covered<\/a> a Sunset Boulevard billboard featuring the twins wearing little clothing that had been causing car accidents.<\/p>\n\u201cGuys of a certain generation would get very hot and bothered over them,\u201d Kobliha said of the Barbi twins. As they exited the modeling industry, they pivoted into animal activism and volunteering for rescue groups and trap, neuter and return programs for cats.<\/p>\n
Kobliha wanted to adopt Likho, but first he\u2019d need a $3,000 operation to remove an infected eye, paid for by the Stray Cat Alliance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey took care of everything, then we had to wait because he had to recuperate,\u201d she recalls. \u201cThe whole time I\u2019m thinking, \u2018Oh my God, what if it doesn\u2019t work out? What if the cat gets here and is just absolutely bonkers?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
That fear was for nothing. Likho, who lives at the shop full-time, acclimated within a day. \u201cHe has been a beautiful addition ever since then,\u201d Kobliha says.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s since become the face of the shop, with a mural dedicated to him outside to welcome customers. That was done by local muralist LaJon Miller, who worked on another on the sidewalk during Likho\u2019s party.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got adopted into it,\u201d he says of the Likho fandom. \u201cHe\u2019s been my muse on this street for a while. \u2026 He just roams around the store, chills, does his little nap thing, and hangs out with everybody, so he\u2019s very social.\u201d<\/p>\n
Likho has never harmed the centuries-old objects in her shop, Kobliha says, but he has spooked suspected ghosts.<\/p>\n
Kobliha believes ghosts once connected to shops at the 1922 building \u2014 a former patron of a grocery store shamed for his obesity and a former furniture shop owner who died by suicide \u2014 still roam her store\u2019s stalls.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe see shadow figures \u2026 there\u2019s a certain area where they pass back and forth. They don\u2019t do anything, but they\u2019re scary as hell,\u201d Kobliha says of unusual sightings. \u201cLikho is very protective, and we do feel really safe when he\u2019s around.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a little weird, though, when he\u2019s sleeping, and then suddenly he will jump up and look around,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n
Likho\u2019s biggest fan may be a man named Dom Gomez. He lives within walking distance of the shop, and tends to visit after long shifts at a restaurant aboard the Queen Mary. He stopped by the birthday party wearing his work uniform: a white, button-down shirt and black slacks. His hair slicked; his hands behind his back.<\/p>\n
When he speaks of Likho, he speaks with a tender cadence and dignified countenance, as if he were his own.<\/p>\n
\u201cTime flies, you know?\u201d he says, smiling, of visiting Likho over the years. \u201cHe gets a lot of love from all the ladies that work here and myself … he has a lot of fans. I don\u2019t know who\u2019s more famous, Muhammad Ali or Likho the Cat.\u201d<\/p>\n
On a previous birthday, Gomez wanted to get Likho a gift. He settled on a kid\u2019s denim jacket he modified for a cat with a patch for the Cure on the back but, regrettably, it was a \u201clittle too big.\u201d Next year, he\u2019ll give it another shot with a sweater.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s my little buddy right there,\u201d he says. \u201cToday is a special day. I didn\u2019t know a cat could live that long, but I think he\u2019s still got a lot of energy to live \u2026 maybe another 100 years, I hope.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONG BEACH, Calif. \u2014 Elizabeth Kobliha knows her one-eyed cat Likho has more friends than she does. So…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424167,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[169201,169200,9915,160249,1985,131,133,132,732],"class_list":["post-424166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-broward-county-school-boardvotepublic-commentmeeting-broward-county-school-boardmeeting","tag-gender-and-sexuality","tag-lgbtq-rights","tag-life-and-society","tag-lifestyles","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-social-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}