We're at the end of May and that can mean only one thing: Happy Birthday, Mom.
This is her day. Pardon my personal note, but, up in Texarkana, Mom turns 30 today.
Did I say 30?
Let me double check that Texarkana Fire Department paperwork for "Birthday Candle Conflagration." I'm sorry, that's 80, not 30.
More on this later. In the meantime, we're all celebrating the fact that we had a birthday party for her on Saturday and the cops didn't have to come one time.
GRACIE'S NEWS: You may recall the story of Gracie, published here last week (scroll down to May 25). Somehow injured in a fire, she'd found her way into the custody of the great folks at KittieCo Cat Rescue.
Celia Orr, who first brought her to our attention, reports that Gracie was adopted over the weekend by a family who read about her plight on readlarrypowell.com. "She seemed to know she was going to a loving home and was anxious to get in the carrier and leave her lonely bedroom.
"She was indeed in need of a lot of attention and, as it turned out, the family has two small children, 3 and 5 years old. I was afraid at first that Gracie might not like them or get too aggressive with them. SHE LOVED THEM. She played with them. When they turned their backs to check out an object in the guest room, Gracie stood behind them with her little head cocked to one side and seemed to be saying 'Don't stop playing with me'."
We've been promised photos and updates of Gracie in her new home. She'll be the one with the purr.
ZANE, THE CONVERSATIONALIST: Those folks at the Humane Animal Rescue Team have apparently come across a talking husky.
That's right, a talking Siberian husky. If he can sing a little bit, I think we've found the next American Idol.
His name is Zane, and according to a note from Patty Sprong of HART, should you stop by one of HART's adoptions, "you might just hear Zane talking to you in his soulful voice."
Of course, he's up for adoption. Patty writes, "If you know of anyone looking for a sweet, couch-potato, TV-watching buddy, send them Zane's way." Well, maybe he's really an "American Idle."
Zane was saved from a shelter. He was microchipped, but the chip was registered to a rescue group no longer in operation, Patty reports. "How he ended up back in the shelter, we'll never know. He was lucky to be rescued because he arrived at HART with heartworms and a torn ACL. Just when HART thought they had him all fixed up, he tore his OTHER ACL and had to have a second surgery. He pulled through just fine, with a great attitude as always. The surgeries and heartworm treatments cost HART over $2,200."
Zane is about 7 and has been adopted a few times before, once by a soldier who had to give him up when he was deployed, once by an owner who changed his mind shortly after taking custody.
The folks at HART want to place the house-trained pup in a home with no kids and no cats.
(Go to www.hartoftexas.org. There's a calendar of adoption dates. Also there is "how-to" adoption information.)
FAYE'S IN A SHELTER: The folks at Paws in the City have sent out an alert regarding Faye. She's a year-old Whippet/Doberman mix who's currently in the City of Dallas Forney Road shelter. And she's running out of time now.
She is an adult dog and weighs only 35 pounds. She gets along with other dogs and was an owner surrender -- the "why" is unclear.
To foster or adopt call 214-336-8847 or 214-316-6604.
BIG TEXAS NEWS: Texas, the Great Dane mix spotlighted in yesterday's report, found a home yesterday, reports Greg Schuck. He says the big rascal, left behind in an abandoned house, is going to be living the high life out at Cedar Creek Lake.
And just in case the guy who abandoned the dog doesn't know it, abandoning a dog is against the law in Texas. You can look it up.
FOUND AND NEEDING A HOME: This note comes from world champion petsitter Jeneva O'Connor of N-Trust-Ur-Pet. She says one of her clients found a chubby beagle a few weeks ago and can't keep it. The clients also couldn't find the dog's original people.
"Now I have her and she has definitely been someone's sweetie. She is overweight, adorable, a good watchdog and knows her commands even though I don't know her name," Jeneva writes. "She is social and a bit of a drama queen!
"She is also housebroken and goes to the door to be let out. If you don't see her, she sighs until you notice.
"She was found around the beginning of May, near the NorthPark Garden Apartments."
Jeneva has done all the usual checks in an attempt to find the dog's home, but nothing has turned up. "I am part of Lone Star Beagle Club-rescue and I'm am sure we can place her, but I just have a feeling that someone is looking or someone knows someone who is looking for her. So is too fat to have traveled very far!"
If you know where this chubby, adorable dog belongs, call 214-352-7700 or 214-727-7903.
It's conceivable she just stepped out for a pizza and lost her way home.
MOM'S BIRTHDAY: So, today Mom turns 80. Pop skyrocketed past 80 a couple of years ago, so when we got out the candles for Mom's cake over the weekend, Pop already had slipped into his protective gear. He's seen the size of the glow off a cake with that many candles. Heck, they say astronauts can see it from the space shuttle.
Anyway, we had a family gathering on Saturday to celebrate Mom's birthday.
Brother Barry and sister-in-law Shelley came in from Chicago and delivered the ice cream.
Brother Garry and sister-in-law Brenita came in from Branch, near Lake Lavon. Heck, they had to come to the party -- they brought all the food. Garry fancies himself to be quite the "smokin' chef" and, according to the carnivores at the party, he is. Brenita made a pasta salad that knocked me over -- it's something else I can lay awake craving..
Martha and I arrived with two kinds of birthday cakes. They were prepared by a method favored in many Dallas-area homes: Phone in an order to Cretia's, drive to either the Dallas or Duncanville location, submit credit card and leave with great anticipation of approaching tasteful joy.
Son Bret and daughter-in-law Andrea, mom of the Great Danes Frog and Henry and the cat, George W., came in for the party. They brought plates and utensils.
And son Bart trumped everyone by bringing his three 5-and-under youngsters, Hannah Rose, Emily Grace and Connor. They rode from Dallas to Texarkana with us in the minivan. Martha drove. Bart wrangled kids, but he didn't have to do much wrangling. His kids seem to be a lot less rowdy in a car than my kids were. No offense, Bret and Bart.
Mom's only missing grandkids were Barry and Shelley's boys, Aaron and Lewis, who are living on the faraway coasts. Aaron's in the Washington area doing some sort of brainy work at NASA (I've been hounding him for a tour of Area 51) and Lewis is in grad school at Berkeley -- I think he's studying "philosophy of family dynamics and the impact of UFOs on family reunions." I could be wrong.
So, the big party came off pretty swell. Mom got some nice gifts. Pop got to wrestle with the great-grandkids. People talked, laughed, told stories, got drowsy, ate, talked some more, told more stories, laughed more, ate more...you know how these things go.
I shot about 30 pictures with an improperly aligned switch on my digital camera -- so, to my camera, the whole party looked like some kind of European art film about mysterious glows. Yes, that is an "art photo" of Mom in a rocker. I call it "A Study in Zany." She'll probably say it's the best picture she's taken in years.
Just fyi: At her sons' insistence, she's wearing a birthday hat made of cloth candles -- we couldn't talk her into wearing her birthday suit. (Please note this is a mandatory apology for the preceding cheap joke.) It was a good time, in or out of focus.
Here's a trip tale: During the drive on I-30 from Dallas to Texarkana, we passed through an area with some really tall trees. The girls asked their dad, "Who lives in that forest?" Bart explained that there were squirrels, deer and assorted bugs and animals. I think he might have said "sharks" just for the fun of it.
At one point, he became very mock-serious and asked, "OK, kids, who can prevent forest fires?"
Emily confidently shouted, "ANTS!"
So, happy birthday, Mom, and next year, when we light the candles, we'll have Emily's firefighting ant brigade on alert.