What is the first bird you think of at this time of year?
Yes, the tofurkey comes to mind. But tofurkey is, I’ve decided, an acquired taste. Even the free range tofurkey has a lingering outdoorsy flavor and you always have to look out for the birdshot.
Having long been a vegetarian, I annually eschew chewing the American Gobbler on the American Holiday.
I only bring this up because I know there are readers who will be leaving today for a week away from their computers, a week spent in celebration of a genuine family holiday and, of course, football.
Travel safely and return and, while you are gone, find a computer and click on Readlarrypowell.com. We need the holiday hits.
That photo? That is a picture of really young Inky, the Cocker Laureate of the State of Texas and our family link to Thanksgiving. This is the passport photo he used on his voyage with the Pilgrims and it was later converted into his ID for his library card.
Now, on with today’s report. which will include a Grand Prairie Earhound named Lola:
MEANWHILE, AT DALLAS ANIMAL SERVICES: This is going to be kind of a stream of consciousness report on Thursday’s Dallas Animal Shelter Commission meeting – not comprehensive, but perhaps the high points. (FYI: The meeting drew 3 ½ audience members – the half being a reporter who left early, Remember, always plenty of room for citizen/spectators to witness democracy at work.)
Here we go with some of the things gleaned from the 3-hour meeting in 6E South, the coldest room at Dallas City Hall:
--Speaking of Thanksgiving, we can’t say for certain that there is a turkey at Dallas Animal Services and Adoption Center today, but soon we might be able to tell right away.
How’s that? As we learned at Thursday’s meeting, the shelter will soon be listed on Petharbor.com, a national system that allows people to look at animals in a shelter. The shelter will remain on Petfinder.com, also. Among the differences between the two: PetHarbor.com is geared to lost and found and PetFinder is geared to adoption and Harbor provides automated instant update of listings while PetFinder is a little more labor intensive at the shelter end but that may change, too.
--Procedures within the shelter are changing so that animals will have a better chance of going to adoption rather than “to the lab,” the shelterspeak for the room where they’re euthanized. The shelter is changing its methods of assessing animals for adoption, for rescue and for, well, you know.
-- In Oct. 2011, the shelter adopted out 387 dogs and 60 cats – the figures for Oct. 2010 were 182 dogs and 36 cats. In Oct. 2010, the shelter euthanized 1,130 dog and 578 cats. In Oct. 2011, the shelter euthanized 1160 dogs and 196 cats.
-- Procedures for gathering animal data in the shelter also are being adjusted to better track the reasons animals wind up there. The goal is, as Shelter Manager Jody Jones says, “change the flow of the animals” from into to out of the shelter.
-- Work on the Dallas Companion Animal Project, the no-kill task force, continues with many interesting suggestions for turning Dallas into a no-kill city arriving in the task force suggestion box. You can make suggestions by going to the Project website HERE. Shelter Manager Jody Jones told the commission that it’s a great feeling “when you have a staff member come up and hug you and say ‘Thank God. We’ve been waiting for this'.”
--The State Fair of Texas adoption booth operated by DAS and DFW Rescue Me had 150 “placements.” And the Howl-O-Ween Psychic Pet Fair at the shelter scored the largest single-day adoption in the shelter’s history – 59 that Saturday and 82 for the whole weekend. That was the first weekend of “bargain” adoptions at the shelter – reduced fees for special occasions. And during December, the half-off fees will be applied each Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
--More volunteers are needed to help with shelter operations. Get in touch with the shelter. The website is www.dallasanimalservices.org. Speaking of volunteers, while the commission was meeting, one of the current volunteers, Andy Allen, a former commission member, e-mailed the poster you see above – it advertises the Creature Comfort campaign being undertaken to make sure the shelter’s animals have good, warm places to sleep during the winter nights. Click on the poster to make it larger. The pup was at the shelter; the kitten is photoshopped, but there’s probably a matching cat at the shelter.
