Dateline>City of Angels

Posters and fliers in search of lost pets are a common sight in any neighborhood, but this is the first time I’ve seen a fullsize billboard.

This one overlooks the corner of Sunset and Alvarado in Echo Park and seeks the return of Hedkayce, a 10-pound mixed breed who vanished from her front yard in the Hathaway Hills near Silver Lake.

Not only am I guessing she was stolen, but I can identify with the desperation her family must be feeling right now.

When I first moved here about three years ago, my two Dobies escaped from the new house while I was out to dinner. (Strong Santa Ana winds were blowing that evening, and the door latch was apparently faulty.) Unfortunately, I’d given them both baths earlier that day and hadn’t put their collars or tags back on either of them.

It’s bad enough knowing your dogs are loose without ID. Worse is realizing no one is likely to take in two scary-looking Doberman strays until the owner comes looking for them. For 45 minutes I searched as night fell, convinced I’d never see them again. I probably would’ve splurged on a billboard too, if it had come to that.

Thankfully they were found several blocks away, exhausted from exploring their new neighborhood, but otherwise safe and sound.

I sincerely hope Hedkayce makes it home in similar fashion. She’s obviously very much loved and missed.

Believe it or not, right now, the “hottest” spot in Southern California is someplace outside Fillmore in Ventura County, but unless you’re a thermogeologist, it’s probably no place you’d want to visit.

Experts are reportedly still baffled over the “thermal anomaly” that caused ground temperatures on a small patch of terrain to soar to more than 800 degrees Fahrenheit, sparking a three-acre brush fire. Even now, several weeks after the incident, temperatures remain high enough to melt the rubber off the sneakers of anyone who tries to get too close.

Whatever the cause, it seems we can rule out space aliens, the CIA, Bigfoot, global warming and all the other usual suspects behind weird natural phenomena. The leading theory is that some type of hydrocarbon caught fire deep below the surface and is seeping up through fissures in the earth.