SHANNON'S RINGWORM; NIKKI'S ROPE; SANDI RETIRES & AND A PUPPY NAMED HOPE

EDITION OF TUESDAY, JANUARY 5, 2021 [PetPowellPress] Some days are more rotten than others. Having declared that uplifting reality, we’ll now focus on helping animals.
FYI: Thank you for reading this far into the daily report. It's a car thing. So, more annoying than threatening. Maybe later this week I'll try to explain it. In the meantime, focus on helping animals.
RINGWORM IS THE CULPRIT,
AND THE GOAL IS SAVING A LIFE
[LARRY NOTE: This is Shannon. In my decades of writing about animals, I have encountered needless cruelty committed by humans with guns, fire, poisons, duct tape around the muzzle, etc. I have also encountered needless deaths because of such contagious problems as mange and ringworm. Today we have a chance to help Shannon dodge euthanization because of ringworm. There are shelters that immediately euthanize dogs and cats with ringworm to prevent an outbreak. Humans get to wear masks and socially distance when threatened — dogs and cats with ringworm sometimes are at the mercy of financial ability and policy and wretched luck. Here’s a moment with Shannon —a moment FOR Shannon. She has some humans trying to help her, but they cannot do it without assistance. These photos of Shannon are provided to us by 4-Legged Helpers.]
Laura Macias and Leighann Hayden have been, via non-profit 4-Legged Helpers, trying to get this girl’s ringworm problem cleared up so she can be lined up with a rescue group and find a happy life. But ringworm expenses knocked that train off the tracks.
Laura told me, “She has only ringworm and it is so sad! We need either a foster committed or another rescue. We prefer another rescue. We just can't do anything. At this point she may die and we will be out of rescue because we can't save anymore without the money. NO money, no dogs leave Texas. It costs $150 to transport and $100 to get rabies and health certificate with shots and HW test. So this is it for us over ringworm!!! Crazy: a rescue getting shut down over a case of ringworm.”
[LARRY ASIDE: Anybody involved in rescue knows this stuff isn’t free. I quoted Laura’s “getting shut down over a case of ringworm” so that people who don’t usually get deeply involved in rescue — i.e., “I found a cat. She might be sick” or “A puppy wandered up to my house.” — will know that rescuers give more than their time and their hearts to the cause of saving animal lives. This is an opportunity to join in and save a life.]
If you can foster this dog until she’s healthy or if your rescue group has a way to tend to Shannon and help her heal, get in touch with Laura by calling or texting 214-949-2726 or email cat_girl_71@yahoo. com. The paypal for donations is helpingshelterbabies@gmail.com. You can also donate on the 4-Legged Helpers. Inc. Facebook page.
Leighann’s note about Shannon says 4-Legged Helpers got involved with trying to save Shannon in September, and now, in January, she’s still in boarding with no place to go. She spent all of December in treatment. But time and money are running out simultaneously.
Leighann adds, “Please, please help save her. You won’t regret it. This is a sweet cuddly girl that only wants to be loved. It’s not her fault she got ringworm. …Being in air and sunshine could make all the difference for her.”
AT ANGIE’S FRIENDS,
NIKKI ’S ODD CHALLENGE
You’ve probably seen this by now but in the spirit of reminding people to be kind to animals, I’m re-posting it on behalf of Nikki the Cat and in honor of the Fairy Dogmother of Dallas Angie Manriquez and the organization she inspired, Angie’s Friends. 
I’ve been around a while and this is a picture of a cat in a situation that I’ve never encountered. I’ve seen dogs with collars grown into their necks, dogs with their muzzles taped shut, dogs with their ears cut off by amateurs and villains…you get the drift. I even remember the story of that Texas vet who killed a cat by shooting it with an arrow through the head. But I’ve never before seen a cat that looks as if she’d been roped by a guy trying to loop hind legs.
There is some question whether this feral Nikki actually was roped or accidentally roped herself. Feral cats get in screwy situations sometimes on their own. Sometimes it’s not on their own.
I’m coming down on the side of “was roped” because I think that, had she been free to do so, she might have chewed that rope off her ankle. Also, there’s plenty of evidence in this world that there are some freaky bad people roaming here and there.
Fortunately, there are good people, too. And this was posted with the photos on the Angie’s Friends Facebook page Monday. I’m not sure who wrote this, but it reads like it came from the heart. Here goes: “Please, we really need your help & support! We know that some people have a hostile attitude toward feral cats, and Nikki somehow got tied up, literally, by one.

