Wednesday, November 4, 2015

The Scoop: Rebecca Cox, Greta, Fred, Donut, and Lucie

The Scoop: Rebecca Cox, Greta, Fred, Donut, and Lucie

A writer from the East coast with an obsession for vintage furniture and original art, Rebecca Cox has amassed nearly two decades’ worth of experience in the interior design industry and art gallery business. (Editor’s note: take a look at her current endeavor, Lily Spindle, which combines design, art, and dogs!) She moved to Los Angeles eight years ago from Portsmouth, NH, where she was managing a contemporary art gallery and boutique, to begin art consulting (residential and commercial) with an LA-based firm. Returning to her roots in the realm of furniture and decor, she ran the design studio and retail space of a Santa Monica-based interior designer for years, handling all aspects of the company, which included traveling to esoteric places both near and far for shopping trips, and further honing her chops and intensifying her love for making spaces beautiful and unusual.

The creator of minutelovestories, a series of 200-word love stories she began writing in 2010, a portion of the stories within her book A Quiver for Lapsed Romantics were brought to the theatrical stage for the Hollywood Fringe Festival and were exhibited at the Craig Krull Gallery in Santa Monica. She’s currently working on a collaborative book with the artist Vivienne Strauss.

Originally from Massachusetts, she holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from University of New Hampshire and is married to the artist Ned Evans. They live in Venice, California with their four rescue dogs and single black cat, Bright.

The Scoop: Rebecca Cox, Greta, Fred, Donut, and Lucie

Names? Greta, Fred, Donut, and Lucie.

Nicknames? Greta – The LBD, the Meatball Sub, The Sub.
Donut – Cruller, Babyboy, The Maple Bar, Bubba.
Lucie – Luciebelle, The Mama. We sometimes call Fred “Fragile Fred,” but not too often as I think it hurts his already sensitive disposition. The monikers Lovebug and Sugarbooger are thrown around at least twenty times a day, too, for the entire lot of them.

The Scoop: Rebecca Cox, Greta, Fred, Donut, and Lucie

Ages? Lucie is eight or nine (we’re not entirely sure, as we adopted her when she was around two or thereabouts – age is basically an educated guess when a dog’s a stray), Greta is around three, Fred is six, and Donut will be two as of this coming February.

The Scoop: Rebecca Cox, Greta, Fred, Donut, and Lucie

Breeds? Greta is a Patterdale Terrier mix, Lucie’s a shepherd and something-something-and-something else hybrid, Fred is a Jack Russell, and Donut is a jumbled mix of terrier traits – people have guessed mini-Schnauzer, Border Terrier, Cairn Terrier, Chihuahua, and Italian Greyhound – blended into one long-legged 13-lb fuzz bucket. They’re our glorious mutt gang of mysterious lineage.

The Scoop: Rebecca Cox, Greta, Fred, Donut, and Lucie

What’s “The Scoop”? Yikes. Oh my goodness, there are lots of players and rescuers in these stories, but I’ll try to keep it succinct!

Lucie was originally found in a warehouse in Gardena, so filthy that the woman who found her was astonished to find, upon washing her, that she was Breck girl blonde. Karma Rescue took her in and she was with them for several months, with no interest or applications. But one of the Karma volunteers loved her dearly and took her for daily walks in Culver City, where I worked at that time. I was eating lunch at an outdoor cafe with my brother and his wife and their Rhodesian Ridgeback, Chance, visiting from the East coast. Lucie came around a corner with an enormous grin on her face and as my sister-in-law says, my “heart leapt out of my chest.” Lucie seemed relatively diminutive, sitting next to the nearly 100-lb Chance, so I (completely erroneously) told my husband (who was surfing in Costa Rica at the time) that she was “just about 30 pounds” (she’s, um, 58, actually). Size discrepancy aside, she was ours within days, and we promptly changed her name from Sesame to Lucie.

