EDITION OF WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28, 2017 (PetPowellPress) – Don't get me started with the momma dog giving birth in the dirt....we'll get to that in a minute. June is slipping away like an ice cube on asphalt next to the Grassy Knoll. Before it goes away completely, remind your animal-free friends that they can enhance their lives with some of the June adoption specials in the area. This is why Google was invented – to help people find adoptable friends.
Google the Dallas Animal Services Facebook page or click HERE and you’ll find this announcement made Tuesday afternoon: “Our free adoption promotion will continue through the end of the month! That means cats and dogs like China (A0780771), who are already spayed or neutered, are available to adopt for free, at both locations, through June 30. Share with all your friends who might be thinking about adding a new pet to the family - adoption is the best option!” [LARRY USAGE NOTE: Yes, I'm living in a glass house but the phrase "cats and dogs like China" halted me because (a) there is no cat like China, who is a dog, and (b) it probably should read "cats and dogs, such as China...." It's like saying rappers like Vanilla Ice. There are no rappers like Vanilla Ice. "Like" and "such as" -- like dogs and cats, two different animals, each appropriate when needed. OK, I'm done.]
The page also had this great photo of a big puppy-in-arms.
The caption read, “King (A0999924) is almost 60 pounds at just four months old - he's a bit too big to be picking up already!” This looks sort of like one of those fake photos where a fisherman has pulled in a 500-pound bass and lifted it up for the camera.
[LARRY BIG DOG ASIDE: We had a Great Dane mix – a big ol’ guy named Hambone. He was the dearest of friends for more than a decade – not just to us but to other dogs and cats, too. You cannot go wrong with a big ol’ dawg who loves to be with a human. Also, when you sit on the couch and watch a ballgame and the big dog sits next to you and watches the game and he’s at the same eye-level as you? Why, that’s what two ol’ pals love. You belong to each other.]
You know how to reach DAS – go to dallasanimalservices.org or stop by the shelter at I-30 and Westmoreland. Leave with a friend.
SPEAKING OF DAS: How about all the changes on the website and the lively Facebook reporting. Anyone got a comment? Are the animals better off? More visible? Is the image of animal services improving? Any veteran observers care to comment? Somewhere there should be a statue that honors (a) the animal people who worked to get a new shelter built and (b) that nameless cat that escaped a cage in the shelter and, when left to starve in the shelter wall, started a revolution in animal sheltering for the City of Dallas. God bless that poor cat.
HERE’S A CAT TIP
This artwork, spotted by our Barkleyworld.com pal Karen Lee, is being distributed by Mary Sullivan who has Phinney in foster care until the sweet cat finds a home.
MEANWHILE, IN BURNS FLAT:
SOMEONE IS HELPING PIXIE
Well, goodness, our resilient Burns Flat, Okla., contact, the animal advocate and protector Terry Lynn Fisher, is working with an old dog in a bad spot. She started last week, then actually went to visit the person with the dog. “It is heartbreaking... She is actually 13 and belongs to an 80-year-old woman,” Terry Lynn writes.
The dog’s name is Pixie. And here comes the part that might inspire some misting up. “She got her as a 5-week-old baby. This tumor started last year, but she didn't have the funds to have it removed. When the hole showed up in it, she got worried and went to the bank to try and get a loan. She owns her home but it is in bad shape so the bank wouldn't use it for collateral. They gave her my number.”
Terry Lynn visited the woman. “I cried. This dog loves this woman and I will be honest: This dog is probably why this woman is still alive. She has lost everyone in her life -- either to drugs, cancer, or a car wreck. She is totally alone. And this baby is all she has.
“So I will have her vetted and help her as much as I can. Surgery is scheduled for next Friday. Doc will remove the tumor at that time. It is HUGE -- when she walks, it drags the ground. She is a sweetheart.”
Terry Lynn says the woman who loves Pixie has inspired her family. “My sons went and mowed and cleaned up her yard. I am going over Saturday to do some deep cleaning at her home. I took some dog food and people food there as well. She gets by OK. Just having some hard times right now. Her car broke down and a guy fixed it and that cost her a lot this past month.
“So... I am asking if anyone can help with this, please know this woman is so grateful. She went to the vet with me because she thought she would lose her baby girl. She cried all the way there. The look in her eyes when Doc said he could remove it was priceless.
“I am not sure why God brings these cases my way, but when He does, I feel I have to do what I can to help.”
Get in touch with Terry Lynn at [email protected]. The vet is at Elk Creek Clinic, 1301 Airport Industrial, Elk City, Ok 73655. Call 580-225-4863 and ask about Terry Lynn’s mission with animals and this girl Pixie.
CONTEMPLATION:
WHAT ANIMALS GO THROUGH
Is that not one of the saddest dog photos ever? Keep reading and looking.
Another seizure for the SPCA in East Texas: On Tuesday, the SPCA of Texas teamed with the Rusk County Sheriff’s Office to seize “46 allegedly cruelly treated animals from a property near Henderson, in Rusk County. The animals consist of 28 dogs, nine kittens, six puppies, two cats and one turtle (a red-eared slider). Investigators also found multiple remains of deceased dogs, but the remains were too decomposed to move.”
The custody hearing is at 2 p.m. Thursday, July 6, in the Court of Precinct 4 Peace Justice Darlene Childress, 7933 State Highway 42 South, in Henderson. The SPCA’s Animal Rescue Center (“Empowered by PetSmart Charities Emergency Relief) is caring for these poor dogs and cats and the turtle.
If you are an animal lover, please try to control your emotions as you read this description from the SPCA news release: “All but one of the dogs were found outside, chained to metal bars which had been sunk into the ground as well as trees and other objects, without access to appropriate food or water. One dog and all of the cats were found living in the RV-type living quarters on the property, cruelly confined, forced to live in their own feces and debris, without access to appropriate food or water. The turtle was found in a small blue plastic pool outside the residence without access to appropriate food or water. The animals appear to have varying health issues, including malnourishment, hair loss, long nails, eye discharge and flea infestation. One dog had an extremely large growth on one leg. The chains used to restrain the dogs had rubbed the dogs' necks raw and Investigators had to use bolt cutters to free the dogs.”
So, watch this video and you’ll get the lay of this place and see what the animals were up against.
See how to support the rescue efforts of the SPCA HERE. See the photos of this rescue HERE .
And remember: It’s up to the good people to defeat the bad people.
Only a bad person would force a momma dog to give birth to puppies and create a “nest in the dirt” to try to help them survive what she is enduring. She looks as if she has been crying.
The legal case may just end with the custody hearing. You never know. Now and then, though, it would be good to see a cell so deep you actually could throw somebody into it and they'd have to pipe in sunlight.
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