Here, as the afternoon wanes, we've got some thoughts on lost-and-found dogs at the Richardson Animal Shelter and the Saturday night vigil for homeless animals.
LOST AND FOUND AND LOST AND FOUND DOGS NEED A HOME: My longtime newspaper colleague Karen Patterson, one of a legion of animal softies in journalism, managed to grab two dogs Thursday morning from their hangout near Dickey's Barbecue, across from Medical City on Forest Lane near Central. It wasn't easy -- Karen had to give up her bag of Sun Chips in exchange for capture of the big dogs.
One is a "big affable boy (perhaps some sort of lab-shepherd mix, tan-colored, interesting face)." That guy, charmed by the chips, "without prompting, climbed into the back hatch of my Subaru," Karen reports.
The other, a black-and-white mix, possibly with border collie, was a little more skittish and didn't want to get into the car, but he also didn't want to be separated from his friend, so Karen says she "was able to coax him over and lift him into the back."
Running late, she rushed home and put the dogs into her back yard-- Karen's personal dogs set up a howl from inside the house. When Karen returned home later Thursday, she says, "it was apparent immediately how clever the two were. They'd found the spot in my fence where termites had eaten out the bottom cross-bar, popped out a few boards there and made their escape."
This upset Karen quite a bit and she made a desperate but futile search of the neighborhood. On Friday when she returned home, she saw a yellow sign on a corner utility pole that said the dogs had been found. A woman down the street had grabbed them on Thursday. "The big, friendly boy lumbered easily into her Suburban and snuggled in right next to her kids. When that happened, the apparent border mix circled and circled her car, trying to figure out what to do. Eventually she was able to capture that dog, too."
This rescuer is new to the neighborhood, pregnant and has a couple of kids and her yard has no fence. Another neighbor took the dogs in and sat in the heat and watched to make sure they wouldn't dig out. The Suburban rescuer began making phone calls to find a spot in a shelter and, eventually, took them to the Richardson Animal Shelter "hoping they would fare better there than in Dallas," Karen says.
So, there are at least two great dogs available at the Richardson Animal Shelter. The web site is www.cor.net/AnimalShelter/homepage.html.
Be a rotten shame to let these two congenial dogs go homeless until they die. Shelters are always, as Karen says, "a big risk, especially for big dogs."
RANDOM NOTES FROM SATURDAY'S VIGIL: Ah, the 10th annual North Texas Homeless Animal Vigil is finished, but images remain -- one of the most vivid is the "Links of Life" display from Legacy Boxer Rescue (www.savetheboxers.com). Volunteers spent hours and hours pasting more than 8,000 multicolored paper bands together to represent all the homeless animals killed in our area on one day picked at random from 2004. It was a huge pile of paper -- huge. I kept thinking, "If these were the bodies of all those animals, people would be up in arms." And they ought to be even if it's only paper. ...
The Homeless Animal Vigil is always in August -- that's because the originators, the International Society of Animal Rights (www.isaronline.org) picked it and, apparently, those folks are all located in the coolish east where they say things like "Oh, it's mid-August, better bring a sweater." You know, Arbor Days isn't celebrated on the same day in all states. Maybe someone could figure out a way to move the vigil to a cooler month. I'm speaking on behalf of all people and dogs who need cool breezes, a good chill and no heat strokes! ...
One of the speakers, Dr. John Pippin, a renowned cardiologist, made it clear to the crowd that he believes use of animals in medical research is misguided. He was at Cooper Clinic until he had a falling out with the boss over that very point. You can Google Dr. Pippin and get several "hits" on his pro-animal activities. He is a really nice guy who believes that the computer is a more powerful medical research tool than one more dead puppy. (My words, not his -- he'd probably say it better.) ...
We saw Beverly Miles of DFW Cocker Spaniel Rescue (www.dfwcockerrescue.8m.com) and learned that Celeste, a down-on-her luck cocker featured by readlarrypowell.com a couple of weeks ago, has been happily adopted. We also saw a cocker spaniel I wrote about last year -- he's Walker, the fellow whose face had been kicked in and his jaw broken. (That's last year's photo.) The injury left him unable to keep his tongue in his mouth and he sort of looks like he's got an attitude most of the time! He's a sweetie, though, and as one of his human's said of the now-pudgy cocker, he has no trouble eating! ....
We saw Deb Stover with a giant schnauzer who's had a metal plate put into his hip -- he didn't seem to be having any problems moving along in the Carrollton Amphitheater which, by the way, was a pretty nice place to have this vigil and I hope that's where it is next year, too. ....
We saw Jeneva O'Connor of N-Trust-Ur-Pet and Melissa Boesch, two of Martha's longtime pet-sitting buddies (I've known Melissa since she was a teenager working in the sports department at the big paper). They were there with Penny the Dog and Nemo the Beagle, a couple of lively rascals. ...
Sunny 97.1 FM radio personality Eddie Coyle and his wife, Terra, (A vivid personality, too!) were there. They're animal nuts. Eddie's on the board of A Different Breed. Monique Voelker was there with A Different Breed (www.adifferentbreed.org) , which has some interesting bracelets with which it's raising money -- the bracelets have the numbered tags of animals that nobody saved. ...
Angie Thomas, with Kittieco Cat Rescue (www.kittico.org) was there -- good to see her up and around. She had a big medical bout last year and won and is still out there preaching the gospel of spaying and neutering. Amen. ...
I know I'm leaving lots of people out -- there were lots of people there, including the Sadie Foundation (www.petfinder.com/shelters/sadie.html), Basenji Rescue, DFW Lab Rescue --heck, I can't name them all. But, to High Paws to all of you....
Speaker Jay Sabbatucci of the Humane Society of the United States brought me to tears with a story about a tragic incident in which a big dog drowned in a river -- that event inspired a woman to get into animal rescue. She wanted all the animals to have a better chance at life. ...
And, of course, you've got to be in awe of Kim Polen and the Treasured Friends folks (www.treasuredfriends.org) who presented this thing in association with the Queenie Foundation (Enid Breakstone, who ramrodded the vigil for 9 years, has moved back east and sent a recorded message to the crowd. It was about a minute long and to the point -- I've kidded that I'm going to e-mail Enid that this was her best speech ever!)....
I hope that next year there's a cold snap and that you can find time to attend this thing. It's important to remember that so many people are working so hard on behalf of dogs and cats and other animals. Heck, there was even a horse there in a pen -- a rescued horse. ...
One of my favorite moments was when I was standing near the stage and getting ready to go on to make my speech and I heard a baying coming from my left -- I looked over in time to see one of the rescued coonhounds pointing his nose into the air and letting rip with a nice coonhound "bay." I didn't take it personally. It reminded me that I was glad nobody showed up with rescued jackasses to bray when I was talking. ...
I'll probably think of more things to mention later....
Oh, yes, food! One of the people I saw there was my ol' newspaper buddy, Jeanette Prasifka -- she was a research librarian at the paper. Now she's owner and chef of highly regarded Crosby Cafe & Catering (www.crosbycafe.com) "specializing in vegetarian & vegan cusine." When I saw her at the vigil she said she had a peanut butter and chocolate brownie in the booth set aside for me -- just what a fat guy needs, one more dessert. Ah, yes, it was a great night:
Go to the park with my funspouse Martha (or, my sweat'nglowspouse, that night), see wonderful animals, see wonderful people, honor volunteers, try to save animals and get another kind of brownie to dream about when I'm trying to diet. Ah, challenges.