The Scoop: Rebecca Cox, Greta, Fred, Donut, and Lucie

Fred was found at a dog groomer’s on Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles. One of his clients offered to foster the wayward pup for a few days until they found him a permanent home. Well, in the meantime, my Lily Spindle business partner, Deb Vigna, sent his pup pics around to some hardcore terrier lovers and we were hooked once we saw his speckled chest and massive ears. He eventually grew into those ears. Sort of. Almost.

Greta and Donut both hail from the South Los Angeles Shelter – both of them had a fractured femur in one of their back legs and both were in ISO at the shelter, albeit one year apart from one another. The aforementioned dog matchmaker Deb Vigna emailed me a photo of a joyous Greta (then named “Timex”) with her little head tilted to the side and I immediately fell in love with her crazy, tongue-lolling-80%-out-of-her-mouth face. Much Love Animal Rescue was kind enough to pull her for me, as I was leaving for Hawaii in a couple of days and wanted to make sure she was safe and out of the shelter before I left town. A year later, my friend Hillary, the founder of A Purposeful Rescue, a group I adore and volunteer with regularly, texted me a photo of a tiny 4-lb Donut (so named by the shelter volunteers). Knowing my husband has a soft spot for terriers, she asked if we could foster. I asked if he was teeny teeny because I was worried he’d be crushed by my somewhat rambunctious crew. She laughed and said, “He has no idea he’s small.” And, yes, that was entirely accurate. He and Greta are incredibly bonded, always together, cleaning each others’ ears and faces, chasing each other, totally smitten kittens. Their duo hashtag is “thesubandthedonut.”

The Scoop: Rebecca Cox, Greta, Fred, Donut, and Lucie

Favorite Toy? They all love a good tennis ball, but once the game of fetch is over (and it doesn’t last too long), all they really want to do is sit down and chew off the fuzzy outer coating, so I commandeer those things pretty quickly. Kong Wubbas and those crazy cute Good Karma rope toys from Jax and Bones, shaped like crabs, elephants, penguins and hippos, among other adorable animals, are extremely popular in our house. Donut and Greta are very into their toys, but Fred only feigns interest when it suits him and Lucie just takes them away from everyone else to prove that she’s the alpha without even trying.

The Scoop: Rebecca Cox, Greta, Fred, Donut, and Lucie

Favorite Food? Almond butter, yogurt, popcorn. Doled out with discretion, obviously.

Favorite place to sleep? Our bed, of course! They have five beds scattered throughout the house but the best place to be is on the California King where the humans sleep.

The Scoop: Rebecca Cox, Greta, Fred, Donut, and Lucie

Pet Peeves? Sirens, flies, rain, locked doors, in no particular order.

Best Trick? Lucie can give high five, high ten, roll over, speak, and play dead when you “shoot” her with the accompaniment of the words “Bang Bang.” She’s a genius. The terriers? Not quite so talented, but they are hella cute, so I forgive them for basically only knowing how to sit and stare at me.

The Scoop: Rebecca Cox, Greta, Fred, Donut, and Lucie

Gear? Puppia harnesses for the littles, Fuzzyard collars. We go mega basic with our leashes and accoutrements. Occasionally, I force the littles to wear sweaters, but there’s not much need for that here in Los Angeles.

If your dogs were another animal what animal would they be? Greta would be a sea otter, Donut a meerkat, Lucie a lion, and Fred a surly billy goat.

The Scoop: Rebecca Cox, Greta, Fred, Donut, and Lucie

Movie remakes are all the rage these days, it seems. If your pups were to star in a remake, what film would they be cast in and which characters would they play?
The Breakfast Club. “A brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal.”
Lucie – Molly Ringwald (Claire)
Greta – Ally Sheedy (Allison)
Fred – Judd Nelson (John)
Donut – Emilio Estevez (Andrew)
(With apologies to Anthony Michael Hall who has no representation in this remake.)

The Scoop: Rebecca Cox, Greta, Fred, Donut, and Lucie

Thanks Rebecca, Greta, Fred, Donut, and Lucie!


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