Pits, puppies & parties...

As this is being written, I’ve just finished breakfast and all I have to say is I don’t see what horses see in oats.

There’s a cloud cover over our town and, though it’s not raining at our house, there’s a thick coating of water on all the sidewalks and porches. We don’t live far from a freeway and we’re on top of a hill so, when there’s a low cloud cover, all the freeway noise is trapped and fills the air. So we have begun a soggy noise day with lousy oatmeal.

Things could be worse. Can I offer something bright at this time? This is the staff impersonator at Readlarrypowell.com, Inky, the Cocker Laureate of Texas. Here he is giving us his impression of a portly writer rushing into an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet and spotting a steam table filled with hot pancakes, syrup, high-cal butter, biscuits, seven kinds of jellies and a big steaming platter of Mom’s Sassy Sun-up Sausage Meatloaf covered with a generous glopping of They Must Serve This In Heaven Gravy. OK, let’s finish washing the breakfast dishes and get on with the day’s items.  

BE ON THE LOOKOUT A COMPLICATION: Oh, goodness, this is Cindy Lou Who, a clever girl who slipped out of her collar at her vet’s office on Saturday and disappeared into the neighborhood nearby – that’s in Lewisville near Main and Civic, close to Lewisville High School.

Kandace Foley says the family dog – an indoor dog – is shy and they’re pretty sure they know what general area she’s in. They want to put out a live trap, but there’s a complication: This lousy weather makes that a cruel proposition. You don’t want the dog tripping the get on a trap and being caught in an open-air cage in a cold water deluge.

Cindy Lou is 5 (the Foleys have had her since she was a puppy), weighs 65 pounds and has a red nose and a white chest. She is shy, not aggressive.

If you know Cindy Lou’s whereabouts, call 972-800-1348 or 214-675-6634 or e-mail westkandace@yahoo.com.

Cindy Lou is strictly an indoor dog, so she’s encountering a whole new world – and it’s full of weather.

IN COLLIN COUNTY: Our reliable Collin County tipster DeDe Whitcombe endorses this dog, having met her. And so does the Collin Council Animal Services shelter staffer Lisa Drummonds. And, honestly, those lips were not Photoshopped.

DeDe says the dog, No. 201976, is “one in a million” and, sadly, there probably are about a million unwanted pits in North Texas. Well, thousands, anyway, it seems.

Lisa says this dog is a “large girl, maybe 2 years old. I do not post very many pits for rescue because I know no one can take them and it breaks everyone’s heart to see their sweet faces, knowing what will happen. But this girl is very special. Not only is she gorgeous, she is so sweet and loving.”

And, to quote Lisa, “She is out of time. I just love this girl.”
To help save this dog, rescue groups should call 972-547-7298, 972-547-7292 or 972-249-7327.

To see the animals at the Collin County Animal Services Shelter, click HERE. The shelter does not adopt to the general public – its adoptions are handled by the SPCA of Texas and if the SPCA doesn’t designated a dog or cat to be adoptable, and if a rescue group doesn’t claim the animal, well, you know what happens.

THE BIG FELLOW: Terry Lynn Fisher, our tireless tipster and rescuer in Burns Flat, Okla., is concerned about this guy. She writes, “A dear friend of mine said this boy deserves a ‘mighty’ name.” So, she’s calling him Thor.

But here’s the deal: “He is so terrified. He just stares at me with those sad eyes. He wants to trust me, you can tell, but he has been so beaten down. My God, what have they done to this poor boy? ...He trembles with such great fear. Please, if anyone can help with this boy, let me know. He deserves to know that there are good people and loving, gentle hand.”

Terry Lynn says that earlier in the week the people at the Burns Flat pound called her about this 13-month-old Lab/pit mix. The personnel told her the man who brought him in said his other dogs did not like him and were always attacking him. “He has many scars on his sweet face and part of his lip has been ripped away,” Terry Lynn says.

She says the dog is in a kennel between other dogs’ kennels and “he just looks at them, showing no signs of aggression. When I see the fear in his eyes, it makes me cry. I talked to him and he had such a sad, lost look. His tail was tucked between his legs and he just cowered. He shook so hard and was actually just scared to death. As I offered him a treat, he slowly made his way to me and took it, then ran back to the corner to eat it...waiting till he thought I was gone. He is so hand shy..I imagine this poor little lost soul has lived through pure hell.”

To help Terry Lynn help Thor, call 580-330-1459 or e-mail remembering_oddball@yahoo.com.

Burns Flat is in Western Oklahoma – if you have a Texas map, find Dallas, go west to Wichita Falls, then go north to I-40. Make a U-turn and come back a little bit and there’s Burns Flat. It's not close to a lot of things. 

