SAN DIEGO -- About once a week, North County veterinarian Kwane Stewart heads down to San Diego's East Village to make his rounds, serving the community of dogs, cats, rats and birds who are the treasured pets of downtown's homeless community.
Some of these unhoused pets have flea-related skin allergies and ear infections. Some need vaccines. Some are losing their teeth to gum disease and some have overgrown toenails in dire need of a trim. For 10 years, the Carmel Mountain Ranch resident has been offering free veterinary care to homeless individuals from San Diego to San Francisco.
It's a hobby he started in 2012 while working as an animal shelter veterinarian in Central California, and it has remained his part-time pastime through jobs in Hollywood and now San Diego, where he launched his latest veterinary enterprise, Papaya Pet Care, last month in Carmel Valley.
