Naturally occurring challenges...and cheddar cheese

Today we’ll discuss earth, wind and fire – maybe try to figure out how to make it rain in Texas. And, there are the 11-year-old, puzzled Black Labs at the Plano Animal Shelter who are victims of another natural disaster – divorce.
We were on the brink of taking the day off – Monday arrived before we caught up on our sleep over the weekend and I’d exercised like a demon and gained a pound, irritating me more than usual. Never mind the day off. People and animals need help. It’s also Tax Day 2011 – I’m probably not the only person in a foul frame of mind.
THE FIRE REPORT: Texas is under assault by winds and wildfires.
In an e-mail, Sandy Lewis asked about animal sanctuaries west of Dallas/Fort Worth  threatened by fire. She suspects people would volunteer to help.
Immediately we checked with Carole Sanders of Animal Angels of Texas near Jacksboro and she reports as of about 9  a.m., “So far, we're okay. There's a lot of smoke in the air, of course, and they're still burning pretty much uncontained southeast of Possum Kingdom. The danger now is sparks being carried and spawning new fires.  We need rain badly. The wind isn't bad this morning but suppose to pick up later. Wish they would get aircraft in the air while the wind is not a factor.”
FYI: That dog is available via Animal Angels. You can see her and other adoptable Angels at www.animalangelstexas.org.
There’s some aural irony in the dog’s name: Reign. Not Rain. You can’t get rain around here. But you can get Reign.
THE EMOTIONAL CRISIS OF TWO LABS: First, we’d written to Debbie New, the senior administrative assistant at the Plano Animal Shelter, to ask about this little, ailing Schnauzer girl, Darby. The 9-year-old dog has been in isolation for treatment for an upper respiratory infection and wasn’t responding well, so Debbie sent out a plea for a rescue group to give her a place to recover. Mercifully, Debbie says it appears that “rescue is going to get her.” This dog was surrendered because the owner was moving out of state.
As we were discussing this dog, Debbie said that there’s another situation that is really getting to her. There are two Black Labs, 11 years old, who have hit a bad spot in life. Because of a divorce, these two old dogs have been surrendered to the shelter.
We’ll have photos later, Debbie says, but one of the dogs has the wonderful gray muzzle of an ol’ pup. Character marks of grace on an old face.
The dogs are Ranger and Dixie and they’d lived together in the same home since they were puppies. “They are breaking my heart,” says Debbie. The adoption fee for these dogs is $40 – that includes vet care and a microchip.
See Plano animals HERE and contact Debbie at [email protected].
As for the old, gray-muzzled Lab, Debbie says, “It makes me cry to just look at the dog. They are both so sweet.”
GALT AND THE AUCTION: The Greyhound Adoption League of Texas is constantly taking in dogs and that means they must be constantly working to gain public support.
This time of the year, the group celebrates with an anniversary party – this is not only National Adopt a Greyhound Month, but it is also the 10th anniversary of GALTX – the big party is April 30. Details are at www.galtx.org.
Today’s “newsburst” from GALT is that this is the last day to bid on 2 Hounds Design items in the GALT online auction – bidding closes at 9 p.m. (Auction details are HERE.)
All proceeds got to help Greyhounds who may have been rescued from ugly situations or who may be retired racing dogs.
We looked at the site and found – no known connection – this dog named Powell. Not a relative, we’re pretty sure.
Powell the Greyhound had a bum knee that wouldn’t heal and now Powell the Greyhound has just three legs. Back left was amputated to take the pain away. A vet or a rescuer once told me that there’s an old line: “Dogs are born with three legs and a spare.” We’ve known many three-legged dogs and every one of them was a sparkly, spunky leader of the pack.
MS. BOSS AND OTHER DAS NOTES: Last week we reported that Ms. Boss, one of the “scheduled-for-euthanasia dogs” at Dallas Animal Services had been rescued. Thanks to Jonnie England, the Metroplex Animal Coalition’s Director of Animal Advocacy and Communications, we now know that Miss Boss went into the care of the rescue group Paws In The City and has been renamed Annie. What we have here are before and after photos. One – with the uncertainty in the eyes – is the Ms. Boss shelter photo and the other was taken as she was a guest Friday on Russ Martin’s radio show on 97.1 FM The Eagle.
Now, this week, there are four dogs and one cat on the Dallas Animal Services Very Special Pets euthanasia list – animals that have been in the shelter 45 days and are healthy. They’re scheduled to die on April 26.
That cat in the colorful collar? That is Fefe.
Her coat is black, but her undercoat is white. So she has a bit of a different look when you ruffle her hair. [Aside: I think it might look like my hair would look if I tried to dye it the original black and then let it grow out. I think some of you nice ladies know what I mean and I won’t even mention Congressional dye jobs.]
To adopt contact [email protected]  or [email protected] or call 214-671-0249 or 214-670-8312. Rescue contacts are [email protected] and 214-670-8298 or [email protected] and 214-671-0308.
CONTEMPLATIONS: We have no clue as to how to make it rain in Texas. Raindances, rainmakers, seeding the clouds if there were only clouds. Probably the best way would be to schedule a bunch of outdoor pet adoptions and fail to set a "rain date." Fate would then kick in and soak the state. ... Feel free to weep over the cancellation of the daytime soaps All My Children and One Life to Live. I watched One Life To Live back when I was a young sportswriter in the ‘60s and Victoria Lord (Erika Slezak) was a smokin’ hot heiress afflicted with a dual personality. You can see how that would appeal to a sportswriter – the fiction of life, the conflict and, on a soap, everybody wants to settle a score. OK, enough of that, let’s move on. What? Oh, that is Inky, our Readlarrypowell.com staff impersonator and the Cocker Laureate of the State of Texas giving us his impression of a heartless ABC-TV executive, famished after a morning of enthusiastic budget-cutting, gleefully rushing into the Network Executive Dining Room and spotting a big steaming platter of Mom’s Stockholder Delight Bottomline Meatloaf served warmly by an out-of-work, bitter actor with a ladle in one hand and a butcher knife in the other. Drama in the dining room. ... One of the first things I saw today almost made me hit the “off” button and go into an isolation booth. I’m pretty sure this is just a bit of whimsy, but with fashion you never know. Here’s the LINK to a story about a pair of women’s shoes made from cheddar cheese and stale bread. Maybe they come with a BLT purse or a linguini belt. Cherry tomato earbobs. I just like saying "earbobs." Takes me back to an era when cheddar cheese wasn't a shoe.
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