Mange, lost, adoptable -- an array of animal situations and a special Earl dog...

EDITION OF MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2016 (PetPowellPress)  Watching a Harper Lee tribute on TV over the weekend, Readlarrypowell.com realized that though she wrote “the great American novel,” the TV tribute was made of up scenes from the Gregory Peck film version of To Kill a Mockingbird.
The irony aside (and it is the age of pictures -- kind of a Stone Age approach to things nowadays), here’s today’s report.

NEEDLESS MANGE

That’s a headline you could call “redundant.” It goes without saying that mange is needless.

Patty Turner, who monitors things in the Garland Animal Shelter, sent his collage and wrote, “I am calling him Prince.  He deserves a chance. He is sweet and is either an older pup or a young adult.  We need to get him out!! He is such a doll. He is approximately 30 pounds. He allowed me to stick my fingers in his mouth and I could only see his canines which were white and adult size, but I couldn't see his molars.”
You can click on the photo and it’ll blow up big enough for you to see that the number to call is Garland Animal services at 972-205-3570.
[READLARRYPOWELL.COM ASIDE: We’re officially against mange -- it is not a disease of animals, it is a disease of people. What people do is the reason dogs suffer from mange. Again, perhaps this is a good time to lobby the Texas Legislature for passage of the law that will permit either open or concealed carry of the Two-by-Four of Enlightenment.]
BE ON THE LOOKOUT

Here’s a missing Mastiff, missing from a home in the University Terrace area of Lakewood since February 18.
The email reads, “Our sweet dog, Kodiak Bear, managed to unlatch the gate and get out of the yard yesterday [2/18/16] around 4 p.m. and there has been no trace of him. He's nine, incredibly lazy and has never gotten out once. Missing from the University Terrace area of Lakewood ... Please, DFW area friends, share this and maybe someone has seen him! He's an English Mastiff, blonde with black face and around 150 pounds. He's chipped.”
Call or text 512-771-1644.

LIVING UP TO ‘CUTE’
You get an email with “CUTE, CUTE, CUTE” in the subject line you sort of hope the dog, cat or kid in the email lives up to the billing. 
In this case you’ve got agree that the dog does. 

This note from Debra Chisholm about Mesquite Animal Shelter dogs says Audrey is “listed as a Schipperke mix”. She may be 4 or 65 years old and weighs just 18 pounds. She’s shy, made uneasy by the shelter noise. The description says, “She is cautiously friendly. Audrey does have a hidden talent. She is willing to dance for a treat! This girl has so much potential and would doubtless blossom in a warm and caring home.”
And that cute black and white dog is 21-pound, maybe 9-month-old Shelby, a Lab/Blue Heeler Mix who is well-mannered. 
To ask about any dog in the Mesquite shelter, email [email protected]. Call 972-216-6283. Lots of cuteness in Mesquite beyond those cowboys and barrel-racers at the rodeo.
THE SIAMESE CONNECTION

Scrolling through the cat population on the Dallas Animal Services website we discovered a Siamese and a near-Siamese.
Casper (#A929164) is the neutered Chocolate Point Siamese, maybe 5 and a resident of the shelter since Saturday.
Choco is a described as a “spayed female, Chocolate Point and White Siamese Mix. About 4, the shelter thinks. Choco (#A925547) has, according to the DAS website, been in the shelter since Sunday. 
So, we have two weekend arrivals ready for departure in the hands of a rescue group or a happy adopter. Call DAS  at 214-670-8246. The Dallas Animal Shelter and Adoption Center is at I-30 west and Westmoreland. You might also find a critter to adopt at  the Every Day Adoption Center at PetSmart, the DAS animal outlet at the PetSmart at 16832 N. Coit. That is so far north in Dallas that you almost are close enough to Oklahoma to hear the slots ringing at WinStar.


CONTEMPLATION -- This has to do with a found dog. Texas Earl the Cheeseman, a purebred Rottie I found in Kiest Park years ago.
We live on a hill. Across the alley from our back fence and down the hill about 25 or 30 feet there is a yard in which a few kids -- early elementary school years -- play on weekends and afternoons. 
Our Rottie Earl runs to the back fence each time we let him out to see if the children are there playing. He will sit and watch them, without barking, for as long as they are there. 

So, to the rotten SOB who must have had kids and still dumped Earl in Kiest Park in 2007, I hope someday your heart hurts like his has heart for years, yearning for  the kids who were once his kids, kids he would still recognize, kids he misses every time he hears children at play. They once played with him. I do the best I can to be childlike, but Earl is kind and lets me pet his velvet head and talk sweetly to him and doesn’t mention that I’m beyond my grade school years.
This is a photo from about three years ago with Earl asleep in one of our old chairs. My theory is he suggested that Porche, who is about a third as big as he is, flop down on top of him and pretend to be a six-year-old child who loves his dog. Porche, of course, loves Earl and was happy to play along until meal time and then she doesn’t share with any kid in the cafeteria.
People sure need to learn to respect the emotions that inhabit the hearts of the animals in this world. The human heart -- it’s tough to figure. We’ve got more problems in humanity than all the other species put together, except maybe politicians, a whole ‘nother species around the world.
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