“Nikki's been in pain with a steamed-bun-looking foot caused by the cruel rope, and it took Angie several days to finally trap her while caring for Nikki's colony, and then take her to the vet.

“Nikki needs to be hospitalized for more than a week to receive laser treatments for the badly swollen foot. While other existing medical bills have piled up, Angie could never refuse Nikki the care she needs to heal, and maybe someday to find a home.
“Please help us to pay for Nikki's medical care; even just a few dollars from each of us can bring a significant change to Nikki's life.”
Donate at these links: https://angiesfriends.org/how-to-help/ and https://angiesfriends.org/about/.

Some of the responses on the Facebook page are worth repeating. One reads, “This looks deliberate - may karma catch up with the person(s) that did this to a helpless cat.” And another reads, “Ole Lucifer is waiting on the person that did this!!!” Might be. Or Ole Lucifer might have been with him giving directions when Nikki was roped. [LARRY ASIDE: This doesn’t have theological backing, but now and then I’m almost convinced that humans will do things that not even the devil wouldn't do. I'm probably wrong,]
CONTEMPLATIONS

A RETIREMENT; A STILL-FRESH MEMORY
Sandi Laird, a mainstay at Operation Kindness since way back in the 20th century, retired on the last day of 2020 —you can count that triumph as one more thumb-of-the-nose at 2020 and one GREAT thing for Sandi beginning in 2021. 
Speaking as both a long-time newspaper columnist in Dallas and a writer of critter lore for decades, Sandi was a steady lifesaver many times, especially when my rescuespouse Martha and I would find unwanted dogs or cats but we had already filled up our household with street dogs and feral cats. Sandi always worked hard to find that extra room in the shelter.

But there was this one particular cold winter evening when we got to go look for a dog, not just encounter one. We had a request from Sandi.
It was many years ago. Sandi called us about 11 p.m. and said she’d seen a story on TV news about a house fire in southeast Oak Cliff. As the humans were rushed away for critical medical care, a maybe 10-week-old puppy had been left on the property. 
Could we get it, she wanted to know. Of course, we could — we theorized. We were always up for midnight-hour rescue adventures.

Without Sandi, we’d not have known this incredible feeling of helping this little puppy. 
Yes, we would try to get the dog — two people out of our traditional element (daylight).

At the site of this residential fire, we stepped carefully through the darkened scene and crawled around to look under the still-smoking house. We really didn’t know what we were looking for other than “a puppy.” 
And, after about 20 minutes of squinting through the remnants of smoke and the nearly lightless night, we found the little girl huddled next to a support under what was once her home. She had no other place to go — she probably wasn’t old enough to know there were other places.

She was gray, covered with smokey ash, a puppy who’d wag her tail and look at us as if we were longtime friends. Her hair felt “bristly” — later we’d learn she’d been “singed” in the fire.
 We quickly got her to the emergency clinic. And the Operation Kindness medical people took over her care a few hours later.

Several of us fell for that little survivor, of course. But living through a fire is sometimes so very difficult. A few days later Sandi called, and speaking through really tough tears, told me that the little girl, being treated for some burns and smoke inhalation, had been “doing just fine and then, suddenly, her heart gave out.” We loved a dog that didn’t live to be adopted by anybody. But her spirit survived, as I’ve just demonstrated by telling her story. Her name was, so very appropriately, Hope.
Through the years Sandy was part of lots of stories of trying to beat the odds with animals facing challenges. She also was part of lots of stories of dogs and cats that made their ways into the homes and hearts of loving people who adored them every day.
Such work is a mission of goodness and grace. You don’t pull that off without having a heart bigger than Texas, dear Sandi Laird.
In honor of Sandi, bless all the animals and the people who are helping them.

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