Challenges and consternations

It's Thursday. Our topics include opportunities to help, a bad break for a good dog and some reading tips. Please proceed:

THE STORY ON BUSTER: Well, first, he photographs well, don't you think?  He'd look good in any family portrait or on a greeting card.

This is Buster and Patricia Barrington, the Animal Control Division Manager at The Colony, introduces him this way: "We have a really goofy Wheaten Terrier here..."

He's a mid-sized dog, about 5 years old, and "his owner gave him up because he was rambunctious and jumped on kids."

That's why some people keep their dogs. But, people are different, I guess.

---

UPDATE ON BUSTER: Patricia Barrington of The Colony reports that some time this afternoon representatives of Wheatens In Need Rescue www.wheatenrescue.org will pick up Buster. "He's very happy about his bright future," she says.

---

At the shelter, Buster is "very well-behaved. He knows basic commands and pretty well does as he is asked," Director Barrington says.

She adds that " I do think he has separation anxiety, as once there is no person in sight, he goes nuts; barking, crying, howling, jumping on the gate, etc. And, if approached from above, he cowers. So, it is possible that he hasn’t be tended/trained in the proper way.  But, despite his few flaws (none of which are his fault), he’s a wonderfully loving boy who will do well in a home that treats him right. Buster is down to the wire here at the shelter, as we have more pets here than kennels and he’s been here the longest."

To offer to save Buster's life, call The Colony Animal Control Division at 972-370-9250 or e-mail pbarrington@thecolonytx.gov.

THE NOT-MY-DOG SYNDROME: Kristin Riebel of the Frisco Humane Society forwarded this report to us from one of the groups fosters in the Canton area, Kelli Morris.

As you can see from the photo, this dog has missed many a meal. The story is one of ... well, I can't really think of a single polite word that sums it up.

So, here's the gist of Kelli's note which was titled "What I Did All Day." She writes that on the way home from working with her drug dog, Jett, at an area school district, "I encountered this poor dog. I took Jett home and went to Canton and bought dog food and dog bowls. Tomorrow I am returning with wormer and Amoxicillan.

"I have seen this dog everyday since we moved here. He sits by the Martin's Mill school and waits for the kids to come out. He walks them home everyday. The people whose home he lay in front of told me he wasn't theirs; he showed up a year ago. I told them if he has been here this long then he is their dog and he needs to be taken care of. The window of 'He isn't my dog story' lapsed a year ago. Not buying it; he is yours now and you need to feed him until you find him a home.' "

So, the plan is that Kelli will monitor this dog and a "litter of puppies at this location that need out of there, too." And somehow they'll all get saved.

Kelli writes of that big dog, "He has somehow managed to hang on and he still sits by the school every day -- probably wondering where his kids are. At least he will now be fed."

To offer to help this dog or the puppies e-mail Kristin.Riebel@ps.net.

CIRCUMSTANCES DOOM BRUTUS: "I am typing this through tears," writes Holly Elms Niederhaus, our original tipster on the story of Brutus, the dog unloaded by his family at the Irving Animal Shelter.

We mentioned him yesterday on our website -- we had great hope. After all, people had lately responded in the nick of time to such tough-luck Irving dogs as Layla and Ruton.

But Brutus had more going against him than the clock.

Holly writes, "We had not one but two possible places for Brutus to go. A local option and even a backup. In their usual fashion, rescue people stepped up for this boy. But the Irving Shelter vet examined him tonight [Wednesday] and discovered he had distemper.

"Irving, like all shelters, has been struggling against distemper lately. The vet decided to euthanize him, along with several other dogs who had the disease. They just could not let him go out the door with this disease, which is made even more insidious by the fact that it masquerades as kennel cough sometimes until the neurological symptoms show up.

"Had his previous owners only given him a simple vaccination, he would be alive and on his way out the door.  That's a double betrayal in my eyes.

"Thanks to everyone who networked him around and tried so hard to get him out. And my apologies to the folks who stepped up to take responsibility for him. He would have had it made."

Oh, goodness. "He would have had it made." What a sad expression today.

CATCHING UP WITH A COUPLE OF PUPPIES: You may recall reading our reports on the efforts of Della Wallace to find good foster homes for 10 Lab puppies who'd lost their mom shortly after birth. These puppies went from squiggling around in a laundry basket to being cared for in several different homes -- bottle-feeding 10 puppies is a daunting task. Renee Eden of Lone Star Dog Ranch in Anna took in a couple of the puppies and named them Laverne and Shirley. And, now, the pups are stars on YouTube. Click HERE to watch them -- you'll also get to see Renee acting like the proud grandmom!

SOME ONLINE TIPS: Our pal Debbie Britain of Britain's Photography For Pets sends us a note about the website www.wowowow.com, a website designed for women. This particular entry HERE has some writing by the great Lily Tomlin about making sure Jenny, the Dallas Zoo's lone elephant, stays in the United States and isn't shipped to an animal park in the interior of Mexico. Goodness, gracious, who'd have thought the issue of one elephant in Dallas would have gotten the attention of such a favorite as Lily Tomlin. Maybe people do pay attention to every little thing that goes on in Dallas. ...

            Every now and then I feel compelled to demonstrate that Texas, contrary to overwhelming evidence, hasn't cornered the market on idiots. Click HERE to read a Philadelphia Inquirer story about two pinheads who killed 80 dogs to avoid complying with local authorities who'd ordered vet exams on the animals. Oh, probably these birds will try to move to Texas. ...

            Our Arkansas tipster, Molli Corbin, from near Dardanelle, sends us a note about the latest exploits of Helena-West Helena Mayor James Valley. You may recall that he recently turned dogs from the city shelter loose in a nearby national forest. Yep, "set 'em free in the forest." Caught some heat over that. Now he's catching heat over a "people issue" He imposed a curfew over a specific area of town. Click HERE to read about it.

CONTEMPLATIONS: My son, Bart, after watching part of a team handball game in the Olympics, described it as "water polo for people who can't swim."  This brings to mind the question: Where do American team handballers come from? Anybody ever seen a team handball league? Or even a team except on TV during the Olympics? ... Synchronized diving? A sport, an exhibition or a practical joke? If you had teams of two divers jumping off a platform and whaling on each other with hockey sticks all the way down, now, that would be a sport! ... Never mind Botox. My goal in life now is to age like a Chinese female gymnast -- look like I'm 9 when the official papers say I'm 20.

Comments

[Roxanne Wingo]

In re: the Philly puppymill story, the saddest part of all is the concluding paragraph, that these guys "had never had trouble with an inspection before." Assuming their maintenance conditions were probably the same throughout their "careers", it's obvious there was a lot of animal suffering in the past that escaped proper enforcement under the previous lax "regime."