SHELTERS CAN BE SITES OF BONDING, REUNION.

Byline: Amy Collins Daily News Staff Writer

Four-year-old David Wing picked out his first puppy last week, a German shepherd mix that will get to leave its metal cage at the animal shelter for a loving home in Northridge.

``My little puppy,'' David squealed, as the dog was brought into the hallway of the West Valley shelter.

Excited to be out of its cage, the puppy craned her neck every which way and found David talking to her. ``Hey booey, hey scary,'' David said, focusing all his energy on his new best friend. ``Let's call her Scary. She scares bad guys away.''

David, his mother, Sally, and his sister Aimee had made three previous visits to the shelter in Chatsworth, as well as three other shelters before they settled on the right puppy.

``We were looking for just a good family dog,'' Sally Wing said.

They looked other places for dogs but found more success in the long hallway of kennels at the shelter. ``There's just always such a good selection of dogs that already need a home,'' she said.

What Wing and her children found is that animal shelters are not just places of death and affection-starved animals.

What David Mogil found is that the shelters also are places of reunion.

Using a folded handkerchief to wipe his eyes every few minutes, Mogil picked up his deaf and tailless companion of 13 years, Soda.

Soda and her sister, Whiskey, are primarily indoor dogs but escaped through the opened garage door three days earlier. Whiskey made it home, but Soda didn't.

``God, am I happy,'' Mogil said, getting choked up each time he talked about it. ``I'm sure happy, I'm telling you.''

Scenes like these happened 22,395 times last year at city of Los Angeles shelters. But that was not often enough to save the 57,868 other animals that were euthanized because they were too sick, too vicious or just too numerous for the kennels to keep.

The success stories are what help make the job worthwhile for animal care workers.

Dr. Dena Mangiamele, the chief veterinarian for Los Angeles Department of Animal Regulation, has a piece of fax paper stuck on her bulletin board to remind her of those payoffs.

``Pointer - Redeemed.''

A pointer had come into the Harbor animal shelter, badly hurt by a car. The dog appeared to be a pet and despite its bad condition, a shelter worker refused to pull it to be euthanized.

A couple of months later, the neighbor to the pointer's owner was in the shelter and recognized the dog. A tearful reunion followed with the owner, who had given up hope weeks earlier.

Even the long shots pay off sometimes.

``Anytime you have a feeling, a premonition, that it's going to be claimed, go with it,'' Mangiamele tells her staff.

Susan Reed of Chatsworth is hoping her own long shot will pay off. The day she retired from Pacific Bell, Reed got her Siamese cat, Gaitano. But last week, he stopped showing up for breakfast. She's been checking the kennels daily and calls the city's recording of dead animals that have been picked up.

But looking for Gaitano at the shelter Thursday, she found another that looked very similar and decided to adopt it, either as a replacement or a companion for Gaitano.

``I hope she's not a replacement,'' Reed said.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

PHOTO (color) Susan Reed holds a cat she decided to adopt from the West Valley Animal Shelter.

David Sprague/Daily News