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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control continues to look for homes for its big group of kittens.
The kittens are all in the range of 9 weeks old, with a 3-year-old male adult cat also being offered to a new home.
In addition to spaying or neutering, cats that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are microchipped before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.
If you're looking for a new companion, visit the shelter. There are many great pets there, hoping you'll choose them.
In addition to the animals featured here, all adoptable animals in Lake County can be seen here: http://bit.ly/Z6xHMb .
The following cats at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption (other cats pictured on the animal control Web site that are not listed here are still “on hold”).
Torbie kitten
This torbie kitten is 9 weeks old.
She has a short coat and gold eyes, and has not yet been spayed.
The kitten is in foster, ID No. 40614.
Female tuxedo kitten
This female tuxedo kitten is 9 weeks old.
She has a short coat and gold eyes, and has not yet been spayed.
The kitten is in foster, ID No. 40613.
Black male kitten
This black male kitten is 9 weeks old.
He has a short coat and gold eyes, and has not yet been neutered.
The kitten is in foster, ID No. 40612.
Male gray tabby kitten
This male gray and white tabby kitten is 9 weeks old.
He has a short coat and gold eyes, and has not yet been neutered.
The kitten is in foster, ID No. 40611.
Female gray tabby kitten
This female gray tabby kitten is 9 weeks old.
She has a short coat and gold eyes, and has not yet been spayed.
The kitten is in foster, ID No. 40610.
'Bob'
“Bob” is a 3-year-old orange tabby.
He has a short coat and gold eyes, and has been neutered.
He's in cat room kennel No. 66, ID No. 40641.
Black male kitten
This black male kitten is 9 weeks old.
He has green eyes and a short black and white coat, and has not yet been neutered.
Find him in cat room kennel No. 12e, ID No. 40664.
Black female kitten
This black female kitten is 9 weeks old.
She has green eyes and a short coat, and has not yet been spayed.
She's in cat room kennel No. 12d, ID No. 40663.
Black male kitten
This black male kitten is 9 weeks old.
He has green eyes and a short coat, and has not yet been neutered.
Find him in cat room kennel No. 12c, ID No. 40662.
Male gray tabby kitten
This male gray tabby kitten is 9 weeks old.
He has green eyes and a short coat, and has not yet been neutered.
He's in cat room kennel No. 12a, ID No. 40660.
Adoptable cats also can be seen at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control/Adopt/Cats_and_Kittens.htm or at www.petfinder.com .
Please note: Cats listed at the shelter's Web page that are said to be “on hold” are not yet cleared for adoption.
To fill out an adoption application online visit http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control/Adopt/Dog___Cat_Adoption_Application.htm .
Lake County Animal Care and Control is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, next to the Hill Road Correctional Facility.
Office hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm .
For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
NORTH COAST, Calif. – Officials said Sunday night that the Lodge Complex is continuing to burn in Mendocino County, with containment remaining at 97 percent.
The complex of three lightning fires began July 30 in the Wilderness Lodge/Eel River Canyon area near Laytonville.
Cal Fire said the complex's size remains at 12,535 acres.
To date, the fire has cost $41.3 million to fight and has injured 15 firefighters, Cal Fire said.
A small crew remains on scene, including two fire engines, one fire crew and 26 firefighting personnel, according to Cal Fire's report.
Cal Fire said the fire crews are continuing to mop up and look for hot spots within the containment lines, a process that has been hampered by steep terrain.
Interior portions of the fire will continue to burn and may produce smoke for an extended period of time in the Laytonville and south Leggett area, Cal Fire said.
The fire was responsible for sending large amounts of smoke into Lake County's air basin earlier this month, as Lake County News has reported.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
CLEARLAKE OAKS, Calif. – A fire early Sunday morning damaged a mobile home and displaced two residents.
The fire on Mitchell Drive – directly across the highway from Indian Beach Resort – in Clearlake Oaks was dispatched at 12:16 a.m. Sunday, according to radio reports.
Northshore Fire and Cal Fire units responded, with firefighters reporting to dispatch that they could see flames showing from three blocks away.
Firefighters arriving on scene said one mobile home was totally involved with structures threatened on both sides.
Utility lines also fell during the incident, with Pacific Gas and Electric asked to respond.
PG&E's outage center did not list any power outages in the area as a result of the downed lines.
Radio reports indicated that a male, a female and a dog had been trapped in the home's backyard but later were moved to safety.
The fire itself was knocked down in approximately 25 minutes, with the deputy chief on scene estimating that two hours of mop up was needed.
Firefighters contained the blaze to the mobile home, radio reports indicated.
Due to the damage to the structure, Red Cross was asked to help provide assistance to the home's two residents, according to reports from the scene.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The California Highway Patrol's Clear Lake Office is planning to hold a sobriety checkpoint this Monday, Sept. 1.
The checkpoint will take place from 4 to 11:59 p.m., the CHP said.
“The desired result is to save lives and make everyone's Labor Day excursion – for both our community residents and those visiting our beautiful county – a safe and pleasurable memory,” said Lt. Hector Paredes, the new commander of the Clear Lake Area office.
The CHP said the checkpoint will be staffed by officers who are trained in the detection of alcohol- and drug-impaired drivers.
Drug recognition experts, certified by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, will be on site to provide on-the-spot assessments of drivers suspected of drug abuse, the CHP said.
The officers also will be equipped with state-of-the-art handheld breath devices which the CHP said provide an accurate measure of blood alcohol concentrations of suspected impaired drivers.
Paredes said that, traffic volume permitting, all vehicles will be checked and drivers who are under the influence of alcohol, drugs or both can expect to be arrested.
The goal, Paredes said, is to ensure the safe passage of each and every motorist by targeting roads where there is a high frequency of drunk driving.
