Things in the heart...

Welcome to March and, of course, National Pig Day..
You can look it up. March 1. National Pig Day. Google it. You’ll even find e-cards.
Remember, 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday is the big Pig Party at East Lake Pet Orphanage – it’s a family and pig-friendly event billed as “The Only Known Dallas Area Pig Celebration.”
And that’s really saying something in an election year.
That photo? That is Inky, the Cocker Laureate of the State of Texas and the Readlarrypowell.com staff impersonator, giving us his impression of a mannerly pet potbellied pig (see them at ELPO Sunday) walking into the Campaign Trail Dine ‘n’ Dance Lounge and spotting, on the Public Trough Buffet Table, a big steaming platter of Mom’s Tax Free Faux Meatloaf with It’s All Gravy and a side dish of environmentally sensitive Green Beans.
A BEDFORD CRISIS: Maryann Izzarelli who, with Marilyn Fry, deals with the  Team Bedford Animal Shelter Facebook page, sent a note last night that explains the crisis in the suburban shelter.
“I hate writing panicky emails,” she began, “But we're in a dog bind in Bedford.  Right now we have 31 available dogs with only 20 runs plus a bunch more on stray hold that will be available soon.  I know it's small potatoes compared to the big shelters, but we've just been inundated with owner surrenders.  Even if someone can foster any of our dogs it will take the immediate load off of the shelter. Adoption or rescue would be fabulous of course. Leading the urgents is of course our big male Pit, Rambo, who was an owner surrender.  He's the typical awesome wiggle-butt-greatest-dog-ever pittie if someone will just get past the BIG MALE PIT part. “
Go HERE for contact info.
SPCA AND A FIGHTING ROOSTER SEIZURE: This happened in Van Zandt County on  Wednesday. The SPCA and the Van Zandt County Sheriff’s Office went to a property just northeast of Athens and seized 17 hens, 10 fighting roosters and 80 eggs.
Why did they go to this property? Summoned by authorities after there was a shooting in the area -- news reports say it was at a cockfight. (In fact, the Van Zandt County Sheriff needs info about the shooting on FM 1861, northeast of Athens. Call the sheriff’s office at 903-567-4133 or Van Zandt County Crime Stoppers at 903-567-7867.)
According to the SPCA, the roosters were being kept in “wooden transport crates commonly used by cockfighters while the hens were loose on the property. The eggs were found inside incubators in the residence on the property.”
Yep, apparently a cockfighting factory.
The custody hearing is set for 10 a.m. Monday in Judge Scott Shinn’s Precinct 4 Courtroom in Ben Wheeler.
Cockfighting is against the law in every state and the District of Columbia – it’s a felony in 35 states, including Texas, and DC. And, since 2002, the SPCA news release notes, “federal law has prohibited any interstate or foreign transport of fighting animals.”
Of course, laws prohibit speeding, drug-dealing and murder, too, but there is a pesky human element just doesn’t pay attention.
Read more about the SPCA's efforts at www.spca.org.
THE 2013 PAMPERED PETS CALENDAR – ALREADY? I thought that the Thanksgiving Day Parade news release from Macy’s last Friday was early – but then yesterday I got a note from Sydney Busch of the Friends of the Animals at Cedar Creek Lake about the organization’s 2013 Pampered Pets Calendar.
(FYI: The 86^th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is scheduled for, as the press release revealed, Thanksgiving morning, Nov. 22.)
So, it may take more to put together this calendar than to organize the parade – I’ll have to check on that.
Sydney writes to animal people, “Would you like your dog or cat to be a part of the fabulous Friends' 2013 calendar? There are spaces left on both the dog and cat pages. Each spot is $45 and you submit your own photo.” To secure a spot or ask questions, e-mail [email protected].
FYI: There may be 2012 calendars left. The calendar is the Friends’ biggest fundraiser each year. Money goes to support the efforts of the Friends of the Animals Spay/Neuter Clinic, the world’s most successful spay/neuter clinic in Gun Barrel City, Texas.
Not sure if anyone from Friends of the Animals has ever been in the Macy’s Parade, but this could be the year – it’s already a strange year.
CONTEMPLATIONS: This is about Davy Jones.
And radio. And TV. And, I guess, the need for a time machine in our lives. On Aug. 16, 1977, my kids and I were in our car leaving the parking lot of the Dallas Aquarium at Fair Park when we heard an obviously stunned disc jockey announced that Elvis had died. Yesterday, I’d just pulled out of the parking lot at BEE (Best Enchiladas Ever) at Zang and Davis in Oak Cliff when, through the car radio (again, the link to the world), I heard that Davy Jones had died.
The news was delivered by a woman who sounded much too young to have seen The Monkees in first-run. People reading this may fall into that category, it occurs to me.
Davy Jones dead? But he’s so young! A wave of memories swirled in my ol’ brain. In the wake of The British Invasion, he was The Monkees’ British heartthrob for the big TV musical burst of 1966.
I was working nights and rarely saw the frenetic show, but I did hear the music – my little brother bought an album and nudged my Beatles albums aside to play it on our “stereo.”
The TV show lasted just two years but you can still hear Davy Jones and bandmates’ music on “oldie” radio stations, maybe even in your own home now and then. Music endures a test of time – when’s the last time you heard a radio station play a song by P.J. Proby (Niki Hoeky), the 1910 Fruitgum Company (Simon Says) or Bob Lind (The Elusive Butterfly of Love)?
But The Monkees they play.
The Monkees were created for television --appropriate for my era of TV dulled brains, I guess. The Beatles were called “The Fab Four” and someone tagged The Monkees the “Prefab Four.”
I do have one other personal memory of these guys – a non-musical memory. It was the middle of August in 1989 when a guy at Dallas City Hall, apparently aware of my significant athletic talents on the media league softball field, got me to pitch for the city in a “celebrity game” against The Monkees, some radio guys and their crews. Mike Nesmith wasn’t touring with The Monkees – ironic, since he is a Dallas kid. But Mickey Dolenz, Peter Tork and Davy Jones suited up for the game.
The only things I can remember for certain about the game are (1) Peter Tork is a natural athlete and hit everything I threw at him, but (2) I walked Mickey Dolenz and Davy Jones. Not out of charity. They both had short strike zones. In my newpaper column I confesse, "I walked a Monkee."
And these three Monkees were nice guys who shook hands with the opponents and made time for the crowd at Samuel-Grand Park that hot afternoon.
Among the people in the stands, my new sweetheart (my current Monkeespouse) Martha. She wasn’t there to see me. “The only fan letter I ever wrote was to Davy Jones,” Martha told me this morning. She was about 6 – a little girl writing to the big star way back when. I’m an old sap and it makes me kind of mist up.
Yep, The Monkees crossed generations. Good manners and upbeat music do that.
Forgive me for getting carried away. I guess that happens to old newshounds who can sing along with 50-year-old songs but can’t remember where they left their glasses.
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