Whale Trapped in Net; Wounded Blue Jay Gets CHP Help; New Home for Bay Bridge Chicken; Fatal Dog Mauling: All in Calif.

Animals from all over California made headlines this week.

Boy Gets Dream Wave With Surfer Dog

• Ricochet is the coolest dog ever; She hangs 10 regularly with people who have disabilities or other issues.

Pooch Returned to Marine Veteran Owner

• Kai, who helps her human with PTSD, was taken from her Vista backyard last December.

Bay Bridge Chicken Given New Home, New Name

• The chicken is one of four hens being donated to live at an edible schoolyard in Oakland.

CHP Officer Saves Wounded Blue Jay

• The bird was standing in the roadway, not moving and nearly getting hit by traffic when the patrolman spotted him.

Oakland Zoo Auctions Off Artwork Created by Animals

• Featured artists include an elephant, meerkat, lemur, goat, sun bear, giraffe, hyena, siamang, goat, chuckwalla, snake, and a chimpanzee.

Shark Sightings Not so Rare Anymore

• El Nino traditionally heats up Pacific Ocean waters, bringing mammals that do not usually venture this far north to our shores.

Tangled Blue Whale Spotted After Evading Rescuers

• Rescue crews, attempting to save a tangled blue whale for the first time, had to suspend the dangerous rescue effort over night.

Crews Try to Save Blue Whale Trapped in Netting

• A blue whale has become tangled in netting in the channel between Catalina Island and the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Mountain Lion Spotted in Woodside Residential Area

• A resident observed the lion at about 7:40 p.m. Sunday near the 300 block of Olive Hill Lane

Dog Dies Following Swim in Russian River

• The golden retriever tested positive for toxic algae. Health advisories issued.

Man Killed, Woman Injured in Dog Attack Near Salton Sea

• A sheriff’s spokesperson said officials do not know what precipitated the attack. The dogs, believed to be pit bulls, have been captured.

Anyone Lose a Tortoise? Titanic Terrapin Found Near Hemet

• The 200-pound tortoise was apparently kept as a pet and was found lumbering along a Riverside County roadway and is now waiting to be claimed by its owner at a county animal shelter.

More animals on Patch:

• Donations for Burned Dog; ATV Rider Killed in Collision With Horse; National Dog Day; Whale in Estuary: All in Calif.
• Kayaker Bitten By Shark Off Deer Creek Beach

Photo courtesy Oakland Zoo from Oakland Zoo Auctions Off Artwork Created by Animals