DUI enforcement patrols, as well as sobriety checkpoints, are effective tools for achieving this goal and are designed to augment existing patrol operations, Paredes said.
“By publicizing our efforts, we believe that we can deter motorists from drinking and driving,” Paredes said.
Funding for the program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has a group of mostly big dogs needing homes this week.
The dogs range in age from 8 months to 10 years, and are mixes of terrier, pit bull, Labrador Retriever, Rottweiler, hound, boxer and Manchester Terrier.
Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.
If you're looking for a new companion, visit the shelter. There are many great pets hoping you'll choose them.
In addition to the animals featured here, all adoptable animals in Lake County can be seen here: http://bit.ly/Z6xHMb .
The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption (additional dogs on the animal control Web site not listed are still “on hold”).
Male Manchester Terrier mix
This male Manchester Terrier mix is 10 years old.
He has a short black and brown coat, weighs 16 pounds and has been neutered.
He's in kennel No. 5, ID No. 40653.
Female boxer mix
This female boxer mix is 9 months old.
She has a short black coat, weighs 34 pounds and has been spayed.
She's in kennel No. 8, ID No. 40635.
Male Rottweiler-hound mix
This male Rottweiler-hound mix is 8 months old.
He has a short black and tan coat. Shelter staff did not report if he has been neutered.
Find him in kennel No. 12, ID No. 40671.
'Snap'
“Snap” is a 1-year-old male pit bull terrier-boxer mix.
He has a short white coat, weighs 67 pounds and has not been neutered.
Shelter staff said Snap has an excellent temperament, is well behaved, walks great on a leash, and gets along well with both and female dogs. He would be best in a home with no cats and with children age 10 and above.
He's in kennel No. 16, ID No. 40550.
Male Chihuahua mix
This male Chihuahua mix is 1 year old.
He has a short black and brown coat, and weighs 6 pounds. Shelter staff did not report if he has been neutered.
Find him in kennel No. 17, ID No. 40687.
Male Labrador Retriever mix
This male Labrador Retriever mix is 3 years old.
He has a short black coat, weighs 71 pounds and has been neutered.
He's in kennel No. 27, ID No. 40527.
'Honey'
“Honey” is a 10-year-old toy fox terrier.
She has a short brown and white coat, and floppy ears. Shelter staff did not report if she has been spayed.
Find her in kennel No. 31, ID No. 40582.
To fill out an adoption application online visit http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control/Adopt/Dog___Cat_Adoption_Application.htm .
Lake County Animal Care and Control is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, next to the Hill Road Correctional Facility.
Office hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm .
For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
Once every 50 years, more or less, a massive star explodes somewhere in the Milky Way.
The resulting blast is terrifyingly powerful, pumping out more energy in a split second than the sun emits in a million years.
At its peak, a supernova can outshine the entire Milky Way.
It seems obvious that you wouldn't want a supernova exploding near Earth. Yet there is growing evidence that one did – actually, more than one.
About 10 million years ago, a nearby cluster of supernovas went off like popcorn. We know because the explosions blew an enormous bubble in the interstellar medium, and we're inside it.
Astronomers call it “the Local Bubble.” It is peanut-shaped, about 300 light years long, and filled with almost nothing. Gas inside the bubble is very thin (0.001 atoms per cubic centimeter) and very hot (roughly a million degrees)—a sharp departure from ordinary interstellar material.
The Local Bubble was discovered gradually in the 1970s and 1980s.
Optical and radio astronomers looked carefully for interstellar gas in our part of the galaxy, but couldn't find much in Earth's neighborhood.
Meanwhile, x-ray astronomers were getting their first look at the sky using sounding rockets and orbiting satellites, which revealed a million-degree x-ray glow coming from all directions.
It all added up to Earth being inside a bubble of hot gas blown by exploding stars.
However, not all researchers agreed.
“Within the last decade, some scientists have been challenging the [supernova] interpretation, suggesting that much or all of the soft X-ray diffuse background is instead a result of charge exchange,” said F. Scott Porter of the Goddard Space Flight Center.
“Charge exchange”: Basically, it happens when the electrically-charged solar wind comes into contact with a neutral gas.
The solar wind can steal electrons from the neutral gas, resulting in an X-ray glow that looks a lot like the glow from an old supernova. Charge exchange has been observed many times in comets.
So, is the X-ray glow that fills the sky a sign of peaceful “charge exchange” in the solar system or evidence of terrifying explosions in the distant past?
To find out, an international team researchers including Porter and led by physics professor Massimiliano Galeazzi at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, developed an X-ray detector that could distinguish between the two possibilities.
The device was named DXL, for Diffuse X-ray emission from the Local Galaxy.
On Dec. 12, 2012, DXL launched from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico atop a NASA Black Brant IX sounding rocket, reaching a peak altitude of 160 miles and spending five minutes above Earth's atmosphere.
That was all the time they needed to measure the amount of “charge exchange” X-rays inside the solar system.
The results, published online in the journal Nature on July 27, indicate that only about 40 percent of the soft X-ray background originates within the solar system. The rest must come from a Local Bubble of hot gas, the relic of ancient supernovas outside the solar system.
Obviously, those supernovas were not close enough to exterminate life on Earth—but they were close enough to wrap our solar system in a bubble of hot gas that persists millions of years later.
“This is a significant discovery,' said Galeazzi. “[It] affects our understanding of the area of the galaxy close to the sun, and can, therefore, be used as a foundation for future models of the galaxy structure.”
Galeazzi and collaborators are already planning the next flight of DXL, which will include additional instruments to better characterize the emission. The launch is currently planned for December 2015.
Credits:
Dr. Tony Phillips works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.