Welcome to the first day of summer. Sends chills up your spine, doesn't it -- the chill you'd get looking up to see an FBI agent with a warrant at your office door.
It's a good day to remind your friends and neighbors to bring the dogs inside, bring the cats inside, make sure the horses and cattle have reasonable shelter, plenty of water, It's the same ol' drill year after year.
Call it the annual test to see how smart people are. Are they smart enough to not leave kids and pets in cars? You and I know better, but these other people....sheesh.
ANOTHER BIG OL' DAWG AT PERIL: A tipster has sent us a disturbing note about this dog.
Here's the original e-mail: "Poor Princess needs a loving home. She will be either shot or dumped out Saturday. She is a little love but is a little scared of people. The family thought it was fun to kick her.
"She is about 7-months-old and still has faith in people. Heaven only knows why! Please help her. She is wonderful ... but needs our help.
"They [the family] are in the country and she doesn't stand much chance unless someone helps her fast."
I don't now how literal the threats in that that note are, but the e-mail address to volunteer to help is [email protected]. We're looking into this situation.
SPEAKING OF BIG DOGS: There are big dogs and big bills at Straydog Inc. (How to help is at www.straydog.org.) Times are tough for this magnificent endeavor -- Pat Arnold's legacy needs a winning lotto ticket or someone who'll say, "This place moves my heart and I'm going to help it." Pat's husband, Bill, is carrying on her mission and he admits that it's tough for him to ask for money -- not in his nature. But, I know that some of you veteran rescuers have no problem at all, so if you can help Bill, please do.
Straydog is an important facility in an area that suffers from dumping and unbridled breeding. Oh, not just Gun Barrel City -- ALL of North Texas.
ANOTHER DOG THAT NEEDS HELP: Maybe angels are looking out for this girl. She's on death row at a local shelter and someone sent me a link to her picture -- it's heartbreaking. Here's the link: www.petfinder.com/pet.cgi?action=2&pet=4604413 . Here's the chilling line from that link: "She is scheduled to be euthanized on Wednesday 6-22-05 @ 7:00 a.m."
We have got to eliminate the killing in North Texas. What is the matter with us humans? Too many dogs? Kill 'em. Too many cats? Kill 'em. How awful.
ABOUT BIG DOGS: The famous Dallas singer Edie Brickell recorded a song, "Adopt a Dog, Adopt a Big Dog" for the SPCA of Texas' drive on behalf of big dogs. You can hear it at www.bigdogsrule.org. We have many big dogs at many shelters in this area.
Every time I run into Sandi Laird at Operation Kindness, she says something like, "Tell people to adopt big dogs."
When Dog and Kitty City has an adoption event, the no-kill shelter always has plenty of big dogs available for adoption.
Big dogs aren't much more expensive than little dogs -- but does money matter when you need a friend? As we have learned at our house, unlike teenagers, you never have to buy car insurance for big dogs -- they don't drive, they expect to be chauffeured.
OH, MY GOODNESS: Don't you just know the suburbs of Dallas are chuckling. Why? Because, as has been reported all over the place, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into activities, or at least paperwork, of two Dallas City Council members.
This always helps when Dallas is competing to lure giant jobs-rich companies into the city limits: "Why, sure, go ahead and look at that Dallas offer," the Suburban Mouthpiece will say to the Shaky Corporate Bigwig. Then he'll chuckle and add, "If you can elbow the FBI agents out of your way."
The odd thing is that Mayor Laura Miller, always known for a good soundbite, hasn't said anything. Either she's not around or you-know-what has frozen over. The delicate balances of municipal politics can have a muting effect.
