Happy Monday to those of you who had the guts to return to work after that office party Friday night.
I’m kidding. But didn’t that make some of you wonder just what in the world you missed by having a quiet weekend at home? And didn’t it make some of you wonder just what you did Friday night that you forgot!
Now that some of you have breathed a sigh of relief and you are refocusing, here are our items for the day. They’ll include opportunities to help people, to help animals, to see a movie and to consider what it must be like to be five years old.
ANOTHER PLEA FOR RUDY AND SHILOH: Our rescue pals at Paws in the City are making another round of please for ONE home for longtime companions Rudy and Shiloh. Rudy is this handsome minpin and Shiloh is this Carolina Hound mix, captured here in a pensive moment.
Naturally, because Rudy (scroll down to the earlier listing) is a little dog, he’s getting more interest. Shiloh, as a larger dog, is getting zilch.
The thing is, they’re dogs that need to be together, so somebody just needs to say, “Yeah, I can always use two different sizes of friends.”
To adopt or foster or somehow encourage the Paws in the City people, call 214-336-8847 or e-mail [email protected].
By the way, Shiloh likes to play in the water – even wades into lakes. This could be a plus when it comes time to bathe the rascal. We have dogs that are uncomfortable being in the same room with a faucet or a sponge. Whoever gets Shiloh will be a lucky person.
HOPE STILL NEEDS A HOME: You may recall that we recently mentioned that Hope, this 45-pound, 9-month-old Staffordshire Terrier mix needed a foster home. She’s deaf – so she’s special needs.
As it turns out, our contacts with A Different Breed report, “Tragically, her foster mom was in a bad car accident and is in the hospital with numerous broken bones. We have moved Hope into a boarding facility, but as ADB is boarding other dogs at the moment, our funds are running out.”
To help ADB rescue with a home for Hope or with donations for the emergency boarding fund, call 214-316-6604 or e-mail [email protected].
A dog like Hope is still around for some reason – probably because she’s intended to spend her life with someone who isn’t just keeping her but with someone who loves her. Pass the word along so that Hope’s friend will realize the dog is waiting to go home.
A FAMILY SITUATION: Erin Johnson of Straydog Inc. has sent us word of a special case. She writes, “There is a poor family in Kaufman that allowed their female dogs to get pregnant and currently they have a litter of nine who are about 5-month-old Aussie-mix pups.
"They have more pregnant females, too, I keep finding out in subsequent phone calls….Staydog can help them by getting them some dog food, medicines, appointments and help to get the dogs spay/neutered – if they will accept help to get the dogs spay/neutered.”
In the meantime, these dogs – some of them either have flea allergies or mange – are in need of homes. Like, right now. This photo shows some of them at the feeding pan.
Before too long, the other pups will be delivered. “We haven’t talked to the family about the upcoming litters of puppies, yet.” says Erin. “I guess just one thing at a time…”
So, the mission is to move these dogs out – remember, there are NINE of them – before the next onslaught. And, first and foremost, get the spay/neuter work done.
To help, visit www.straydog.org, call 903-479-3497 or e-mail [email protected].
As you know, Straydog does a lot with a little – any help is appreciated at the shelter near Gun Barrel City. Adopting a dog takes a financial burden off the shelter, too.
Every shelter, every rescue group, every body with an extra foster dog or cat around the house needs money these days. I’m pretty sure they can’t depend on the electric company or the oil companies to split the profits.
BE ON THE LOOKOUT: As you know, cats often wind up where they shouldn’t. In this case, Precious, the fluffy, gray and white sweetie, has gone missing in a specific area in Denton County.-- near the southeast corner of Hickory Creek and Country Club Road. She’s got plenty of places to hide-- and she’s been hiding since Feb. 18. The property has a couple of old barns on it.
Precious’ mom, Melanie Marcom, says she found some tufts of familiar cat hair in a hiding place in one of the barns. So, if anyone driving along in the area spots the shy cat, please phone in an alert to 214-334-3162. Precious is a sweetheart. But like so many cats, it’s the getting her to crawl into your arms that takes some convincing.
