DONATIONS FOR ANIMALS; A DOG WITH MED NEEDS; QUOTES AND DALLAS GHOSTS....

EDITION OF TUESDAY/WEDNESDAY, NOV. 2-3, 2021 [PetPowellPress] Did you know that November 3, according to Holiday Insights, is Cliche’ Day, Housewife’s Day and Sandwich Day? All rolled into one, as the cliche might go.
 Not sure there are “housewives” these days. Homemakers, probably. We’ll get to Bella Abzug’s quote in Contemplations — some of you will have to “look up” the source of that quote. Kids. Sheesh.

Cliche’, Housewife & Sandwich Day — how’s that for an odd collection. No response? Cat got your tongue? Here’s there’s a cliche now! (That’s my office cat, William Powell, demonstrating how much he loves hands-on head scratching.)
 OK, let’s go to the cliche motto of my life: “Ignorance is bliss.” Favorite cliche/sandwich? Pimento cheese? Grilled cheese? Baloney! 
A quote: “Ahhh. Bed, book, kitten, sandwich. All one needed in life, really.” Hard to argue, right? We’ll cite that quote again in CONTEMPLATIONS. We’ll also discuss the ghosts at Dallas’ former ultra-charming shopping “mall,” Olla Podrida. Oh, my! Now, can Sadie the Dog wink? And is she winking at you?
MEANWHILE IN DALLAS’ SHELTER
THERE’S A SADIE AND AN OGRE
Sadie can wink? That is the question. There are two photos of her on the Dallas Animal Services website HERE that show her with her right eye closed. But, when you click on her video, you see a wide-eyed girl romping in the exercise yard at DAS. She’s a 2-year-old Pittie girl with a “total mama dog”personality because she’s “constantly hovering and making sure everyone is OK.” She is also described as “very playful … Loves to play in the paddle pool” at the shelter. She’s A1125345, a 2-year-old who weighs in at 54 pounds.
Now, the good thing about adopting a dog or cat (these two are “free” right now) is you can re-name the animal. Sadie, perhaps, you’d want to stick with. Such a sweet name for a sweet girl.
 On the other hand, as I was scrolling through the available cats and kittens at DAS, I ran across this delightfully cute little girl named — get this — “Ogre.” First definition for “ogre” is “a hideous man-eating giant.” This girl Ogre (#A112997) is listed as a “growing” little girl who, at 2 months, barely tips the scale at ONE POUND. Yep, someone needs to adopt her and change her name before it goes onto all her medical, government and employment records. 
See how to adopt by going to bedallas90.org HERE https://www.bedallas90.org/home/pets/
A DONATION DEVELOPMENT
SHOWS UP FOR SOME DOGS
This revelation came from the folks with 4-Legged Helpers. There are $250 donations on each of these dogs and the donations will go to the approved 501c3 organization (or organizations) that take in the dogs. They’re all in the Lancaster Animal Shelter.
We’ve posted some of them before, most recently Zuri and Aiden (Zuri the girl is the smaller of the two.)
The description reads that Aiden is a neutered male bulldog mix about 3 and 67 pounds. He and Zuri are bonded dogs. She’s a 48-pound bulldog mix. She’s spayed; he’s neutered. And they are descried as the “cutest little shorties ever.”

Also in the category of “donation dogs” are Chloe and Paisley.
Chloe is a young, spayed Shepherd mix and so is Paisley. 
They’re about a year old and “appear to be siblings,” their bio from the Helpers reads. Chloe is 50 pounds; Paisley is 45. And they adore each other — two “out-and-about” strays picked up and delivered to the shelter. They enjoy being with each other, the bio reads.
Also a “donation dog” is this guy Tyler, a young Border Collie/Lab mix — a 51-pound dog who is probably under a year old. Yep, he was a stray. Has an “innocent face,” the 4-Legged Helpers bio reads. 
To ask about helping any of these dogs by adopting or rescuing, call or text 214-949-2726 or email cat_girl_71@yahoo.com.
And, remember, you can keep up with the assorted animals that the 4-Legged Helpers are trying to save by going to their Facebook page HERE.
A CRUELTY CASE DOG NEEDS
HELP WITH MEDICAL WOES
Hope needs some help. We learned of her predicament from the volunteer Mesquite Animal Shelter dog biographer Debra Chisholm. She reports that Hope is “a Terrier mix who was seized in a cruelty case and placed in protective custody at the Mesquite Animal Shelter on 9/29, along with one of her pups.  The pup has since been rescued. Hope weighs 54 pounds and is about 3 years old.  She is RESCUE ONLY due to medical issues she has, namely a prolapsed uterus and a metastasized breast tumor.  She will be seeing a vet soon.  Hope is a shy and timid girl.  This beautiful girl has a low-key, mellow nature and is calm and well-mannered.  She does not jump on you.  Hope is a friendly, affectionate girl and loves attention.  She is more than happy to allow you to pet her for as long as you are willing! … This is a girl who has had a rough start to her life but has so much potential to be a loving companion.  However, she needs you to assist getting her out and helping her on the way to her forever home.  Our shelter is and has been overcrowded for several weeks and months now and any help in getting our precious pooches out the front door will be so appreciated.”

