AN UN-FERAL CAT RESCUED AT SMU; A 22-YEAR-OLD DOG'S FATE; A STOP SIGN AND A COMET

EDITION OF WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2020 [PetPowellPress] Still haven’t seen that comet. But we know people who have. We’ll get to that later on in this edition.… We feel the need to note that Holiday Insights, the online calendar, lists July 22 as Hammock Day and also as Ratcatcher Day. Hammock Day was an idea of one of the creators of Holiday Insights and Ratcatcher Day grew out of the folk tale The Pied Piper of Hamelin. (Surely you read about the Pied Piper when you were in elementary school — read about him while you were relaxing in the backyard hammock. Yeah, we didn't have a hammock , either.)
Yes, that big boy is our formerly bottle-fed baby Simon relaxing on a table — we don’t have a hammock his size and to our knowledge he’s never chased a rat or any member of the rat family. He does follow me sometimes, but I’m not paranoid.

A CAT NAMED MONKEY
GETS A GOOD BREAK…
Here’s a story about a rescue by the Feral Cat Group at SMU, though this baby isn’t really “feral.”
Kim Pierce, my former colleague at The Big Paper in Downtown Dallas, has long been active in cat rescue. That black at under the vehicle is the latest triumph for the Feral Cat Group at SMU.
 Kim describes the rescue as “a team effort, especially involving an engineering student from China and a law school grad, both of whom are among our volunteers.”
 She says that “Yulan, the Chinese student, also got some [photos] of her kenneled. She took all but the one of Monkey in her fosters digs – I took that.” [More photos will be on soon.]
Here’s the short version of the tale. Kim writes, “Strange, starving cat showed up Wednesday night (7-15) at SMU. Through a series of maneuverings (starting with food), we got her into a carrier and off to the vet. She has a skin condition, the starving thing, but otherwise healthy. A total love bug who immediately made herself at home her foster’s. We hadn't thought to check for a chip, but will on her next vet visit. This is somebody's baby. We call her Monkey. 10-12 mos. old, 4 lbs.”

And here is the way this evolved for Monkey and Feral Cat Group at SMU.
Kim writes: “I first spied her Wednesday night – this emaciated Golub-looking thing flying by me that took refuge under a car. I knew she had to be starving, so I grabbed a can of wet food and put it next to the car. Eventually she came out and ate it – with me at a distance.
“I immediately put a temporary feeding station by the spot, guessing she’d come back to the place where she’d found food. Sure enough, we saw evidence she had. One of our volunteers, Yulan, monitored the feeding station as we step- moved it to a safer place for trapping. We were assuming this was a feral that we’d eventually TNR and bring back to campus. On Sunday morning, she proved us wrong.
“I had just moved the station once more, when the engineering student arrived to check things out. I left, and while I was gone, this student coaxed the kitty out from under some golf carts over the new location. Once the cat finished feeding, she hopped up onto the bench where student was sitting and begged to be petted.
“We knew instantly that she was no feral – just a very cautious and hungry cat. One of our other volunteers, a law school grad, corralled her into a carrier, and the rest was, as they say, history.
“If there are donations, I will put them toward her care or, if they exceed her care, I’ll donate to our program: Feral Cat Group at SMU.
“It will be several weeks before she’s ready for adoption – and we will be checking her for a chip (I completely forgot at the vet). Monkey was definitely someone’s beloved pet.”
 Kim also says, “As scraggly as she looks, her darling personality shines through. I am just so glad that whatever she went through did not do more harm!”
To offer to help this cat by giving her a home, you can reach Kim on Facebook or email kpierce1@airmail.net.
AN OLD SOUL
FINDING NEW FRIENDS
Patty Sprong, the Queen Mother of Fosters (how’s that for an admiring royal title?) posted an update about this ol’ dog. [LARRY ASIDE: My apologies for not knowing this dog’s actual name, but I will simply refer to him as “Sir” should I have a conversation.] [HOW ABOUT THIS UPDATE (See Patty's comment below): The dog's name is Chewy. And one of our favorite organizations, forward-thinking Humane Tomorrow, has taken in Chewy! Read Patty's note to see the heart of this rescue.]
On her Facebook page Patty wrote, “My amazing friends stepped into action and are in the process of saving this old soul. I am in awe of my rescue tribe! …
Aw, man, 22 years old and left at the Mesquite shelter. Yes, twenty two! His owner had him for 21 years before being put in a nursing home.”
The small 22-year-old Jack Russel Mix appears to be healthy and mannerly.
[LARRY ASIDE: The people who saved this guy have big hearts. And I hope word gets back to the heart of the human who had to give up this dog and a senior Pom, too. He needs to know the babies are safe. What happened to the Pom? Recycled Poms and Schipperkes stepped up.]
CONTEMPLATIONS
SIGNS & FERALS (STOP), PUMPKINS, A COMET
A few weeks ago I wrote a little note about the stop sign that was at the intersection of Polk at Tarryall in the southernmost Oak Cliff section of Dallas. It had become so faded that it looked more like a suggestion than a traffic law. Over the weekend, I was in the old neighborhood and as I started to exit I was brought to an immediate halt by this brand new stop sign. The other one had faded and leaned for more than a quarter-century. This one has authority! Congratulations to the Southern Hills Neighborhood Association. I like to think that my funspouse Martha and I had some effect on getting feral cats on our block to recognize that the “STOP” sign didn’t restrict its message to drivers — we spayed and neutered a dozen or two feral cats during nearly 3 decades on our street. Big Boy Simon in the opening photo is one of those feral kittens we saved -- he was so helpless, we kept him. … I finished planting my new pumpkin patch Tuesday. Plants emerge in 7 to 14 days and, if all goes well, jack-o-lanterns and Jack-Be-Littles by Halloween. Or we’ll ignore the empty pumpkin patch, put up the Thanksgiving decorations and vow to try again next year. … Now, about the comet, Neowise. We still haven’t seen it. We’ve tried. And we have good vantage points from the Broadcast Hill area of Eastern Fort Worth. Alas, no dice. But on Facebook this week, we got a comet view posted by the great Kathleen Tolbert Ryan (of Tolbert’s Chili Parlor fame
in Grapevine —her dad, Frank X. Tolbert, was a columnist [Tolbert’s Texas] at The Dallas Morning News and an internationally recognized chili expert!) Nice guy and entertaining writer, too. His book A Bowl of Red is the gospel for chili fans. Anyway, Kathleen posted this photo of the comet over the beautiful area of Texas that is so remote that it beckons anybody who wants to be alone for a while. It probably felt crowded with that comet in the neighborhood. Look at that sky. Not a victim of “Metroplexian light pollution.”
—- Offer chili advice or comet wisdom by clicking on ‘comments’ or by emailing dallrp@aol.com with vegetarian chili recipes. —-