HIGH GEAR: Monday, October 28, 2013

Meeting held at Peninsula Humane Society Catered by A Black Tie Affair

Newscast: In honor of our lunch venue Fritz Brauner tried his hand at cat and dog jokes. When this fell flat he turned to audience participation and we got to hear favorite animal stories from our members. Mark Lucchesi admitted to having two dogs to which Ted K. made some comment about the meat counter at Mollie Stones. The group finally had enough and began to chant for the speaker to appear and begin in order to spare us any further pain. (Learn to love the pain because Hartley is next on the Newscast “hit” list – ed.)

Program and Speaker: Fritz changed hats and introduced our speaker, Scott Delucchi, the Sr. VP of Community Relations for Peninsula Humane Society. He is a life-long resident of San Mateo County having attended Serra High School and then Stanford University. He recognized Emily Matthews as the last arrival and said she would be awarded the three legged dog. As a 15 year PHS employee Scott witnessed the transition from the 60 year old cinderblock and chain link facility at Coyote Point to their brand new state-of-the-arts building on Rollins Road. This was all privately financed through a long fundraising effort. A large gift was given by a former wife of Larry Ellison. But they did not want the Ellison name on the building so honored longtime friend Tom Lantos. The official name of their new home is the Tom and Annette Lantos Center for Compassion. This is a three story building that houses dogs on the first floor, cats on the third and all other creatures on the second story. Scott explained that people give up their pets for a variety of reasons. One man had to surrender his parrot when he remarried because it continued to repeat the name of his first wife. Another gave up the cat because it didn’t match the furniture. Speaking of furniture, Scott asked if anyone knew the material used in the furnishings where the dogs and cats are housed. Cement! Very realistic looking but indestructible. PHS has a 100% adoption rate for healthy animals. They also stress spay and neutering and offer this as a low cost service. In fact they even have a mobile spay clinic that makes the rounds. You can recognize it if it is in your neighborhood as the back of the van says “GO NUTS.” Those who were interested were able to take a tour of the center at the conclusion of the meeting.