To volunteer to help Hope use her ID #48618022 when you call the shelter at 972-216-6283 or email at rescues@cityofmesquite.com.
CONTEMPLATIONS
QUOTES AND GHOSTS

We’ll start with Bella Abzug, famed for her big hats. She was a lawyer and a 3-term U.S. Congresswoman (1971-77), feminist, pro-Civil Rights and anti-Vietnam War, representing parts of Manhattan and the Bronx. When it came to “housewife,” she said, “I prefer the word 'homemaker' because 'housewife' always implies that there may be a wife someplace else.” She was witty. And she also said, “A woman's place is in the house - the House of Representatives.”…
Now, that quote ““Ahhh. Bed, book, kitten, sandwich. All one needed in life, really.”? It’s from a Texan by way of New Zealand and Canada, the author Jacqueline Kelly of Austin. She’s not only a writer, she’s also a physician AND a lawyer. She wrote the successful novel, The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, about a girl growing up in Texas in 1899. Sold well. Won a Newberry Award. Paid for a lot of sandwiches; also fed cats. Her online bio reads, “She now makes her home with her husband and various cats and dogs in Austin and Fentress, Texas."
AND NOW looking back into the 20th century. I was reading Ana Niño's feature story in The Dallas Morning News about the once-wonderful Dallas shopping “barn” Olla Podrida when, suddenly I ran across my own name. Never expected to see it printed in The Big Paper Downtown again, but there it was. [HERE’S THE LINK TO THE STORY from Halloween morning.

Ana skillfully reported on this now-gone “barn-like-bazaar” Olla Podrida, i.e., named for a Spanish stew prepared in a clay pot. And she noted that it was a beloved shopping bazaar , then, wrote:
“Beyond its crafts and commerce, Olla Podrida was rumored to have some paranormal sights, specifically phantoms.”

And, though I was in the middle of a quarter-century-long columnist career at the time, the story read, “In 1996, reporter Larry Powell interviewed a couple of shop owners before the mall’s closing. Roger of The Front Porch was quoted saying: ‘All I ever see are out of the corner of my eye — the three ladies.’ “
And Ana’s story cited my conversation with a shop owner named Vickie who said, “We have three ladies that walk through the mall dressed in long skirts and white blouses with their hair up. You can hear them murmuring but you can’t understand what they’re saying. ... There’s a man who smokes a cigar, and a little child.”

Of the cigar, Vickie’s quote read, “You smell it, and it instantly goes away. That’s how you know it’s a ghost. Real cigar smoke would linger.”

As I recall from my interviews, nobody knows where the ghosts came from. And nobody can say where they are now — the building site was replaced by a private school.

Ana, the writer of the Sunday story is credited as “Researcher. Part of the Research and Archives unit, Ana is a D-FW native who has waltzed back and forth between libraries and archives over the past decade.”

That's William on Ghostwatch. He's been successful so far -- uses the "Clint Glint" he picked up from the Director Eastwood. "Scare the spectre before he scares you," William advised.
My theory of those ghosts is they still may be seen in the Dallas area, perhaps riding public transportation late at night, maybe visiting big empty buildings. Heck, the impressive former site of The Dallas Morning News may be available for haunting. But, since I no longer write fanciful columns for the paper, I don’t have credentials that’ll get me inside the old building so I can determine if, in Dallas County, ghosts must wear masks. My attempts to interview them at Olla Podrida failed. Couldn't get an appointment. They were hauntingly busy.

—- Offer ghost tales or praise of ancient columns by clicking on ‘comment’ or by emailing dallrp@aol.com and put “THE BLANK PAGE SPOOKS A WRITER’ in the subject line. —