I have ARCHIE: a nine year old sheepadoodle, GERTIE: a ten year old exotic shorthair that came from a hoarding rescue and BABYCAT: a Polydactyl from the streets of Van Nuys.
Van Nuys is where two of my favorite people were born: Jenny Lewis and Angela Brown. Babycat is probably the best cat I’ve ever had, so he’s my third favorite thing out of Van Nuys.
I did buy the Sheepadoodle from a farm in Virginia. A woman had a sheepdog and a parti poodle who birthed a litter on my birthday. I stumbled across her on a deep dive for Sheepdogs x Poodles.
I wanted a dog because I didn’t want a gun in the house.
When I lived in Fryman Canyon, alone for a month and writing my second book, I had a break-in.
I was out at a movie. Someone broke in.
Fifteen-minutes before discovering the break in, a Hollywood officer pulled me over because I was driving down Cahuenga with my lights off. Johnny Rice was in the passenger side seat. We’d just left the Arclight, we saw BOYHOOD.
I was still crying to Johnny about Patricia Arquette’s monologue when I explained to the officer that I’d just pulled out of the parkade and didn’t realize my lights were off.
I’m always crying when a police officer pulls me over. They scare the shit out of me. It’s only happened twice, alone. I just burst into tears because I didn’t know what I’d done wrong at all.
The rest of the winding drive with Johnny through Laurel Canyon was fine. I dropped him off at his and Jenny Lewis’s house, Mint Chip, six houses up the mountain from mine.
I let my car roll down the mountain and into my driveway. I got out of the car. I walked in the door and there was a person in my house.
