EDITION OF MONDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2016 (PetPowellPress) Whoa. Here it is the morning after the Super Bowl and the day before Fat Tuesday, the last day of the Mardi Gras celebration.
As luck would have it, we have photos to illustrate both events.
Obviously, that fellow Bradley, the Catahoula Leopard Dog/Boxer mix, has been celebrating Mardi Gras. You don’t get those beads just for being a shy, standoffish individual. Bradley’s among the adoptables with the Trinity Gap Rescue Club’s Euless Animal Shelter efforts. And so is that bob-tailed black and white cat, Bobbi.
We’re using Bobbi to represent the panthers that stalk the world, in this case, he’s a symbol of the Carolina Panthers, participants in the Super Bowl 50.
That “spotted jenny?” That is Puddin, 16, who was chosen to represent the Denver Broncos, the other team that appeared in Super Bowl 50. Puddin is at the SPCA of Texas Russell Perry facility in McKinney and is "a shy girl but will occasionally come up to you for treats
and scratches. She has been previously kept with only with other donkeys. We think she would make a lovely companion animal for a lonely horse or donkey.” [LARRY ASIDE: Frankly, likes treats and scratches and makes a lovely companion for a horse or donkey? Why isn’t this girl in politics? Well, back to animals.]
Oh, one more thing. Darby from Operation Kindness played in Puppy Bowl XII Sunday and scored the first touchdown.
You can probably catch highlights on Animal Planet’s sports news -- FYI, Darby also was flagged for “illegal use of paws.”
THE CAT CHALLENGE IN THE EULESS AREA AND BEYOND
First, congratulations to anyone who is helping to save the lives of cats -- feral, abandoned, surrendered or littered. (Is that a proper expression -- Failure to spay and/or neuter resulted in kittens being littered.)
[LARRY SOAPBOX MOMENT: What is wrong with people? Do they think cat lives are insignificant? Idiots. For weeks we’ve been monitoring the legendary Celia Orr’s efforts in a coordinated rescue a load of cats from an abandoned Garland residence. It takes a village to save load of cats. Be nice if charges could be brought... Fat chance, I’m suspecting. There also was a note about a pest control company catching not just wildlife but these cats and leaving them unattended in traps for days. Something else that needs to change if we’re really going to be a responsibly, kind world. OK, off the soapbox and back to Euless.]
Karen Lee, the hard-working, ardent supporter of the Trinity GAP Club Rescue and founder of Barkleyworld.com, sent a note about an effort to “save the displaced stray and feral cats in an area of Euless that is a huge dumping ground.” It also is an apartment demolition site where “many cats, tame and feral” have been left homeless.
Barkleyworld, Trinity GAP Mid-Cities Community Cats and “many compassionate individuals are all working together” to save these animals.
Readlarrypowell.com is publishing photos of just a few of them and you can see more of them at http://trinitygaprescue.org/
Karen’s note also reads, “All of these cats were abandoned and left to fend for themselves in a very harsh environment. Some have physical disabilities as a result of their efforts to survive, but the cats posted here are healthy kitties thanks to some very compassionate and loving foster families. All of these cats are spayed/neutered and vaccinated. “
Bobbi, the bob-tailed black-and-white-- yep, name from tail -- cat was once a human’s cat. Karen’s report reads, “Bobbi's elderly owner put her outside when she could not take care of her anymore. The residents of the retirement home are forbidden to feed outdoor kitties. So, Bobbi wandered into the service department of a car dealership in Hurst, where she stayed until an employee found a foster for her.” Bobbi needs an indoor home. TIME OUT: This just in. If you didn't adopt Bobbi, you missed her. Someone beat your to that beauty. There are plenty left!
Now, Chris (left) is a social cat who walks with a lim, though, his caregiver’s note reads, “It does not stop him from jumping up on the washer/dryer so I think the limp weighs more on my heart than it hinders him in anyway. Most likely being dumped outside, ending up on a car lot, he is lucky that a limp is his only battle wound.”
Then there’s 8-month old female tortie Ember Briquette, named because her coloring reminded her foster of “a burning charcoal briquette that is dark on the outside but just beneath the surface you see glowing yellows, soft oranges and a little white.” (For those three, email sandypatterson1980@yahoo.com.
And there’s Stumpy, a social cat who was loungin in the yard when a “feral cat wandered into our neighborhood and fought him and scratched up his beautiful nose and a small place on his foot and tail.”
Why is he called Stumpy? Name comes from his tail. (Email sklouth@yahoo.com.)
LIBERTY IN CUSTODY IN DENTON
This is a 10-year-old dog, now named “Liberty,” (#61364) who was “found on Liberty Road in Denton County,” according to a Sunday evening note from the Denton shelter’s constant promoter of adoptables, Amy Poskey.
She wrote, “I just had to get the word out early for this precious senior boy if he isn’t reclaimed before his available date of Thursday, 2/11. He’s breaking my heart.” Liberty weighs 53 pounds, has been given some shot, but not been seen by a vet yet. To ask about helping him, email any of these addresses or call the shelter at 940-349-7594.
CONTEMPLATIONS: An email arrived Sunday afternoon with an improbably subject line: “Blind a bear with this 2000 lumen military inspired tactical flashlight.” Now, that is not a mission that comes up frequently in our neighborhood. We’ve had skunks, possums, raccoons, cats, dogs, birds of prey, rats as big as elk but we’ve had no bears or deer or moose or exotic cats -- nothing that would draw a gun-toting doofus who wants to helps conserve a species by killings its largest, longest-lived members. I’m sure I misinterpret their endeavors. Also, I’ve not been around a lot of bears, but I’m thinking if I’m ever in a situation at night where it’s me with a flashlight vs. a bear, I need to use that flashlight to illuminate my escape route. Even blinded by the light, a bear probably has a pretty good nose for dinner. ... Coincidentally, here’s a Truman Capote quote that arrived in our inbox Sunday. I was going to suggest it was perfect for the team that didn’t win the Super Bowl until I saw that blind bear/flashlight subject line. Now I think it goes perfectly with the story of a bear who had a bottle of ketchup and outran a guy with a flashlight in one hand and an empty rifle in the other: “Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.”
--- To comment, grab your 2000 lumen flashlight, find your GrowlingBearMouse and click below. ---
