Dog

"The Dog Whisperer" Cesar Millan is usually focused on rehabbing canines -- but he's now revealing some work he had to do on himself following a suicide attempt in 2010. In February of that year, he lost his top dog, Daddy, to cancer after 16 years as a team. A month later, Millan's wife told him she wanted a divorce after 16 years of marriage. The combined blow knocked him for a loop, he shares in "Cesar Millan: The Real Story," a documentary on Nat Geo Wild. In May 2010, he attempted suicide via drug overdose, winding up unconscious and hospitalized, he said.

Re "The gift of a great dog," Opinion, May 16 A year ago I too thought that I'd had that one great dog, that canine soul mate never to be found again. My 13-year-old shepherd had passed away, and I was heartbroken. I couldn't even consider getting another dog for months, as I knew it would not be fair to a new dog to constantly fall short in comparison. After six months, one day when I least expected it, a 6-year-old rescued shepherd came into my family's life. We love him passionately, and now he has become the best dog ever.

The sharp cracks echoing from the East Bakersfield street were loud enough to jolt Ruben Ceballos from a midnight slumber. Then he heard screams. The 19-year-old jumped from his living room sofa and hurried to the kitchen door, which offered a view of the violent scene outside - Kern County sheriff's deputies repeatedly striking a man in the head with batons as he lay on the pavement. "I saw two sheriff's deputies on top of this guy, just beating him," Ceballos said in an interview Monday.

We got another dog right away. That wasn't the plan. But back in March, less than two weeks after Rex died and when I still had faint bruises from digging my fingers into my forehead amid uncontrollable sobs, I signed us up to "foster" a Saint Bernard mix that had been rescued from a crack den. It was a classic rebound move, but the unbearable silence of the dogless house was too much to take. You don't realize how much a dog's presence defines the contours of your home until, in its absence, the walls seem to relocate themselves.

Ever wanted to know what your dog was doing all day without having to set up a complicated video camera system? People Power, a Palo Alto software company, has released a mobile app that can easily turn an old iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch into a security camera. The company's free app, Presence, makes it possible for users who have Wi-Fi to set up one Apple device as a video camera and another as a monitor. For instance, a dog owner could take an old iPhone, turn it into a camera and then watch the pooch on an iPad at work.

Accusing Wells Fargo & Co. of reneging on a sweeping mortgage-modification deal, a lawyer for troubled homeowners is trying to reopen a case involving risky "pick-a-pay" loans written during the housing bubble. Legal filings last week claimed Wells Fargo failed to provide wide-ranging reductions of loan balances to delinquent borrowers as it had promised two years ago when it settled a combined national class-action suit. A bank spokeswoman strongly disputed the claim, saying it was riddled with errors.

I've been to Disneyland hundreds of times over the last two decades and have been writing the Funland theme park blog for about four years now. As a result, people are always asking me how to do everything at Disneyland in a single day. The short answer is you probably can't. It can be a struggle for even hard-core fans with military assault-like strategies. The longer answer is there's lots of ways to maximize your time in the park and get on the most rides possible. PHOTOS: How to do Disneyland in a day So in honor of Disneyland's 24-hour Leap Day celebration , here are my seven tips for tackling Disneyland in a day: Tip 1: If you're trying to get the most out of your day at Disneyland , I always recommend arriving just before the park opens in the morning, staying until the park closes at night and taking a long break in the heat of the afternoon at your hotel pool or cocktail bar. It may sound like a long day, but you'll get more done in the first two hours and the last two hours of your day than if you spent 15 hours straight at the park.

Actress Jane Fonda bought a home in Beverly Hills last year with a feature that might seem counterintuitive for a fitness guru: an elevator. The Holmby Hills house that pop icon Michael Jackson leased has one within its 17,200 square feet of living space. So does the nearby 56,500-square-foot mansion heiress Petra Ecclestone bought from socialite Candy Spelling two years ago for $85 million. But home elevators aren't just for the super-rich anymore. Baby boomers looking to age in place are installing them to ease the burden of bad knees and growing girth.

As detectives pieced together the 2008 slaying of a young Santa Monica woman, they came to a chilling conclusion: She had been calling police for help when the killer snatched the phone from her hands and hung up. Prosecutors unveiled the eerie account of the 911 call and other details from the March 2008 killing that has attracted national attention during secret grand jury proceedings against Kelly Soo Park, the woman arrested in June this year...

A Japanese friend sent me a link to a video this morning. I rarely stop to look at something like that, but I'd hit a snarl in what I was working on, and clicked. It made me laugh and I very much needed it at that moment. It's a link to a Japanese cooking show on the web entitled--I kid you not--" Cooking with Dog " with your host Francis. In the lesson, you learn to make oyakodon , or chicken egg drop donburi . You could really learn to make the dish from the video, which includes English subtitles and a voiceover in English.

