EDITION OF FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2019 [PetPowellPress] Exciting day in the household. Our granddaughter Hannah
Rose graduates from high school Friday. Class of 2019. Already! She was just a baby about 20 minutes ago.
We’re just a little bit proud of her, he typed in an understated fashion. She has artistic tendencies and loves animals. Hannah obviously carries the family’s traditional not-for-profit gene or the term “artistic tendencies” would not appear on her resume. This is one of my favorite artsy photos she took of herself. It’s so ‘50s movie star and, yet, she’s the first member of our family born in the 21st century. OK, if she were here in the office she’d tell me I’d typed enough about her and to get on with dogs and cats and the people who help them. I will after I type “Happy Graduation, Hannah Rose!
AFTER THE STORM
Paper towels, 35-gal. trash bags, donations. Those are the answers. Read on.
We heard a TV reporter say that Wednesday’s tornado was headed toward Gun
Barrel City so, immediately, we started to fret about the Friends of the Animals at Cedar Creek Lake Spay/Neuter Clinic right there in GBC. We checked with Sydney Busch, reliable voice of the Friends. No damage. The clinic will, as usual, be open for business on Tuesday — that’s traditionally the day the Friends of the Animals operate the world’s most successful spay/neuter clinic at Gun Barrel City.
The thing is, there are some supplies they can use and people in the Metrosprawl have access to them and can donate: Money, paper towels and 35-gal. trash bags. How-to details are at friendsoftheanimals.com.
[LARRY ASIDE: In the meantime, we’ve had a couple of readers ask if the storm affected Dog Alley or whatever the animal sales portion of First Monday is called at Canton these days. Anybody know? Remember, save the animals — they’re not product, they’re beings.]
HOLY SMOKE: SMALL SHELTERS FACING
LARGE, NON-CLAIMED POPULATIONS
This segment is dedicated to two smaller shelters, and the next item will be dedicated to Mesquite Animal Services. Read on.
LANCASTER SHELTER ‘ABSOLUTE EMERGENCY’
This is a situation, we’re told, that has developed after some disagreements over city politics in Lancaster, on the southern edge of Dallas. As you know, readlarrypowell.com puts saving animals’ lives ahead of politics.
We’ve
frequently written about the dedication of volunteers to the city’s shelter occupants, but, that’s a situation being worked out currently, we’re told by a participant. In the meantime, while the people discuss solving their human problems, the animals await the needle. [LARRY NOTE: Rather than making anyone look bad, we’d rather help everyone live up to being heroes for the animals — city officials, volunteers, veteran rescuers, etc. Seems so easy to achieve, doesn’t it?]
Our small shelter movement tipsters Leighann Hayden and Laura Macias outlined what was
described as an “absolute emergency” at the Lancaster Animal Shelter. Full shelter, dogs doubled up in kennels, according to the note. Nobody’s adopting, nobody’s rescuing, euthanasia is “pending.”
The small shelter supporters say transportation “can be arranged for any 501c3 rescue.” To help save animals, call or text 214-949-2726 or email cat_girl_71@yahoo.com.
That first Lancaster dog is Valerie, also known as Val, a Boston Terrier mix who “could be euth’d at any time and probably in the next day or two,” the appeal says. She’s
obviously cute.
Then there’s 5- to 7-months-old Cocoa, described as “dainty and petite and ust precious….She’s been at the shelter over a month….” Same “any time” threat for her.
The last dog is one of four similar dogs who came in from the same home at the same time. and “are all incredibly urgent.” That is the Flat Coat Retriever Brittany, who arrive with Flat Coat Retriever Bradley and two shepherd mixes, Bethany and Brandon.
WILMER/DALLASCOUNTY/HUTCHINS
PRESSURE IN THE SHELTERS
The small shelter folks say these low-traffic shelters along I-45 south of Dallas also have more dogs than they need and
an aching shortage of adopters and rescuers — zilch, actually.
The appeal reads, “We are begging ... OUT OF TIME - CONTACT IMMEDIATELY - WE BEGGED FOR A ONE or TWO DAY DELAY IN EUTH TO BE ABLE TO POST - PLEASE, PLEASE HELP!”
Again, the contact points are these: Call or text 214-949-2726 or email cat_girl_71@yahoo.com
.
The dogs include these two bonded dogs, Teddy and Tristan. The appeal reads, “We
have posted Teddy & Tristan before - there was not a single inquiry ... THIS IS THEIR LAST CHANCE — please, please help them ... they are absolutely the best of the best - most wonderful sweet and loving dogs .... HELP!!!!!!!!!”
[LARRY ASIDE: There’s a horrible feeling in the heart of rescuers when you know there are animals that could be saved, that should be saved, but there’s nobody reacting, there’s nobody who has room in their home because they’ve already rescued the rational limit. We have got to figure out some way to reach the Don’t Care and the So What faction of freeroaming idiots. Possibly I should not call them idiots. But I couldn’t think of another word I could print. Spay and neuter, you know?]
