Much of what I report on as a breaking news and cops reporter involves tragedy, and often that includes trying to contact families who have lost loved ones to violence or horrible accidents.

When we are able to contact families, their reactions vary widely: Some are happy for a chance to talk about their loved ones, some don't want to be bothered, some are understandably wary of some reporter they don't know asking them intimate questions at the worst possible time, and the list goes on.

As much as possible, my colleagues and I do our best to be sensitive to grieving families while also doing our jobs and putting together the most complete, objective, accurate stories we can.

Sometimes after we've built a repport with families, communication continues after the main story has published.

This was the case with the family of Katya Teresa Todesco, 5, who tragically died following an attack by a pit bull mix a family friend was caring for.

After I spoke to Katya's mother and father for our first story about the incident, we exchanged e-mails on several occasions.

After the first story published, for example, we received several calls from television stations asking if we could use the pictures the Todesco family had provided us. We don't give those out without permission, so I contacted the family and they gave their consent to share the photos.

Most recently, I received a note from a family friend who had made a memorial slideshow about Katya's life, and who wanted to know if we would put it on our article. I contacted the family to confirm that the video was what it purported to be and ask if they would like it on the web site, if that would be possible. They said it was and they would.

The article is no longer prominent on our web site, so we decided to include the slideshow in this blog.

Here it is:



For context, here are the two stories we published about Katya's tragic death:

Criminal probe opened in fatal dog attack

Simi Valley girl, 5, dies after backyard dog attack

Another bit of back story has to do with the way stories are picked up by other media outlets.

The day after we published our story about the tragic pit bull attack, we got calls from three television stations asking if they could share the photos Katya Todesco's family gave us, and if we could help them contact the family.

To protect the privacy of our sources, our policy prohibits us from sharing contact information or photos provided to us without a source's express permission.

I passed on the requests to Mrs. Todesco, and while she said she and her husband weren't ready to talk any more, she gave us permission to share the photos.

Here's one that didn't make it into our paper, partly because it's large and partly because I didn't know where or exactly when it was taken. (However, Mrs. Todesco said all of the photos shared with us were recent.)

As a breaking news reporter, I spend some of my time each day scanning the California Highway Patrol's Web site.

The public CHP site lists calls as they are dispatched, and when I log on, I'm primarily looking for major traffic crashes, fatalities and lane closures.

But often enough, there's another kind of call that catches my eye: "Animal on Road."

That frequently means there's a dog on the road, but I've also seen reports of cows, bears, mountain lions, deer and, once, a hawk.

I wouldn't have thought before I became a reporter that Highway Patrol officers spend significant amounts of time dealing with animals, but Officer Brandon Mumme of the Moorpark CHP said it's not uncommon for officers to handle creature calls.

"It's a part of the job like anything else," Mumme said.

Mumme's list of animal encounters tops my tally, not surprisingly.

He's dealt with the animals I listed, plus horses, sheep, and a startling amount of goats.

One time about three years ago, Mumme had to deal with a flock of at least 40 goats on Balcom Canyon Road, which runs from unincorporated area outside Camarillo all the way to a spot outside Santa Paula.

In that episode, officers parked a patrol car in the roadway, contacted the owner of the goats and did their best to herd them to the side of the road, Mumme said.

CHP officers are trained to deal with traffic hazards, and when an animal shows up in the road, their principle aim is to avoid accidents, Mumme said.

If they're on a rural road, they'll sometimes park in lanes and on a highway they might slow traffic to keep an animal from causing a crash.

They call animal control for help, then sometimes try to catch the animal to keep it from running into traffic.

Dogs are the hardest to deal with, Mumme said. Larger animals are usually less mobile.

Here's a selection of the recent animal calls I've noticed:

Incident:     0067    Type:    Animal on Road    Location:    BALCOM CANYON RD AT SOUTH MOUNTAIN RD    ThomasBrothers:    465 5C    info as of:    8/14/2008 6:52:04 AM
ADDITIONAL DETAILS
6:14AM    COW BECOMING AGITATED
6:13AM    LOOSE COW STANDING IN RDWY
RESPONDING OFFICERS STATUS
6:42AM    CHP Unit Enroute

Incident:     0059    Type:    Animal on Road    Location:    WB SR126 ON VICTORIA AV OFR    ThomasBrothers:    492 3C    info as of:    8/25/2008 7:13:04 AM
ADDITIONAL DETAILS
7:04AM    MEDIUM SIZED PITBULL MIX DOG
7:04AM    DOG WALKING ON THE OFR TOWARDS THE FRWY
RESPONDING OFFICERS STATUS
7:04AM    CHP Unit Enroute

Incident:

0296

Type:

Animal on Road

Location:

SB US101 JSO GAVIOTA STATE BEACH

ThomasBrothers:

365 7J

info as of:

8/29/2008 3:57:27 PM

ADDITIONAL DETAILS
3:17PM	INJURED OWL IN CD FLOPPING IN AND OUT OF #1 LANE
3:17PM	APPROX 1-2 MILES SO ROAD CONST AREA
RESPONDING OFFICERS STATUS
3:26PM	CHP Unit Assigned

Incident:     0081    Type:    Animal on Road    Location:    SR126 AT FISH HATCHERY    ThomasBrothers:    456 6D    info as of:    8/27/2008 8:38:57 AM
ADDITIONAL DETAILS
8:41AM    NEG 1125 SITTING IN CD
8:41AM    40 HAD EARLIER VISUAL, ROLL ANIMAL CONTROL
8:39AM    HAWK SITTING IN CD
RESPONDING OFFICERS STATUS
8:40AM    CHP Unit Assigned

Incident:     0104    Type:    Animal on Road    Location:    W POTRERO RD AT LONG GRADE    ThomasBrothers:    554 4H    info as of:    8/18/2008 9:48:06 AM
ADDITIONAL DETAILS
9:47AM    1144 DOG IN LANES


*(1144 means dead)

Some suggestions from Officer Mumme for avoiding animals on the road:

-    Drive at safe speeds and watch for unexpected creatures around corners, especially in rural areas.
-    If you seen an animal run into the road, slow down but stay in your lane. Dogs frequently cause accidents when people swerve to avoid them. If you swerve "you're endangering human life instead of an animal," Mumme said.

Here's the link to the CHP Web site:

http://cad.chp.ca.gov/