked up the dogs early Sunday morning and brought them back to the peninsula to be checked out before they could be put up for adoption.

Porterville Animal Control paid for the cost of preparing the dogs for the journey — which included giving them heart worm shots, rabies shots and making sure they were certified to Washington State’s health standards, Corbit said. That cost the shelter $4,000. Mattila paid for the transportation costs.

They hope to orchestrate another rescue in the coming weeks, but need to get the money to finance the health checks and transportation costs.

People interested in donating to help with future transports can email Corbit to get the address of where to send a check. Her family has set up a nonprofit shelter and helps foster dogs in their area. Mattila’s shelter, based out of Silver Lake, Wash., is also a nonprofit. People can specify how they want to see the money spent (i.e. for dogs to be transported to Washington for adoption).

Corbit’s email is: corbit_family2006@yahoo.com

“The more (dogs) we can get up there the better,” she said. “But unfortunately the more we send up there, the more expensive it gets. We want to make people realize down here they can make a difference in the dog’s lives.”

Brynn Grimley writes:

Is it just me, or does anyone else feel like the long line of cars at our most popular ferry terminals seem to come earlier and earlier each year?

I was working Sunday (Mother’s Day — Happy Mom’s Day mom!) and I kept getting alerts from Washington State Ferries about wait times on the Edmonds-Kingston route. (I’m working weekends this month, if you’re wondering why in the world I was checking work email on a beautiful sunny day like Sunday instead of being outside enjoying the weather with my mom like most good children).

I had a good chuckle about how the ferry folks write the email alert signaling the long wait times. They say “heavier than usual” vehicle traffic. Sorry guys, but everyone knows if you’re trying to get to Kitsap on a Friday, or to King County on a Sunday, the wait times will be two hours or more depending on how nice the weekend weather is expected to be.

On Sunday I got an alert before 1 p.m. saying Kingston waits were two hours, the tally system was in effect…and it was only the second weekend of May?!

You know what this means right? We have this to look forward to for the next four to five months. But it also means summer is fast approaching.

Since moving to the Kitsap Peninsula four years ago I have come to associate the long wait times on the ferries as a signal that summer is here. This weekend sure felt like summer was starting, so I guess instead of lamenting the lines, I should be rejoicing the warm weather that is hopefully here to stay.

And don’t forget folks, if you don’t feel like sitting in a ferry line for two hours, the Bremerton boat almost never has long wait times. So your options are: sit in your car in the heat for two hours waiting to move two inches every 30 minutes, or drive right on the Bremerton boat and land in the peninsula likely before your wheels would even cross the plank on one of the other more heavily used routes. I’m just saying…

And you can check out Bremerton’s new fish and fisherman statues on your way out of town.

Brynn Grimley writes:

At the end of last week I finally made it out to the future site of the Silverdale Dog Park, located along Silverdale Way where the Rotary Gateway Park is situated. There’s also an entrance to the Clear Creek Trail from this location, and of course the skateboard park where local teens practice their boarding skills.

I was at the site to see students from CK High School, Navy Seabees and other area volunteers put in their time for Earth Day.

It’s been a while since I wrote about the dog park so I thought what better time to write an update than after seeing first-hand how quick progress has been made.

Through the Earth Day volunteer efforts, a 600 foot gravel trail was built in just under two hours. The trail runs from the parking lot (near the public bathrooms) all the way to the end of the property where it connects to the roadway. The grassy area along side the trail will be the dog park, which will be fenced off so trail users won’t have to walk inside the park to use the trail.

Inside the dog park there will be a small dog area, and another area for medium to larger dogs. The chain-link fence will allow dog owners to have their pets off leash. The project is being organized and completed by the Silverdale Dog Park stewardship group, which is 100 percent volunteer driven. The money being used to build the dog park is from various fund raising efforts, from private donations and money that was raised by selling plaques along the chain-link fence and advertising space within the park.

None of the money is from the county. To date the group has raised close to $30,000.

They hope to have the park open for use on July 4, but have a few more hurdles to jump over before that can happen. The biggest project still to be done is the expansion of the parking lot. A condition of the county approving the location for the dog park was the installation of 14 more parking spaces.

The group will add those by removing the berm that separates the lot from the road. They are looking to put a rain garden in to handle the stormwater run off. Right now they’re waiting to see if the stormwater will be handled by the garden, or if they’ll also need to use pervious payment in the lot. For cost purposes they’re hoping a rain garden will meet the needs, because the pervious pavement is not cheap.

Installing the trail section of the park is the first visual indication that things are moving quickly to get the park operational, said Mike McCown, vice president of the Silverdale Dog Park stewardship group.

“We’ve been looking forward to Earth Day,” he said. “This is being done with volunteers and volunteer dollars.”

The group hopes to know by this week which direction to go with the parking lot. Once the lot is ready, the chain-link fence will be installed and from there I am sure people will be anxiously waiting for the gates to open so they can let their dogs run free.

Brynn Grimley writes:

Well if you do, you should try to make it to a pancake breakfast planned for Saturday at the Brownsville Yacht Club.

For a suggested donation of $5 you can find yourself munching on two pancakes, two sausage links and wash it all down with a Cup of Joe, or some OJ. And, while you’re enjoying your breakfast treat, you can know your “suggested” $5 is going to a good cause.

The fund raising breakfast is being organized by Carolyn Thomas, the wife of Capt. Jonathan Thomas, who was instrumental in bringing the various tall ships to Kitsap County over the last few years. The breakfast will benefit the Schooner Lavengro, which county commissioners declared the official tall ship of Kitsap County last month.

The schooner is run by the non-profit NW Schooner Society, based out of Seattle. Jonathan has done a lot to keep the boat afloat (so-to-speak), including covering a lot of the financial costs needed to keep the boat running. He’s also gone out to the community and found people willing to volunteer their time to make the boat better.

The money raised from Saturday’s breakfast will help the group pay for a full-time captain (former Kitsap resident Dave Haslam who I wrote about last year) to stay on the boat and do the daily upkeep needed to make the Schooner Lavengro suitable for the many free public sails she’ll be giving this summer. *** I learned later tonight that the money raised through the breakfast will be put toward the purchase of a new sail (the forsil), that the boat needs desperately. Jonathan said a new sail runs about $5,0000. ***

*** But Dave Haslam will be captain of the Schooner Lavengro from about May to September, which is a huge bonus for the boat because he’ll be there full time to keep the boat up and running for the free public sails, which will still be offered this summer. ***

The Schooner Lavengro now calls the Port of Brownsville Marina its base of operations, so there’s a desire by the port and Jonathan to get the community plugged in.

So if you feel like getting your eat on this Saturday, and want your money to go to a nonprofit instead of some other international-type pancake plance (I won’t name any names here), head to the Brownsville Yacht Club (at the Brownsville Marina), 9756 Ogle Road NE in Bremerton.