--Apparently a zillion little things are changing at the shelter: The way animals are housed. Segregating contagious from non-contagious, etc. Using cage cards to describe what the animal in the cage needs (medicines, special care, etc.). The way animals are photographed at intake. The way they’re assessed at intake. The way shelter tool are packaged and provided to workers. The way shelter items are inventoried. [FYI: The recently arrived shelter manager Jody Jones, is a veteran animal shelter professional and not a municipal employee who got the job through perseverance and pursuit of promotions.)
--Code Compliance Manager Joey Zapata -- Animal Services is under Code Co mpliance -- said the city is working on a way to “wrap” the shelter’s vehicles with advertising for the shelter and its services rather than having them roll around with the barebones lettering on the doors or back.
--There’s a hang-up on contracting with the SPCA of Texas to get its cruelty officers to function as the City of Dallas cruelty officers. Only the SPCA met the carefully written guidelines for the bidding process. But the holdup is over whether the Cruelty Officers would be commissioned police officers. That would involve training and legal matters. In the meantime, the city’s cruelty officers continue to function in that capacity.
--Look for more changes and more advertising and, indeed, more events for the public involving Dallas Animal Services. And you can look for it specifically at the next Animal Shelter Commission meeting on Dec. 8 – time and place TBA. In the meantime, there are available animals at the Dallas Animal Services Adoption Center. EARHOUND PLAYS WITH BALL: I think that’s the title of a Picasso painting. Well, maybe not. But that is more than the NBA can say right now.
But we got the photo from Debbie Barclay, the veteran shelter walker, volunteer and advisory board member at Grand Prairie’s Prairie Paws Adoption Center.
This is 2-year-old Lola (She’s officially A097070). Lola is said to be a Staffordshire mix. With those big pointy ears the family tree includes either some sort of German Shepherd or a kangaroo, you think?
Lola is an “urgent” at the shelter. If someone doesn’t take her soon, she’ll be euthanized.
She’s friendly and loves to play with the big ball. “Lola is one of my favorites,” Debbie Says. The young dog “LOVES to play with the ball” and entertain herself.
To ask about adopting her, get in touch with the Prairie Paws Center at 972-237-8575 (option "0"). See more Grand Prairie animals HERE. To ask about helping Lola dodge the needle, the contacts at Grand Prairie are: Jerry Horn at 972-237-8571 (cell: 972-897-3066; e-mail jhorn@gptx.org) or Anna Dodwell at 972-237-8568 (cell: 214-726-2511; e-mail adodwell@gptx.org).MEANWHILE IN BURNS FLAT: Holy smoke. Holy smoke. Talk about small town situations. We hear of this one from the hardworking and admired rescuer in Burns Flat, Okla., Terry Lynn Fisher.
You’ll note the photos of two cute babies and a smiling Boxer mom.
Terry Lynn reports “I received a call from the Town Hall this morning [Thursday] about a Boxer and two tiny babies left in a backyard. I went to look. It was from the same idiot family I have pulled so many before. Last summer, I took some babies that had thousands of ticks.
“The people were evicted but have not moved out yet...they are staying elsewhere, and left these innocent ones in the backyard. They had no shelter, food, or water. The momma is very skinny. Babies are skinny, but belly is bloated with worms.
“The neighbor threw food over the fence. I poured some puppy food over and gave them water. I was planning to go get a dog house, but as I looked back, the momma looked at me with such sadness, I KNEW I would not be leaving them. I called our police and asked him to come stand by, for I was pulling them. My son took them to the vet. I have no room anywhere, so they will stay there until I can move them to rescue.
“I will need help...I have been swamped at the pound and have had so many at the vet. I cannot handle this alone.”
To help Terry Lynn with this little family of neglected dogs, e-mail remembering_oddball@yahoo.com or call 580-330-1459.
CONTEMPLATIONS: Why do people treat animals so shabbily when it is more rewarding to treat them decently? ... Do you have a favorite Thanksgiving? Thankgiving Eve? How about a favorite Thanksgiving poem. ... OK, we’ve talked around this as long as possible. The devil is at work in Major League Baseball, moving the Houston Astros into the American League. In life, is change always necessary? A pal of mine suggests this is an attempt to avoid sagging attendance so Major League Baseball is “going the Miss America route. Make things even worse by tinkering around. Soon, the World Series will be broadcast from Vegas on CMT.”
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