Photos by Karen Quincy Loberg / Star staff At top, Deborah Bass holds Buddy II. Above, Bass shares her Simi Valley home with animals she rescued. City rules don't allow more than four pets in a home, and Bass has 11.

Brinkley is "on the nutty side," but likes to cuddle. While he can almost run with the pack, Romeo's banged-up knees require expensive surgery. Maggie, a blind and deaf 17-year-old schnauzer can't do much but follow around her owner, Deborah Bass.

These are some of the lives given a second chance at Rags to Riches, a rescue dog shelter Bass runs out of her home in Simi Valley. But now the shelter faces an uncertain future.

A neighbor's complaint about barking dogs prompted a visit from the city's code enforcement department about four months ago, and Bass was told she must get rid of some of the dogs. She can't operate a kennel or shelter in a residential zone.

City rules don't allow more than four pets in a home, and Bass has 11, including four dogs available for foster care or adoption, two potbellied pigs and five pet dogs. All were rescued, and, Bass said, the noise the neighbor complained about isn't coming from her dogs.

Bass went before the City Council recently after she received a letter from the Planning Department saying she had to get rid of her dogs.

"I was frozen. I didn't know what else to do," Bass said. "It was my last effort."

Bass, 51, started the nonprofit about seven years ago and has found homes for dozens of once-unwanted dogs that were scheduled to be euthanized. She wanted to show how the dogs had made progress from frightened and neglected animals to happy, if sensitive, pets.

Bass was encouraged when Mayor Paul Miller said the city would work with her. Since then, city planning officials met with her and said she must either get rid of some of the pets or apply for an administrative conditional use permit to keep additional pets. But that permit would not allow her to operate a rescue shelter out of her home, said Peter Lyons, city planner.

In order to house the rescued dogs, the city would have to rewrite city rules, Lyons said.

"We don't designate small residential properties as kennels, be it nonprofit or for-profit," he said.

Bass said officials on Thursday gave her a week to make a decision, and a month to carry it out.

Bass wants to do her best to comply with the city's requests. Because she isn't allowed to continue operating as she is now, she would like to find at least five foster homes for her dogs. Rags to Riches would take care of any veterinary bills or unexpected costs.

She said she would give away her pets as foster dogs and continue working with her rescued dogs. A foster home is responsible for the daily care and feeding of the dog, she said.

These dogs come from broken homes or were housed in shelters for extended periods of time. Some were with owners who couldn't handle them. She says her shelter is both a rehabilitation facility and a hospice, where dogs can live as comfortably as possible in a caring environment.

It took Bass a while to realize she can't help every dog. At first, her home was overrun with foster dogs. Some ended up staying with her a little longer. Buddy was her "first failed foster," she said.

She got him about eight years ago.

She juggles the nonprofit with a full-time job she has at home selling commercial lighting.

Maggie, blind and deaf, was left behind when her owner moved. At some point, a previous owner cut her vocal chords so Maggie couldn't bark. After Bass took her under her wing, she was taken to the vet, where hair was removed from her ear canal, her teeth were fixed and an infection was healed.

She began to perk up.

"She still likes to play every morning," she said. "Why should these dogs be put down? There's no reason for it."

— For more information on Rags to Riches, e-mail: bichonbuddydeborah@yahoo.com or call Bass at 818- 321-5989.