EDITION OF DECEMBER 31, 2020 [PetPowellPress] Imagine that! The last dateline for 2020. Let me call a “time out” to remind people to protect your animals from the sounds and sights 
of fireworks. Some knuckleheads won’t, but they weren't reading this, anyway. As my dear friend, a devoted name-not-disclosed churchworker says of such unkind people, “There’s a special place for you.”
Now, about the year 2020: I get the feeling that a bruised and battered year is running alongside our time-travelin’ bus and crying out to us all, “IT’S NOT MY FAULT! BLAME THE HUMANS!” Somebody sloppily tinkered with a virus; other people made election year an unpleasant experience. So, maybe, I think the poor year is right and the refs oughta send 2020 to the “blue tent for concussion protocol.” Not sure how we’ll exit 2020 on a 100 percent upbeat note in this edition, but we’ll give it a shot.
AN OPPORTUNITY TO BE UPBEAT
AS WE BRING 2020 TO A WEARY CLOSE
OK, good hearts. Gail Whelan at Companion Animal Network, headquartered in a mostly 
rural East Texas county, is trying to get in one more good rescue before the calendar turns over to 2021. She writes, “Someone contacted me about this dog. He was found a few days ago and the people who found him WILL NOT foster. There are no shelters out here so he will be turned out in the woods or worse.
“He is still a pup, maybe 6 months old, is all I know. Trying to get him to a vet for basic exam and shots.” Email Gail at can.adoptions@yahoo.com to tell her you can help this young dog as 2020 draws to a close. It’ll be a good thing to do. [LARRY ASIDE: If someone beats you to this dog, ask Gail what else she’s got waiting for help! It’s not like there’s an off-switch on the idiots who put animals at peril. Such a switch would be an “upbeat invention” for 2020 or any year!]
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LARRY CONFESSION: I need to spend about a week killing out emails I’ve gotten since about a month before election day and in the ensuing weeks and days. If I were going to finish this confession with an upbeat note, I’d have started it with “You won’t believe all the crap I got in my inbox from both sides in this election!” I’m an old-school journalist — be fair and accurate in reporting. Let the unvarnished truth speak for itself. If you think you want to respond to this assertion, ask yourself, “Do I really want to confess how I spent 2021 typing ugly notes in the middle of a Pandemic?”
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MONITOR YOUR CITY’S
ANIMAL SHELTER/SHELTERS
Remember, the New Year arrives on Friday and shelters may be closed — check the websites if you suddenly decide you want to adopt a dog or cat on New Year’s Day. Might have better luck on New Year’s Eve — google your shelter and check the inventory and the hours.
We’ve selected this dog from the Facebook page of Dallas Animal Services and Adoption Center to illustrate the concept of being adorable for the New Year. Who is he? He is Peter Potamus (#A1111885). Ask about him at dallasanimalservices.org.
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LARRY CONFESSION: One of the emails I’m going to enjoy deleting has this subject line: “Eat these to shave pounds off your stomach…These 11 desserts actually melt fat off your body.” I’ve been dieting for decades. The word “dessert” is NEVER used in connection with a successful diet. Never. Unless someone has come up with Kale Surprise Pudding or “Crunchy Peppermint Onion Petals.”
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‘PASSENGER #1 CHLOE,’
BEGAN THE STORY…
My young friend of more than a half-century Bobbie Malsh of Shreveport posted this photo on Wednesday. (You may recall the Let Sleeping Dogs Lie & Napping Cats Nap feature we did on Bobbie and her dogs and hubby Jim in mid-September. She’s a volunteer with the non-profit animal-movers, Louisiana Transport.) I found this photograph from Bobbie to be wonderfully upbeat for the ebbing of 2020. The explanation of the photo? “Passenger #1 Chloe to Arkadelphia today.” Bobbie says Chloe’s whole trip was from New Iberia, La., to Dover, Ark. Yes, when a good heart is taking a good dog to a good place — that’s an upbeat event! Looks like a dog who’d be cheerful over being adored.
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LARRY CONFESSION: I got an e-mail titled “Winter Driving Tips and Road Conditions” aimed at potential wintry conditions in the Metrorink. In all the years I’ve lived in this area, I’ve had two wrecks — 40 years apart — both in sunny, dry weather, both with uninsured motorists. So, my assertion is it doesn’t matter what kind of weather we have, someone’s always a lousy, inattentive, don’t-care driver on the highways of North Texas.
