EDITION OF MONDAY, NOV. 18, 2019 [PetPowellPress] Do like Lovely the Dog and get your ears up and ready for this sentiment. Welcome to a Monday in a week full of promise. 
Thanksgiving is 10 days away and we'll offer up a few things to be thankful for this year beyond demonstrative Earhounds.
First, we have a robust democracy that allows for peaceful but mouthy conflict. Then, I won Lotto Texas Saturday night -- oh, wait. Scratch that one off the list again.
Look, here's a genuine thought of thankfulness: In your free time, take a look at the assorted Facebook pages of rescue groups and marvel at what you see. Ask yourself, "What happened to these animals before social media existed and the only hope they had was a desperate phone call made at the right moment to the right number?"
One shot at safety. But not anymore. Animals get more attention online than they ever did in print. Yeah, be thankful for the forward-thinking animal advocates who created websites and Facebook pages to bolster interest in helping animals.
We've mentioned Lovely before, thanks to Amy Poskey, the Denton 
McNatt Animal Shelter volunteer monitor. Sunday she sent this note: "This beautiful girl with the sky high, adorable ears is still waiting for love. So, please read below, take another look at Lovely, and consider giving her a chance. She’s young, she’s beautiful, and she just needs someone to believe in her cuz she is willing to learn!"
In these photos the Earhound demonstrates that she can listen intently whether standing or sitting. Lovely is the young German Shepherd mix who is really so human, having been "adopted and returned several times because she is mouthy, energetic, and needs training." [LARRY ASIDE: Geez, that would be like having another kid around the house!]
Lovely's number is ID 85027. Call the shelter at 940-349-7594. Email [email protected], [email protected], and/or [email protected]. Here's Lovely's PetFinder LISTING.
And, as long as we're discussing "returned" dogs, Amy also tips us about Chip, who was adopted from the Denton shelter on July 30, but returned on Oct. 25 because his adoptor couldn't afford the medical bills. (Use the Lovely contacts.) Chip is 5-to-8-years old and weighs 9.9 pounds. He's a "little sweetie pie," Amy writes. He's also in need of special care because, her note says, "he most likely has some sort of chronic URI/bronchitis/asthma." She also says, "Chip just needs a calm, loving home with limited activity and excitement in order to manage respiratory flare ups and coughing spells." Bless his little Chihuahuaness.
THIS DOG WAS A STRAY!
HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?
Sorry, I got carried away with my emotional faith in Border Collie-type dogs. I just don't know how humans let their dogs "go stray."
I'm using two photos. One shows the total cuteness of Freckles, a too-thin 36-pound girl Mesquite Animal Services labels as a Border Collie/Lab mix. The second photo shows Freckles doing what Border Collies do: stare at the human and wait for orders. Labs and Border Collies both know what they are supposed to do/what they 
WANT to do -- make their humans feel good. Labs are content to lounge. Border Collies expect extra jobs -- monitor the visitors, herd the cats, check the perimeter.
Freckles came into the shelter on Nov. 13. Our reliable source, the Mesquite volunteer biographer Judi Brown says, "She’s an attractive young pup with beautiful markings and a handful of freckles across her nose. She’s got the attributes of a young puppy. She’s friendly, outgoing, rambunctious, happy, curious, and easy going! She 
loves life and everybody that she interacts with. She gives kisses and her tail wags constantly." Use her ID 43218498 when you call the shelter at 972–216–6283 or email [email protected].
See more Mesquite animals needing homes at THIS WEBSITE.
You can adopt cats with masks -- on the left is Kitty Kitty (42187339) with her pirate eyepatch and on the right is Lucy (42934271) with her Lone Ranger mask.
CONTEMPLATION
A PERSONAL NOTE ABOUT
THE FORT WORTH PRESS
AND JOURNALIST JACK MOSELEY
My longtime newsroom companion Bob Trimble tipped me Sunday morning to the fact that Fort 
Worth Star-Telegram columnist Bud Kennedy, our former colleague at both The Fort Worth Press and The Dallas Morning News, had written of the death on Friday of Jack Moseley. That photo is of Jack in 1963 -- yes, during the JFK Assassination coverage. By 1975, Jack was the managing editor -- the LAST managing editor -- of The Fort Worth Press. He was in that position when the gritty, entertaining, journalistically sound, 53-year-old Scripps-Howard tabloid went out of business on May 30, 1975. He immediately took a job in northwest Arkansas as the executive editor of the Fort Smith Times-Record and began to build up respect and friendships and he still came back to Fort Worth now and then to check on his ol' pals and the city.
[LARRY ASIDE: When The Press closed, a Star-Telegram executive was said to have declared, "I don't want anything from The Press except Peanuts." We'd had the popular comic strip forever -- not sure The Current Star-Telegram runs the vintage Peanuts strip like so many papers still do. I'm guessing they're not going to print Peanuts on Saturdays, since they're dropping the Saturday print edition. A lot of us ex-Pressers caught on at The Dallas Morning News and forgot all about the Star-Telegram except when the DMN would scoop it -- a not uncommon occurrence. One more thing, when The Star-Telegram was sold in the early '70s, my pal, fellow reporter Terry Kelly, and I scooped the Startlegram on its own sale by the hometown owners to an East Coast media conglomerate. We got the story -- with a curbside interview with Amon Carter Jr., the owner, as police search his building -- in our PM edition while the opposition's PM edition was delayed by a bomb threat from someone unhappy with the sale. Ah, competitive NEWSPAPER journalism, where art thou? That's The Press building at 5th and Jones -- it's still there, but it has been air-conditioned and, no doubt, the plumbing has been repaired -- the city once shut down the newsroom bathrooms until the plumbing was repaired.]
Back to Jack: As you'll read in the official obit in Fort Smith's paper HERE, Jack "is believed to be the last journalist to have direct contact with [President John] Kennedy before his death." JFK had been in Fort Worth before going to Dallas. Elsewhere you may read that Jack served as a "drafted" pallbearer for Lee Harvey Oswald -- journalists stood in because there were no "friends or relatives." Here's a LINK to Jack's recollection and the last scene will grab you. Jack, the reporter, did much more than that one story in his career.
Still, I could not help but smile when I saw that the Fort Smith memorial service for Jack would be on a significant date in his career -- 2 p.m. Friday, Nov. 22, 2019. And, on a personal note, Jack, as I recall, enjoyed the rivalry between Fort Worth and Dallas and once, when I was discussing the assassination coverage with him, sly Jack smiled and pointed out, "Well, all I can say is he was OK when he left Fort Worth." Newsroom humor -- it's a coping mechanism.
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