Q: What's more bizarre than the Los Angeles Times having a blog for the paper's most inveterate staff animal lovers to talk about pets, animal causes and, of course, dogs that need adoption?

A: That the Times let Mayor Villaraigosa's animal-loving girlfriend, Lu Parker, blog on its website about a Halloween dog costume contest she emceed and that the mayor took part in. And without ever mentioning Parker's special relationship to the mayor.

Parker is described thusly: "...not just an animal lover, but also an Emmy-winning journalist who can be seen anchoring and reporting the news at The Times' sister station, KTLA. She's a former Miss USA, an author, an actress and a former teacher, and (best of all, in our opinion) she shares her home with Monkey, a rescue dog from the South L.A. shelter." Even KTLA has thought wiser of having Parker report on things relating to Villaraigosa. For reasons such as this and this.

Here's a link at Parker's own blog to another dog event where she went recently with the mayor.