NEWT’S NOOK: By now you are familiar with the story of how a Newt Gingrich group was going to give an entrepreneurial award to Dawn Rizos, owner of The Lodge gentleman’s club in Dallas and when the Newters (how’s that for an animal-related turn of phrase) discovered the nature of her business, they called the whole thing off.

American Solutions For Winning The Future (the official name of the Newters) sent her an explanation and returned the $5,000 she’d been required to give in exchange for winning the award. And she also got money back for two nonrefundable airline tickets.

Dawn, who has been a longtime generous donor to and supporter of animal causes in North Texas, decided to donate the money to Animal Guardians of America for help with its shelter in Celina. Thus was born a special area to help and protect pit bulls called “Newt’s Nook.”

This sign for the area was created by The Lodge bartender Bryan Callaway.

A press release provided by The Lodge’s Michael Precker, my longtime colleague at the big paper in Dallas, says the dedication of Newt’s Nook will be sometime in early November. And it included this comment from Animal Guardians’ Annette Lambert. “We’re sorry that Dawn was treated so unfairly. But this will be great for a lot of wonderful dogs. I hope Newt will stop by sometime to see what we’ve built in his name.”

And Dawn says, “We’ll certainly invite Mr. Gingrich to the dedication, and of course he’s always welcome at The Lodge. We don’t hold a grudge. And we still have a lot to talk about.”

SOME BRIEF NOTICES:

--I got this notice about an overload of puppies from Sydney Busch of Friends of the Animals at Cedar Creek Lake which runs the world’s most successful spay/neuter clinic in Gun Barrel City. She forwarded a note from our tipster Tina Hamilton of Happy Tails of Gun Barrel City and the note began, “Puppies! Puppies! And more puppies!” which indicates to me that some of you people in the area are not taking advantage of the spay/neuter clinic.  Because of all the puppies, Happy Tails needs canned puppy food and homes for the puppies. And, Tina adds, dry dog and cat food for the Happy Tails Meals on Wheels Pet Food Program. Call 903-880-4124 or 903-275-5990 or e-mail txtina1201@yahoo.com.

--One of our favorite rescue shelters, Second Chance SPCA, is benefitting from people dining at the California Pizza Kitchen at the Shops at Willow Bend today. If you present the SC-SPCA coupon (click HERE ), 20 percent of your bill goes to SC-SPCA in Plano. Read more about the shelter at www.scspca.org.

--Here’s a theory: Nobody rocks like a rescue group. This is advance notice, but this time of year you need to plan ahead. Paws In The City is having its holiday season fundraiser from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. on November 19 at the House of Blues. Our Paws tipster, Alan Lintel, tells us that the music for the evening will be performed by Live80, an “’80s cover band” that plays weekends at the House of Blues and “opened for the Mavs” at their season opener at American Airlines Center Tuesday night. Tickets to the Paws party are $30 each – reserving a table for 4 costs $50 and includes a $40 food voucher. To get a sample of Live80, click HERE. To see the animals you’ll be helping and read more about the rescue group, click on www.pawsinthecity.org.

CONTEMPLATIONS: Do you know these two dogs? ... Has the load of unwanted animals ever before been so oppressive great in the North Texas area? Spay and neuter (as the great animal protector Skip Trimble has preached). ... If autumn is this soggy, what can we expect in winter? ... Reminder to my dogs: The time changes at 2 a.m. Nov. 1 – it becomes 1 a.m. reverting from Daylight Saving to Standard time. Yes, spring forward, fall back. So, at 2 a.m. Sunday it’ll be 1 a.m. which means Baby Jane Doe our shrill shepherd mix will begin her wake up barking on her usual schedule – she refuses to carry a watch.

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Comments

[Dianne]

Thor's story just broke my heart and brought tears to my eyes. I so wish I could take him in...I'm drawn to big black dogs and have 2 of them plus a very alpha yellow lab/red heeler mix that would have a coniption fit if I brought in another dog as would my husband. Hopefully someone will step forward and give him the love and home that he is so deserving of. Also, the beautiful pit mix in Collin Co. deserves a wonderful home as well.

[Jennifer Bayer]

I applaud Terry Lynn for all of the hard work she does up there in Burns Flat. Thor is such a sweet looking dog that I just can't imagine someone hurting him. If I weren't already at my animal limit for my apartment I'd drive up there this weekend and get him. Here's hoping Thor's story has the happy ending it deserves.

[puppies for sale]

Aww I hope you find Cindy Lou Who (what a great name by the way!). These puppies/dogs are adorable. I wish that I could afford one right now.