Meeting, rescues, mange and mulling...

Before we get to today’s report, here’s a quick announcement: the Dallas Animal Shelter Commission meets at 1:30 p.m. today in Room 6E South at Dallas City Hall.
See the agenda at the City Secretary’s website HERE and note that it was posted too early to include the fact that some positive mention will be made of the rescue of Rewind the Sewer Cat.
That is a photo of Rewind being cuddled yesterday during a visit at the vet’s office. And, as you can tell, the young girl kitty has a magnificent set of whiskers.
Oh, and FYI, e-mails are making the rounds noting (independent of Rewind’s adventure) that there are several momma cats and a load of kittens waiting on rescue, adoption or the needle at Dallas Animal Services today.
People will rightly applaud DAS staffers for saving a cat in a bad plight, but the same people will simply ho-hum  the fact that because of human neglect and unconcern, the city, on behalf of us taxpayers, kills  cats by the scores week after week. Just go to www.dallasanimalservices.org to see how to help save the cats and kittens and dogs and puppies, too.
One note, from Kelly Bond of Homeward Bound Animal Rescue, included this photo of a DAS family and notes that the momma cat weighs about 5 ½ pounds and she’s not much larger than her 6-week-old kittens – two "blue" and white, 3 tuxedo and a black kitten. Yep, a kitten per pound for this Dallas mother. 
Seriously, is this irony or what? Citizens applaud saving one cat while they don’t do a thing to save thousands and thousands each year? (Yeah, I’ve seen the euthanasia reports at DAS.)
CHANGES AND NEEDS:  Krista Mc Anally, who manages the Humane Society of Cedar Creek Lake Shelter at Tool, about an hour southeast of Dallas, reports that the organization has a “new and improved website (volunteer Vivian Goodnight is credited with the hard work).  See the site at www.hsccl.org – it links to the Texas Little Cuties PetFinder site where the society’s available dogs and cats are on display. Also, when you click there, you’ll see that the shelter needs a commercial-style freezer.
Also, the Society needs someone to transport dogs and cats to spay/neuter appointments.  And the shelter needs canned dog food (lamb and rice or chicken and rice puppy and adult).
And Krista’s note also announced that the Society’s shelter “has been accepted as an SPCA of Texas Transfer Partner.  This means that we will transfer pets to SPCA of Texas to their new McKinney adoption center, the Jan Rees-Jones Adoption Center on a weekly basis.  This will provide another great avenue to save more lives.”
To ask about helping or adopting, contact the shelter at [email protected] or call 903 432-3422.
THE MANGE DOGS: I just couldn’t present this story right off the bat today – it is quite an upsetting story.
Perhaps you’ll recall the West Dallas dogs we mentioned yesterday – savagely attacked by mange. Nobody had a place for the momma dog and her four pups surrendered to Angie Manriquez, the veteran rescuer known as the Fairy Dogmother of West Dallas.  Word went out that the dogs needed some quick help – the reason they needed quick help is their human had slowly allowed them to be ravaged by an easily treatable disease until, finally, persuasive help arrived and the owner said, “Aw, heck, go ahead an take ‘em.” (Probably already has a new dog tethered in the yard.)
At Dallas Animal Services, the veterinarian reported that they were all far too sick to recover, we're told. The five were then euthanized rather than allowed to suffer to death. One of my sources tells me that this case got to the much-admired and loved Angie and brought her to tears.. It’s not her first rodeo – not her first tears. Bless her heart.
AND NOW A SOAPBOX MOMENT: So, perhaps, today, there might be some things to think about: (1) Is there a way to educate people about treating mange? For crying out loud, some idiots still think you can “kill” mange by soaking the dog in motor oil. (2) Is there a way to bring authorities in and treat such mange cases as neglect and cruelty? (3) Is there a way to adopt West Dallas as a “Respect the Animals Zone” much like a civic club adopts a highway and keeps it clean? The Dallas Animal Services headquarters and the SPCA of Texas are both in West Dallas – seems like West Dallas would be easy to target. But, the old, entrenched idiocy is sometimes hard to defeat. And, of course, you can't pay people from the other side of the Trinity River to risk their necks in the "war zone" that they imagine is West Dallas -- yeah, it's a tough area, but there might be a way to reclaim it. After all, that fancy new bridge crosses the Trinity and leads right into West Dallas. Oh, yeah, econcomic development, profit motive -- some reasons to re-think this animal zone thing.
And anyone who has ever worked with Angie Manriquez knows how tough she is. Here’s the thing: If a case has moved Angie to tears, the rest of us would be sobbing.  We’re just not as tough as Angie Manriquez.
THREE DOGS WAITING: Yep, apparently just three dogs are waiting for homes at the Cockrill Hill Animal Shelter – Cockrill Hill is a city within Dallas on the Oak Cliff side of town. The shelter is at 4125 W. Clarendon, near Loop 12 at Jefferson.
And these three wait there.
There’s a puppy, a brown dog who likes to sit and be petted and a larger black and white dog with a Border collie look and a questionable future.
To offer to help any of these dogs, contact Shelter Manager David Hernandez at 214-697-6216.
Three dogs in a shelter – seems like they could all be in a rescue group by sundown, doesn’t it? Geez, I hate to think positively this late in the week.
CONTEMPLATIONS: A note about Dallas City Hall Room 6E South while I can still move my typing fingers. Temps outside may be in the 80s but, if the temp is maintained as it usually is inside 6E South, we’ll be huddling around the chimineas and breaking up furniture to fuel the warming fires and try to stay alive until a U.S. Navy Arctic Rescue Team can break through and save us. I’m not kidding – it’s cold in that room. I like it until the ink in my pen freezes and I begin to hallucinate that I’m at the only penguin rescue center in Texas.  … There was a story bouncing around yesterday about the “super Earth” planet that space scientists think they’ve found and one of them said the surface temperature of the planet is around 446 degrees Fahrenheit, so, while that planet may not be completely “earth-like” it will have a bit of Texas that’ll make us feel welcome… Seriously, why can’t there be “Animal Friendly Zones” in Dallas? We’ve had city council members call for “sweeps” that result in the pick up and euthanasia of scores of free-roaming animals in their districts. Why can’t these same council members help animals rather than kill them? Animal Friendly Zones might lead to “People Friendly Zones” or, dare I mention this, “Voter Friendly Zones.” A person can dream.
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