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KEEPING UP
WITH THE TRAVELERS
Legendary Foster Mom Patty Sprong posted this photo and wrote, “This is the little girl I transported a while back. She got her nasty teeth cleaned and is now ready for adoption through Oak Hill Animal Rescue.” (You can see this healthy, adorable girl Daisy and other Oak Hill adoptables by clicking HERE). I’d say it’s pretty upbeat at the end of a year to learn that an animal you helped is now in a position of being adopted into a wonderful home that’ll love her so much that she’ll be totally excited to be loving 'em back!
A CAT’S PHILOSOPHY
OF LIFE CHANGES
We spotted this photograph on David Maldonado’s Facebook page as we were looking for upbeat notes to end the year. David is a Dallas Street Dog Advocates vice president and Lifesaving Initiatives Coordinator at the SPCA of Texas. We’re not sure where this cat is right now, but the message was upbeat. Readlarrypowell.com is friends with many cats and a few of them are formerly feral kittens. You can tell the difference. If a kitten's feral, reactions are employed before thought processes. But that can change.
David posted this photo of the cat cuddled by a human and this explanatory text: “When the shelter feral cat decides he no longer wants to be a feral.” Can I get some upbeat “amens” for the end of 2020. Save the ferals; love the ferals; spay and neuter the ferals! Three easy steps to helping cats avoid unpleasant moments in life for an upbeat 2021.
CONTEMPLATIONS
MONET, A TYPEWRITER & ONE CONSONANT
Now, you’re going to see this photo of our cat Monet and wonder about it. So, here’s the story — 
and it’s upbeat, I swear. She was one of our front porch ferals from our old house in the southern Oak Cliff section of Dallas. Through the years we’re caught many ferals, had them fixed, found them homes, got them into safe places. Now and then we’d keep one. Monet, named for her exquisite beauty, was one we kept. That was an outdoor photo we took on the day I convinced her to come on in and join the gang. Monet was a devoted indoor cat after she learned of the concept of "indoors." Monet even practiced playing Martha's harp. She was extraordinarily affectionate. She loved to cuddle. Loved to be held. Adored being adored. And, then, one day in late spring 2020, in her young adult years, she began to change. She was not herself — it was alarming. Her vets and their staff and all of us were trying to get Monet through 
whatever she was going through. It was a roller coaster ride. She’d improve; she’d fail. And the villain turned out to be something ugly with her liver that just couldn’t be defeated. And sweet, wonderful, beautiful Monet died while we held her. It was a release from suffering and the very ill little girl finished off her earthly relationship with us by purring sweetly to the end. The upbeat part of this story is our little cat lives on in our hearts. She’ll always be there. What a privilege it was to know her, a joy to love her. I though you ought to know how a great cat will affect a human heart. …
I found hope for the future on a neighborhood bulletin board page. A woman wrote, “My daughter wanted a typewriter for Christmas so I got her one, but it needs to be serviced. Does anyone do this on the side for reasonable rates or can recommend a place that won’t break the bank? It looks to be a very old typewriter. Thanks in advance.” No idea for that repair 
query, but I will tell you that I felt upbeat when I read that a young person wanted a typewriter. Why? Because when you write on a manual typewriter, you can feel what you’re writing. And all you really have to learn —rather than computer tricks — is how to change the ribbon and how to work carbon paper. That Underwood, by the way, looks a lot like some of the first newsroom typewriters I encountered at The Texarkana Gazette in 1965 -- it was only about 40 years old then -- young by newsroom equipment standards. Be nice to walk into an office in 2021 and hear the clattering of a typewriter — in a museum, probably. …
Speaking of typing, online I ran across a story on The Herald Weekly site titled “Women of the 
70’s Amazing Careers.” Right away I spotted the misplacement of the apostrophe — veteran editor, you know. In the opening to the item about actress Adrienne Barbeau, the writer described her as the “Scream Queen of the 80’s,” again misplacing the apostrophe — it represents the omitted “19” not anything possessive. (That’s a photo from 1982’s Swamp Thing.) Then came this paragraph in which one lousy incorrect consonant changed the entire meaning of a marriage. The long sentence reads, “Besides the time she spends on screen, she likes to spend her time with her husband Billy Van Zandt and their two twin boys as well as with her son from Adrienne’s precious marriage.” If you say “twin” you don’t need say “two,” but never mind that. If only the letter “v” had replaced the letter “c” in “precious” accuracy might have prevailed in the description of Ms. Barbeau’s previous marriage. No what eye mien?
— Offer upbeat notes for 2020 by clicking on ‘comments’ below or by emailing dallrp@aol.com and put “PREPOSTEROUS” in the subject line. —-
