This is Wednesday and a good day for paranoia. Or, perhaps, tranquility. You pick.
Let's move on with the day's activities without even mentioning that Arlington has won the right to host the 2011 Super Bowl and that there's no World Series on the horizon in the foreseeable future or, apparently, until you-know-what freezes over. Maybe the Texas Rangers should put Roger Staubach in charge of the "Committee to Find Pitching."
ALERT ON HORSE SLAUGHTER: As work began in Austin this morning we got an e-mail from the folks at the Texas Humane Legislation Network saying "we have learned that Senator Seliger plans to amend a bill today in the senate that will legalize horse slaughter."
The THLN wants folks to call their state senators and "urge him/her to watch for such an amendment and to vote against it."
This is Sen. Kel Seliger, Republican of Amarillo (the photo is from his Senate website). There is no plant in Amarillo that slaughters horses for human consumption -- the last two in Texas were in Fort Worth and in Kaufman County.
Amarillo is home of the Big Texan Steak Ranch where the meal is free if you can eat the 72-ounce beef steak in one sitting. That's a beef steak. Not a horse steak. Surely nobody out there in the horse-happy Panhandle would chow down on a horse.
To find out who your senator is, click HERE.
The Texas Legislature has more ways to wiggle than a bucket of nightcrawlers.
LOU THE DOG: Isn't this the absolute photo of a dog with mange? The defeated look is the killer. Like the spirit is gone. Ah, but there's good news. This is a photo of Lou BEFORE. The "after" Lou is a handsome brindle rascal with a great spirit.
Melinda Franklin found Lou in West Dallas -- she works at a school there. And, as observers of animals in Dallas know, West Dallas is rough on critters. Rough on humans, too.
Melinda recalls, "I couldn't leave him to die. I couldn't bear the thought that all he'd known in his life was rejection and pain. ... He was only six months old and in such bad shape that he had to have been born with the mange and the infections which had him, when I found him, in between life and death. The stench in my car from his rotting skin is hard to forget.
"When I first saw Lou, he was sitting with his butt on the curb and paws in the street -- 
head down. I often work in neighborhoods where I see strays running the streets. I've rescued so many cats. But I've never seen an animal look like this. He looked like a ghost to me. I wasn't even sure I was looking at a dog as I drove past him."
It took her 25 minutes to trap him -- he was weak and ran out of gas.
A man stopped to help and put on some heavy work gloves so he could lift the dog. "He just cratered in the man's arms because he was so weak and frightened to death. He lived in 
my garage for the first two months because he was contagious to my cats. For the first 10 days, he only stood to go to the bathroom. Then he would return to the blanket."
It took her two weeks to get him to walk on a leash and another two months to get him to walk more than a block or two. "He wouldn't look anywhere but at the back of my legs. Not even a squirrel or another dog could catch his attention. I thought he was just well behaved, but I understand now that he was just that sick, weak and traumatized."
All of that was more than a year ago. Melinda has patiently socialized Lou the Dog and "he is the sweetest little guy."
Well, not all that little. "At 75 pounds," she says, "He is not longer little, but in my mind he is. He has a lot of energy and definitely needs to be walked on a leash as he likes to chase anything that moves. .... He is gentle with all other animals. he has lived with my 4 cats and has been around lots of other dogs. He was attacked by a female Pit half his size. His reaction was to drop to the ground -- submit. This happened when I took him to meet a family who wanted to adopt Lou as a sister for their family dog, Lily. Lily, it turns out, is dog aggressive. ... I drove all the way to Itasca to introduce Lou to them. When I left with Lou the husband was still t4rying to get me to 'put Lou in the pen with her and see how they do.' A lot of imbeciles out there."
So, that brings us to this point. Lou still needs a good home. To audition to adopt Lou, the healed dog, e-mail melindafranklin@lift-texas.org or call 214-202-7097.
No imbeciles need apply.
KITTENS READY TO ROMP: We got this tip from Deborah Fugit, mom of Daisy the Westie, soon to be profiled in an edition of Urban Animal magazine. One of Deborah's colleagues at the Billingsley Company, Tom Holland, has a trio of kittens that need good homes. Or one good home if you are patient and confident in your abilities to herd cats.
At any rate, Tom says there are "stray" cats that live "in the neighborhood that all of the neighbors kind of take care of and one of the cats had kittens." These good-hearted neighbors are in Lake Highlands Estates.
The kittens needing homes are two gray females and an orange boy. And as you can see 
from these photos, one likes old shoes, one likes the bed and the orange boy likes to pose for action photos. If he grows into his ears, you'll need an exotic animal permit to keep him on your property! (To ask about adopting, e-mail tholland@billingsleyco.com.)
KITTEN FOSTERS NEEDED: Our reliable tipsters at the Friends of the Animals at Cedar Creek Lake are looking for someone to help foster and socialize some kittens. Lois Reller reports that a feral cat "has five colorful kittens now about three weeks old."
To offer to foster or, perhaps, to adopt these "colorful" kittens, contact Lois at starline@mycvc.net or call 903-887-7691.
RADIO SPOT: Now, seriously, has there been a real good car slogan since "See the USA In Your Chevrolet"? On the radio this morning I heard a spot that says Kia has "The Power To Surprise." Back in the early 1970s I had not one but two Chevrolet Vegas. Their power to surprise often involved a muffled explosion, smoke billowing from under the hood and a tow truck. Don't know why Chevy quit making Vegas -- maybe GM ran out of letters of apology...though I don't recall getting one. Or two.
