Red in Dallas, crowded shelters, a hail kitty and other notes from the urban landscape...

OK, let’s just stipulate today that all shelters are full and all rescues are in need of money and foster homes and we should all eat a good breakfast and work hard throughout the day without needing a booster shot of caffeine concentrate in mid-afternoon. Lace up your sneakers and read on:
A COMFORTABLE DOG IN AN UNCOMFORTABLE SPOT: This is Red. He’s a mix, maybe some Pit and some Hound, but all dog. And when he was running loose, he found it possible to sleep on the wrong side of a curb.
Now, the deal with Red is he’s in the Dallas Animal Services Shelter.
He had been roaming free, but being monitored. DAS managed to get him. Jean-Paul Bonnelly, the noted rescuer, says he set up arrangements to get Red into safer shelter, but that has fallen though and now Red is at peril and needs a place to go. For now, he’s at the shelter and, like all animals in municipal shelters, at risk.
Red is, for now, a frightened dog with an eye injury, JP says. And he needs out of the shelter but to accomplish that he needs a place to go.
While Red is anxious, puzzled and fearful inside the shelter, he is a different dog outside.
 “While he was on the streets, a friend of mine looked after him for months,” JP says. “He was always friendly and would come up to you to get petted. Very sweet dog. He was scared at DAS. He also has a sister that is shy and she is still on the streets. I was going to try and catch her on Friday or Saturday.
“If I can catch the girl dog, they both get along well and my friend will foster both of them for 2-3 weeks and I may have an additional 2 weeks of foster available elsewhere. I will donating my training to the dogs.” (JP has The Republic of Dog where he does training and behavior modification, etc.)
To offer a life-saving place for Red, e-mail [email protected] or call 214-707-7005. JP also suggests calling Dallas Animal Services to claim Red – he’s in lost and found, not in adoptions, says JP. That DAS phone number is 214-670-8246
IS THERE SUCH A WORD AS ‘UNVIRAL’? Well, let’s give it a shot today. We’ve gotten a number of e-mails about situations that have already been resolved. Perhaps we can help redirected energy from resolved situations to unresolved situations. Here we go:
--Bella the cat has found a home, reports the woman who was trying to find a home for this beautiful big-whiskered cat. The story is the woman is expecting her second child and her husband has declared that the cat has to go. The declawed cat was on the brink of being dumped at a shelter or who knows where, according to the note that bounced around this weed. So, that’s the story on Bella – we got the “all clear” from the expectant mommy who said a family had agreed to take Bella.
-- You may have seen this subject line in one of many e-mails: Clumsy toddler dooms Scooby dog to death.
This is Scooby and the many, many e-mails said he would die today if nobody got him out of Austin where he was in quarantine for biting a kid, but the real story was, the notes said, that the kid fell and hit his head and cops and ambulance people jumped to a conclusion that when the kid fell on the dog, the dog bit the kid. We got word last night that a friend of the family had stepped up to take the dog and save his life. No doubt today we’ll still get e-mails with breathless declarations “THERE MAY STILL BE TIME. OMIGOD WE’VE GOT TO SAVE THIS DOG. IF YOU DON’T ACT RIGHT NOW YOU’LL BURN IN HELL.” All of the e-mails we got, by the way, removed the actual contact points for the people who had the dog. Because the original e-mailer won’t reveal the important contact information, we’re sort of at the mercy of the ethics of that first e-mailer. We can’t check anything out for certain.  But we’re asking.
--You may have seen the e-mail about the husband who took the wife’s two dogs – an older Yellow Lab and a Jack Russell Terrier – and vanished. Reports were that the guy dumped the dog at the Plano Animal Shelter. Our actual reliable tipster Dianne Watson got busy with this one and reports, “Cudos to Debbie New [of the Plano Animal Shelter’] for checking her animals and reuniting this poor woman with her old Lab.” As it turns out, the Jack Russell had been left at the home of the former couple without food or water “but the dog is OK.” And, now, both dogs are back with the woman and at least the canine situation has been resolved though the marital situation will, no doubt, need some lawyerin’ and negotiatin’.
As Dianne asks, “How could anyone be so heartless to take this old gal to a shelter and dump her there. Just lucky that the idiot picked Plano Animal Shelter.”
THE STORM CAT: Remember the big hail, rain and wind storm of a couple of nights ago?
