The world continues to turn. We might as well go along with it.
Here’s our Friday report and our hope that you enjoy the entire weekend no matter how early you start it.
THE BIG EVENT IN IRVING: Oh, my, the partners -- City of Irving and D/FW Humane Society -- are scheduled to open the city’s new “animal campus” on Saturday. The official opening is from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the new facility at 4140 Valley View Lane on the north side of town.
In addition to the dignitaries and critters who’ll show up, the special guest star of the grand opening is animal lover, musician and writer Kinky Friedman – he’s basically a Texas folk hero to many primarily because of his involvement with Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch.
Details of the grand opening are HERE and you can see some of the animals at the shelter HERE.
Among the available critters is this cat Baxter. Obviously, he looks as if he is prepared to make a speech on the momentous occasion.
MAKING THE ROUNDS: Lots of e-mails whizzing about with a reference to a St. Louis Better Business Bureau study of the burden of puppy mills in Missouri. You can read it HERE. Lots of different Google-able stories on the topic of “Missouri puppy mills” so take time to take a look. Then, if you’re in Texas, be sure to check out the Texas Humane Legislation Network site at www.thln.org and read about how you can help influence the Legislature to force irresponsible and cruel breeders out of business. (FYI: Pay no attention to the way “representative” is spelled on the THLN website. Heck, who hasn’t left a “t” out of a word now and then. I mention this because I’ve got a lifelong collection of mistspelled words in my glass house.)
AND IN DALLAS: Whoa, there are a whole bunch of animals available to take home from the Dallas Animal Services Adoption Center. Heck, Dallas is a big city and when you have a big city, you have big jerks who let fertile and randy animals roam and romp. And you have people who move from place to place and either dump their critters or “set them free” in parks and yards and alleys.
So, yes, dogs and cats in Dallas often wind up as temporary guests of the city. They’re locked up just like scofflaws and criminals only the scofflaws and criminals have a better chance at making bail.
Still, people can drop by the adoption center at I-30 and Westmoreland and pick up a new friend.
Among those this week are these two dogs.
I picked these two to highlight because they seemed to have “human” qualities in their pictures. Sasha is the Pointer mix whose picture looks as if the caption should read “Promoted to new position at local bank.” Is that a corporately somber mugshot or what!
And that other dog – whew, that is the Springer Spaniel mix Minnie who is, so very obviously, in the public relations field. She’s got that “I’m so happy to see you” look expressed by people who really enjoy their jobs and their lives. Be a shame for all that good will to wind up unused and jus t a statistic at a shelter.
To save these two dogs or any of the Dallas animals contact the shelter – to see more of the City of Dallas animals online go to www.dallasanimalservices.org. That site has all the info you’ll need.
THERE’S LEGAL, BUT THEN THERE’S RIGHT: Back on March 2, the Van ZandtCounty Sheriff’s Department and the SPCA of Texas took over care of 63 starving longhorns and three donkeys seized from a rural property. In court yesterday in Canton, the state and the defendant Jim Clair reached an agreement that the owner would get the animals back and be subject to monitoring by the Van Zandt County Sheriff’s Department.
There was an error at some point.
According to a press release from the SPCA of Texas, “The SPCA of Texas, which was acting under the authority of the Van Zandt County Sheriff's Department, was not a party to this agreement.The agreement was reached once a motion was filed by the defense attorney regarding a procedural error on the part of the DA's office.”
So, a technicality results in returning animals to a property where they had been declared to be at peril. The animals, who had been malnourished (some dead animals were found on the property), have been nursed back to health at the SPCA’s McKinney facility and are now back in the custody of the guy who had them when they were in bad shape. The SPCA, because of the court ruling, will not be reimbursed for its expense in caring for the ailing animals.
CONTEMPLATIONS: Any normal guys out there watching this Sandra Bullock/Jesse James thing? She’s always fun on talk shows, entertaining in films and she has links to Austin and this whole deal with her husband makes an otherwise sane man want to grab the guy and go irate big brother all over his sorry backside. How can anybody betray America’s sweetheart? Crazy world these days. ... The U.S. Postal Service wants to stop delivering mail on Saturdays. OK, but only under these conditions: (1) Bring back the olive drab mailboxes and put them on every corner like they used to be when “service” was part of the postal deal. (2) Sell stamps from machines at post offices. Did you know there are post offices without stamp machines? That means if you want to buy stamps, you have to get in the snake line with everyone who is picking up certified mail, buying money orders or sending cookies to a relative in prison. If you go into a post office after hours, you can’t buy stamps. For crying out loud, consumers are part of any successful business equation not just an annoyance, right? ... I’m stealing this from a friend of mine who agrees that there are some totally dumb things said and done in this country: “I wish we could export our stupid. If there was a world demand, we’d all live like Saudi princes.”