THE SCRAPED BARN MOVIE REVIEW: Today we’ll happily discuss the Spike Lee movie Inside Man.
(Keep in mind that at www.readlarrypowell.com the aim of the movie reviewer is not to impose his will, but to tell you whether you’d be better off seeing this film or spending a couple of hours scraping old paint off a barn on a hot day.)
First, let me confess that I’ve long thought they ought to stop giving out best actor Oscars to anybody else and just hand it over to Denzel Washington every year whether or not he’d made a film. The guy is that good.
He doesn’t change my mind with his performance as a semi-smudged, human cop in the caper flick Inside Man. And, it is what we used to call in the 1960s, a caper flick. Only instead of being seen from inside the caperers (pardon my impromptu word construction), the story is seen from the side of the puzzled cops. You’ve probably seen the trailers: it’s a bank robbery that isn’t a bank robbery.
The dialogue is fun. The pictures are great. The story holds up and keeps your interest. And it’s worth the price of admission just to see Jodie Foster staggering along in spiked heels that surely are taller than a bottle of Dr Pepper. Honest, she walks as if it’s her first time in heels. She doesn’t fall, she just doesn’t look natural in the shoes – though, of course, one wonders who would, indeed, look natural wearing shoes with heels tall enough to fall off of and snap a hip? And, frankly, she allows too much smarm in her character to suggest that she’d be able to sustain a relationship with anybody who needs her special expertise as a “fixer of bad problems.” But it's a minor flaw in a major movie.
We saw the film Friday afternoon with a bunch of my cinemaspouse Martha’s colleagues at the Cinemark Megaplex 17 on Webb Chapel near LBJ. On our way into the theater, a nice lady handed us survey cards and asked us to return them to her after the movie. You could tell someone – I still don’t know who – just why you came to that film. Among the reasons were the star and the director. Yep, there’s wasn’t a place to mark “To spend quality movie time with my precious wife who bought my ticket AND my popcorn.”
Anyway, the director of the film was Spike Lee (he directed one of my favorite films, Malcolm X). In this movie, he really shows how quick cuts and camera perspective can be used to enhance a moviegoing experience rather than bewilder an audience. You won’t get a headache from MTV film editing. When a picture is on the screen, you have enough time to tell what you’re looking at.
So, our opinion is: Scraping the old barn’s paint can be put off another week. Go see Inside Man and enjoy the performances and the pictures and, especially, the tricks and the dialogue. Don't take the kids -- there's a little boy in the film who is precious but at peril. Kids don't need new stuff to worry about -- like getting trapped in a bank heist. Of course, this little boy, during the film, is playing a handheld video game that is so violent one of the robbers is distressed. Nice touch. Lot of nice touches in this film.
Take out a loan and buy some popcorn and a Coke -- get ALL the enjoyment of the moviegoing experience.
THE BIRTHDAY GIRL: Something astonishing happens today. Our first grandchild, Hannah Rose, turns 5.
Five years old. Hard to believe that fact when her grandfather, that’s me, only turned 34 last November.
Of course, her dad, Bart, turned 35 in January. Our family enjoys either time-warp biology or delayed maturation.
Consider being five years old. You’ve never lived in a world without cell phones, remote control TV, Gameboy, CD players, DVDs, microwave ovens, laptop computers, desktop computers, microwave dinners or Hershey Nuggets.
A couple of weeks ago, Bart and I took Hannah to a driving range and she was mildly interested in the game of golf, but more interested in burying her ball in a pile of sand next to the practice green.
I told Bart we probably don’t need to worry about hiring a lawyer to handle her pre-teen winnings on the LPGA Tour. But the kid had fun.
And, afterward, at the Waffle House, she ate waffles arranged to look like Minnie Mouse. You’ve got to start ‘em early if you want ‘em to be gourmets.
Erin says the 5-month-old pups will probably be “smallish dogs – so many people seem to want small dogs. Maybe they have a chance to be adopted….The dogs were nervous about me being there and barked at me and the mama hid ….They’ll need a home with patient, understanding families because of their timidity.”
Erin says Straydog has shown these folks that they qualify for spay/neuter grants to lighten the financial burden.