MEANWHILE IN MESQUITE
The word from the Mesquite Animal Shelter was that it opened for business Thursday at, according an appeal sent to us, “100% capacity for dogs and have intakes continuously coming in. We will have to make room today. Please help.”
Same challenge as the small shelters can be faced by the larger shelters. And, as you know, Dear Readers, Mesquite hustles to keep the animal population moving into rescues and homes.
Here are two links for seeing the Mesquite animals: The MAS Rescue Network HERE and the one we use most of the time is the City of Mesquite online site HERE.
Our usual tipster, the volunteer shelter biographer Judi Brown, sent us notes about little dogs needing help.
Reina is a 6-month-old Earhound/Chihuahua mix who was among the more than 30 little 'huahuas surrendered to the shelter a week
or so ago. Reina is believed to be the daughter of the other dog pictured here, Cherry.
Reina (41748755) is timid at the shelter, until she feels warm around you and then, Judi says, “she snuggles in your neck and grabs onto you for security. Also, when I got onto the floor he would come to me and get on my lap.” Reina weighs EIGHT pounds — perfect lapdog size.
Her Mom, Cherry, (41748734), weighs 15 pounds at 3 years old. She’s named after the “cherry eye” condition she came into the shelter with. Judi writes, “Her right eye is a cherry eye. She has also been overbred. No wonder she appears depressed!”
There is this, however, “She tended to want to go off in the corner and hide in the volunteer room. However, if I sat on the floor she would come to me and
get in my lap.”
To ask about any of the Mesquite dogs or cats, call the shelter at 972-216-6283 or email rescues@cityofmequite. com.
Cats? Yep, among the many kittens and youngsters, there is a six-year-old Tabby (#41153382) who is known as Lucky. How can a cat in a shelter live up to the name Lucky without the help of a human being? This Lucky’s large and he’s in the cat room and he can be yours for $35. Thirty-five lousy bucks and you can save his life.
AND ONE SWEET NOTE
FROM FORT WORTH’S SHELTER
Our longtime tipster, the great Ginger Leach of Fort Worth Animal Care & Control, wrote this one Thursday and started it with a fantastic declaration: “I AM IN LOVE!!!!!!
“Prince 41763265 Senior Min Pin (around 12 years) neutered, heartworm negative, only 10 lbs but does have a horrible mouthful of yucky teeth and lots of tarter. This boy is a sweetheart and loves people. He has been a perfect gentleman.”
Want to tag Mr. Loveable for rescue? Email fwacctag@fortworthtexas.gov. He’s at the Fort Worth Animal Care and Control/Chuck Silcox Adoption Center, 4900 Martin Street, Fort Worth 76119. That’s on the east side of Cowtown.
CONTEMPLATIONS
GRADUATES AND LIVING THEIR LIVES
Long lives — ever think about them? Today is the 93rd anniversary of the birth of my
mother. She was born in 1926. What was that before? It was before Charles Lindbergh flew solo across the Atlantic. It was before network television or ANY television (1927, Philo Farnsworth). It was before the Great Depression devastated everybody equally — well, just about equally. It was before World War II. Before
the atomic bomb. Before polio vaccinations. It was before Bing Crosby was a hit and before Frank Sinatra on radio, Elvis Presley and The Beatles on TV, Michael Jackson on records, tape, CDs, etc. Before Rosa Parks kept her seat on a bus in Montgomery in 1955. Before man landed on the moon in 1969. Before the sadness of JFK, Martin Luther King. Bobby, John Lennon. … It was before so many things — but she had a personal computer and a cellphone and a car with an automatic transmission and air-conditioning — like her home (after 1968!). She arrived before TV dinners. electric toasters, microwave ovens. She saw peace treaties that didn’t last and some that did. She was 10 years old when Gone With the Wind was published in
1936, the year of the Texas Centennial, and she read and love Charlotte’s Web — published in 1952, it was the last book I gave her — that was in 2018 when she was happily catching up on her reading. … Well, we’ll stop there and stipulate that Mom witnessed a lot in 92 years 9 1/2 months. So, here came February 12, 2019, and that was it for “before” in her life. Everything now is “after.” And elements of mankind are trying to go BACK to the moon, trying to bring peace to the planet
while making war, trying to invent new cars that’ll run without having to drill for oil…If you’re graduating from high school today, remember to pay attention to the world around you. It’ll be entertaining, startling, comforting, terrifying and really educational. To quote someone else that Mom saw in her lifetime, we offer this advice to all graduates courtesy of Mr. Spock, “Live long and prosper.”
—- Offer opinions, opposing views or viable stock tips by clicking on “comment” below or emailing dallrp@aol.com. —-