EDITION OF THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2018 [PetPowellPress] Every now and then there’s a story that touches hearts. This one probably got to me because we have an old dog, Annie, the 15-year-old Heeler mix. Wednsday morning I got an intense STACK of email dealing with the same topic: "URGENT SENIOR GOLDEN RETRIEVER IN NEED."
The original request from help had come from the great Steffenie Vela, rock-solid mainstay of the Euless Trinity GAP Rescue.
Many of you reading this probably have an old dog hanging around the house -- an old dog who has been with you so long that you almost can’t remember a time without him or her. This situation will get to you. On a number of levels but mainly in your very soul.
Steffenie’s request outlined a woman’s situation: “She is moving and husband won’t let [the dog] go with them.”
An explanatory note about Lucy said the Golden Retriever is 17, has arthritis in her rear legs, her teeth are worn, her hearing bad. But “she is sweet and has never bit anyone. She just wants to be by your side and be peaceful.”
A number of people became interested in helping Lucy.
Jane Herrick’s note from her office read, “One of our secretaries emailed GRAlliance and they are taking her.”
Accompanying that message was a note from Golden Retriever Rescue Alliance -- GRAlliance -- reporting that “we are already in contact with the owner and plan on bringing this girl into our program.”
A few hours passed on Wednesday and I got in touch with Tricia Phillips with the rescue group. I could almost feel the tears she must have had as she typed this:
“Larry, unfortunately, we just received word from Lucy’s mom that her quality of life is getting bad enough with her arthritis that she is having trouble getting around and eliminating. She has decided to take her tomorrow to be put to sleep. We are very saddened by this. We would have loved to give the old girl all our love for whatever time she had left. We respect her decision, though, knowing it is one of the hardest decisions we have to make as pet owners.”
God bless Lucy and may she run like the wind, wag her tail at the angels and always be the leader of the pack with a loving soul to walk beside.
[LARRY ASIDE: Yeah, I’ve got some tears now, too. Old dogs deserve our tears and the touch of the hands they love comforting them at the end. Old dogs...members of our family, owners of our hearts.
Here’s the link to Golden Retriever Rescue Alliance:
https://grralliance.org. And on Saturday, November 3,
from noon to 2 p.m. you can visit the Golden “meet-n-greet” at the Chic-Fil-A in Hurst, 767 Grapevine Highway, across from the Lowe’s. Some of the dogs will be young, some not so young. The thing about Golden Retrievers is no matter their age, they’re always game for the next event.]
ANOTHER QUICK NOTE
ABOUT THE WILMER PLIGHT
We got a note Wednesday from Laura Macias and Leighann Hayden about the situation in Wilmer, just south of Dallas. We’ve written about the shelter’s pressing population woes before, but never with the tone used in the latest note from the small shelter monitors.
The key sentence reads, “This shelter is unable to do adoptions, so, sadly, if a rescue does not pull, then the dogs have no chance.”
To offer to help Laura save these dogs, call or text her at 214-949-2726 or email [email protected].
These dogs, among the “most urgent” at the little shelter, are Annaliese, a young female mixed pup who enjoys being held; Rocky, a Staffie who used to live with Chihuahua before his life’s path went sour; Braden, a Shepherd mix who was dumped at a “dumping area” and Jaxon, the adorable Mastiff/Bulldog mix who is said to be among the most loveable dogs ever at the shelter.
Good grief, surely there’s someone who can find a place for these fab faces.
THE BIG TEX BOOT CONTEST
I’m not sure you can see the boots on reconstituted 2013 Big Tex clearly enough in this photograph -- I took it during the first State Fair after Big Tex burned to the framework in 2012.
As I wrote upon seeing his first set of post-fire clunky books, I could imagine Big Tex holding out his arms and asking, “Howdy, folks, do these big thick boots make my feet look fat?”
But, we’re in 2018 now and things have changed, including Big Tex’s boots. (These photos of Big Tex's 2018 boots -- fancy ones -- were taken by the Fair's photog David Brown.) On Wednesday, the State Fair Announced that, reading from Fair PR Senior VP Karissa Kondoianis’ news release, “Big Tex got a brand-new pair of custom Lucchese boots for the 2018 State Fair of Texas, and now he just can’t get enough! He wants to sport a fresh, new design next year, too.”
And that is where you, Dear Readers, come in. No matter your age, you can participate in the 2019 Big Tex Boot Design Contest, presented by Lucchese Bootmaker. The news release says, “all you need to do is draw, paint or illustrate your design on the templates provided at https://bigtex.com/designmyboots/ .”
The contest opens November 1 and closes January 31, 2019. That gives Lucchese enough time to get the winning boots good 'n' ready for the 2019 Fair Sept. 27-Oct. 20.
CONTEMPLATIONS
PASTA, BONEHEADS AND AN EASY DALLAS SONG
Holy macaroni, you won’t believe what the special day is for October 25. Allow me to elbow you as you noodle around a bit. Yes! October 25 is World Pasta Day, according to Holiday Insights. Unlike so many “days,” this one has some facts behind it. Holiday Insights says, “World Pasta Day was established as an annual event at the first World Pasta Congress held on October 25, 1995, in Rome, Italy. It is promoted by pasta manufacturers around the world.” We’ve never seen a dog that would turn down pasta, but we have lived with a couple of felines who loved spaghetti -- more appropriately, they were fond of angel hair pasta. Slurped it up like cartoon cats. This guy is Zeus (A1046033), about 4 years old, currently a resident of the Big Dallas Shelter operated by Dallas Animal Services. He, like other animals at DAS, is available for $10 through October 31. Call the shelter at 214-670-6800 or stop by at I-30 and Westmoreland. Get a cat for just $10 and you'll have plenty of money left over for pasta! ...
AROUND TWO DECADES AGO, I went to a meeting of the Dallas Bonehead Club (working on a column for The Big Paper Downtown) in what has become known as the Lorenzo Hotel overlooking I-30 on the southern edge of the heart of downtown Dallas. To my knowledge that may have been the last meeting of the Dallas Bonehead Club. It had been around for decades and decades -- it's 100th anniversary of a charter is in 2020. It was dedicated “to learning more and more about less and less.” For decades, the Dallas Bonehead Club would show up on opening day of the State Fair to conduct a ceremony closing the previous year’s fair. Why? “You can’t open something that’s never been closed,” one of the guys told me. For a long time in a less intense environment, the Boneheads had a public sense of humor -- something you can’t always say about the City of Dallas. So, today, I’m making yet another appeal to find some old Bonehead out there who knows what’s going on with the club today. I feel the need to write a story that says, “We have learned today that the last public sense of humor in Dallas has died, a victim of the times and the personalities and the fear that a good laugh will kill a profitable venture.” We do know, of course, that laughter won’t fill a pothole. Ask the boneheads at city hall. Oops, let a joke slip in.
SO HERE’S AN APPROPRIATE SONG to follow this appeal for knowledge about the Dallas Bonehead Club. Click HERE. https://youtu.be/PNnYS3SOn88 to hear Willie Nelson sing about “a beautiful lady with a Mona Lisa smile” and try not to think it’s satire as you “breeze down the LBJ.” Nobody breezes on LBJ -- not for decades. Might have when Dewey Groom of the Longhorn Ballroom and sax player Don Stovall wrote the song back in the 1960s. That photo is from 1978. Dallas had a sense of humor back then.
--- Offer an opinion or a solution by clicking on “comment” or emailing [email protected]. ---