Snapshots of life in the Golden State. : It’s a Rare Bird That Gets to Dine in the State Capitol

This is about a cat, a bird and a senator.

Mapplethorpe the cat, who belongs to state Sen. Debra Bowen (D-Marina del Rey), recently pulled a fledgling mourning dove from its nest, carried it through two pet doors and into the senator’s Sacramento bedroom, where he had earlier deposited other trophies, “generally with less salutary results than this,” says Bowen.

The bird was, astonishingly, unhurt, and the senator, having tended such creatures before, mashed up hard-boiled egg, fed the bird through an eyedropper and nestled it in a shoe box of shredded newspaper and old washcloths until she could get it to a Sacramento wildlife rehab center.

But the center does not open its doors until afternoon, and in the meantime the senator had to feed the bird regularly. “It’s the only bird I’m aware of ever being fed in the members lounge in the Senate,” she said.

The bird is reported to be thriving. Bowen named it Mojo, the nickname of state Sen. Maurice Johannessen (R-Redding), the Senate’s St. Francis of Assisi. Bowen tells the story of the time that a mountain lion cub Johannessen was raising hid overnight on top of the refrigerator. When Johannessen’s then-mother-in-law opened the fridge the next morning, the cub and the woman both screamed in fright.

“Either that thing goes,” the woman declared, “or I do.” Johannessen turned to his children. “Help her start packing,” he said. And that was the last they ever spoke.

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Pax packs up: The namesake state of mind again prevails among the 18 souls in Harmony, Calif.

Plans to turn the place into a world peace center, with housing for families from every country in the United Nations, have been abandoned.

A Hollywood developer had bought the 2.5-acre San Luis Obispo County town and hoped to buy an adjacent 700 acres where cows and prairie dogs roam. On the two sites he hoped to build the harmonious housing, a world peace park of international crafts, culture and cuisine, and a kosher slaughterhouse where would-be criminals could expend their blood lust on animals other than the human variety.

Samson Marian Mehdizadeh’s hopes of buying the extra acreage fell through, and community opposition persuaded him that the Harmony 18 and their sympathizers “care more about cows and cow droppings than about world peace.”

With the capital-P Peace plans gone, lower-case peace has returned. Says Harmony potter Joel Schoenstein, “Everything is about the same as it was before.”

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Crime California-style: A Palo Alto panhandler and City Council candidate--no oxymoron there--has been arrested for not panhandling. Victor Frost, who lives out of a truck, sat in a grocery store parking lot with his usual sign reading “Donations needed for dinner please 25 will help,” and another, larger sign: “25 Will Help Candidate Frost, A Common Man for Common People. . . .”

Police evidently had no problem with the “donations for dinner” sign, but when it came to cold cash as political soft money, they cited him for displaying an ad without a permit.

And a fortnight ago, This Space detailed San Diego police’s search for a man who used a gun to rob an X-rated bookstore of what it called a “sexual aid item.” Police are still searching for the armed man, whom they have since dubbed the Inadequate Bandit.

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One offs: A Shasta Lake man was arrested after being accused of catching a bear in a stolen trap, penning it in its own waste for eight days and feeding it only hot peppers and no water before game wardens tended and freed the creature. . . . A Florida man cited twice in two days for drunken driving was found dead in Chowchilla after his rental car went off the road and crashed. . . . Bumper sticker spotted in San Diego: “My President Slept With Your Honor Student.”

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Homicide by Handgun

Handguns are weapons most commonly used to commit murder in California, accounting for the majority of all homicides since 1989. The numbers below include homicides by all handguns, whether they are cheaply made so-called Saturday night specials -- the target of restrictions signed into law last month by Gov. Gray Davis -- or more expensive pistols.

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Handgun % of Year Homicides All Homicides 1989 1,684 53.3 1990 1,903 53.4 1991 2,255 58.2 1992 2,426 62.0 1993 2,609 64.0 1994 2,441 66.0 1995 2,288 65.0 1996 1,866 64.1 1997 1,633 63.3 1998 1,315 60.6

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EXIT LINE

“Considering it was Monday night football and that gives people a few extra hours to drink before they come in, it was a relatively tame event.”

--Richard Rogers, executive director of the Oakland Football Marketing Assn., in the wake of 45 arrests, some of them on felony charges, at the sellout Raiders-49ers preseason game. During the last Raiders sellout, two years ago against Kansas City, 25 people were arrested, officials said.

California Dateline appears every other Tuesday.

Source: California Department of Justice, Sacramento

Researched by TRACY THOMAS/Los Angeles Times