This is what blew into Alan and Monica Potts’ garage in Farmers Branch.
And now they’re trying to find a home for this older kitten who the kids have named “Sprinkles.” The problem is, Monica, a veteran rescuer of wandering critters, is allergic to cats and can’t even touch the kitty. The kids, also, are allergic to cats.
So, the sooner Sprinkles can find a home, the better for all concerned.
“Alan found her in our garage, shaking and scared from the rain and hail,” Monica says. “Our dogs have made friends with her.”
To offer to help place this calm kitten, e-mail [email protected] or call 214-734-8975.
NEEDING SOME CRATES: Tawana Couch, who runs the Society for Companion Animals, which transports critters via airplane from the Dallas area to safer havens, is in need of crates.
She writes, “We are low on plastic airline crates, approximately 15-18 inches tall, for our Transport Program.  At-risk dogs from Dallas fly to other shelters, and sometimes when the crates are returned they are cracked. We will not reuse any cracked crates and are in urgent need of this size crates.”
Donating is easy. Tawana says, “Please leave them on the porch at 619 Woolsey Dr., Dallas, 75224. If you would like a receipt for your donation, leave a note with your name and address with the crate. We need these crates ASAP because we are hoping to ship out dogs in the next few months before the weather is too hot.”
You can offer more help and ask more questions by e-mailing [email protected].
BACK TO SHELTERS: Earlier we mentioned how full area animal shelters are and we’ve gotten a note from a volunteer that gives a specific look at the way things go. This happens to come from Collin County Animal Services in McKinney, but, generally, it’s the way things go in all shelters.
She reports, “Collin County Animal Services is totally full. Euthanasia will happen and the first to go down will be anything black, pit, staffie, old or owner surrender.”
Rescuers know this. Other shelters know these things.
The only thing left to do is to figure out a way to get the general public to react in a way that is more than “Oh, gee, that’s too bad.  Did you see American Idol last night? How about those Housewives of Beverly Hills?”
FACEBOOK AND SHELTERS: Does a Facebook page increase “traffic” at shelters or does it  only increase “preachin' to the choir”? Anybody done a study? Can more people than “Friends” see those shelter Facebook pages?
NEWS FROM BIG TEX: Yesterday we mentioned that Big Tex, the State Fair of Texas symbol, would be wearing a red, white and blue shirt this year. Today, thanks to Sue Gooding at the State Fair, we’ve got this newsburst. (FYI: It’s the official stance of Readlarrypowell.com that the State Fair of Texas is a great treasure that should be nurtured because that, in turn, will protect Fair Park, a wondrous collection of museums and architecture and memories.)
Here’s the note from the Fair:
“Alan Walne, chairman of the board of Herb's Paint & Body Shops, was elected chairman of the board of directors and chairman of the executive committee of the State Fair of Texas during the annual meeting of the board on April 20, 2011 at The Women’s Museum in Fair Park.  Walne succeeds Ruben Esquivel, who served as chairman from 2007-2011.  Esquivel will continue as a member of both the board and executive committee.
“Five new members were elected to the board of directors.  Sam P. Burford, Levi H. Davis, Robert A. Estrada, Wendy A. Lopez and Craig A. Woodcook will serve on the 55-member board of State Fair of Texas, Inc., the private, non-profit corporation responsible for presenting the annual exposition.”
The theme of the Sept. 30-Oct. 23 fair is “125 Years—A Timeless Tradition.”
CONTEMPLATIONS: Morning arrived  --  the great pleasure was beating Baby Jane Doe to the wakeup call. Our ancient  black, pointy-eared Shepherd mix traditionally barks us awake. It is a pleasure to not be barked awake. I know that some day I will miss it, but this particular morning, I celebrate the quiet. You have to get up early to beat Baby Jane at the alarm clock game. She, lately, has been barking us awake at 6 a.m. Hah! Today I woke at 4:48 a.m. and enjoyed 12 minutes of quiet before I dared wake the household (with the exceptions of Martha and one of the cats. The other cat lives on a schedule set on his home planet, Bigfelinius, in the Catdramada system.)  .. No reason in particular to declare this, but, seriously, this is an interesting world. Right now Texas has fires, severe weather, border tension, utility demands, tax and budget difficulties and gasoline pushing four bucks a gallon. Some would say this is Biblical, but the best explanation is this: The Texas Legislature is in session.
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