Re "After ER trip, it's hospital bill shock," Column, May 10 and "Medical rates range off the chart," May 9 David Lazarus' column on a child's dog bite that resulted in an emergency room bill of $1,721.75 exposes a flaw in the business of healthcare. Hospital officials who were quoted in the news article do not claim that they know the actual cost of each service rendered. They don't know the amount of time a nurse spends on a particular patient and do not have a way to account for the costs of a particular procedure.

To some, a Mother's Day getaway means a don't-look-back, tires-screeching hall pass for an escape with girlfriends. To others, it means an amorous sojourn with a husband or partner. Then there are those who want to take along their kids or even the family pet. Herewith, places to suit all preferences. A tip: You can sometimes get fantastic last-minute deals on websites such as http://www.hotels.com . Le Méridien, Isle of Pines, New Caledonia For the mother - or family - who has been everywhere.

Last week's column, about my misadventures with a rescue dog, was not universally embraced by pet owners. For those who missed Part 1 of the saga, my wife, daughter and I were in the market for a pup, and Dogs Without Borders needed a temporary home for a timid, low-slung Corgi mix named Hannah. We committed to fostering her for a week, with the idea we might want to adopt her permanently. But things didn't go terribly smoothly, and some readers reacted as if I'd left a puddle on the living room floor.

Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies and animal control officers were searching by air Thursday for four pit bulls believed to have mauled a woman to death earlier in the day in the Antelope Valley community of Littlerock. Hours after the attack, Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the dogs' capture. The 63-year-old woman was out for her morning walk about 9 o'clock when she was mauled by the dogs. Her name has not been released.

When I had dogs as a kid, and later as a young adult, there didn't seem to be anything difficult about finding the right canine or taking care of it. But things seem to have gotten a lot more complicated since then. First of all, unless you want a rescue dog, you face the withering judgment of do-gooders who have devoted their lives to saving pups from the boneyard. I live in Silver Lake, not far from a sprawling dog park. And if an abandoned infant were spotted on the curb of that busy corner, across the street from a dog with a thorn in its paw, I guarantee you dozens of people with porkpie hats and tattooed peace signs would rush to the aid of the dog instead of the child.

If you liked the Sahara tent at Coachella , you're going to love the lineup at this year's HARD Summer. Several of the fest's major dance headliners, including neo-dubsteppers Knife Party, the Skrillex/Boys Noize project Dog Blood and the hirsute low-end wrangler Bassnectar, will make return Southern California appearances at the annual summer electronica festival. It hits Los Angeles State Historic Park on Aug. 3-4, and tickets are currently on sale. Some other notable Coachella crossovers?

After spending 18 months in federal prison in a dogfighting case, Michael Vick has decided to get a dog as a family pet. "I understand the strong emotions by some people about our family's decision to care for a pet," Vick said in a statement. "As a father, it is important to make sure my children develop a healthy relationship with animals. I want to ensure that my children establish a loving bond and treat all of God's creatures with kindness and respect. Our pet is well cared for and loved as a member of our family.

Call this the story of Bo the Wyoming Wonder Dog. A few months back, the severely injured 3-year-old shepherding dog rushed into his owner's home in rural Worland, Wyo. (population 5,487), about 150 miles north of Casper. He'd been shot twice and then burned inside a barrel. The blue-heeler was bleeding from the face, and third-degree burns covered most of his body. But he was alive. Barely. Talk about an animal with nine lives. PHOTOS: Rescued animals “If Bo does have nine lives, he certainly used up at least a couple of them with this incident,” the dog's owner, Abby Redland, told the Los Angeles Times.

Some brought their children. Some brought their friends. Alden Delos Santos brought his Chihuahuas. Delos Santos was among thousands Sunday participating in the sixth CicLAvia, the car-free event that opened 15 miles of city streets, from downtown to Venice, to cyclists and pedestrians. Delos Santos, 41, embarked on the ride accompanied by two 4-month-old Chihuahua/Maltese rescue dogs named Sriracha and Bianco in a front pack. He planned to do the whole route with the puppies in tow. Delos Santos said he rides regularly and had participated in CicLAvia a number of times before, enjoying the atmosphere.

Anyone who's ever laid eyes on Beth Chapman, the costar of former hit reality show "Dog the Bounty Hunter," might think she's one of a kind, with her lacquered nails, stiletto heels and pink handcuffs. It turns out she has imitators, and she's none too pleased with her flashy doppelgangers. She and her husband, Duane "Dog" Chapman, found several impractically outfitted bounty hunters while playing mentor to mom-and-pop bail bond agencies across the country for an upcoming series on CMT. “I asked them to change their clothes and put on sensible shoes,” Beth Chapman said recently by phone during a break in filming in Oklahoma City.