A DOG AT THE DOOR; ICE AND CHILLING; A STARVING GERMAN SHEPHERD AND AN A/C MEMORY WHEN GAS WAS 30-CENTS

EDITION OF TUESDAY, JUNE 21, 2022 [PetPowellPress] Is Monday the worst when it comes on a Tuesday? 
We’ve got a summer greeting and, from Houston, a dog left tied to a doorknob.
More later, but first there’s "Summer and Ice.”
So, summer arrived at 4:14 a.m. our time this morning and I slept right through the ‘Welcome to Texas” ceremony and parade by about 20 minutes. “Spring told us it gets really hot in Texas,” the spokesman for Summer 2022 told an impromptu media gathering. He added with a warm smirk, “We’ll see if Spring knows what ‘hot’ really is, won’t we.”

That is my year-round dog Porche Noel on her “Summertime Contemplation Rug” at 8 a.m. — she’s contemplating summer just as she contemplated spring, winter and autumn. “I’ll sleep on it,’ she says. Porche, based on what she describes as “common knowledge in the dog world,” believes air-conditioning was invented by Willis Carrier in 1902 because he was trying to make sure his dog Chilly was comfortable in the insufferable heat in Buffalo, N.Y. As this is being written, the temp is a searing 69 degrees in Buffalo. [LARRY ASIDE: We have no evidence the support the theory of an inspirational dog named Chilly.]
That dog sitting with the Texas summer tongue is not Chilly. Nope, that is a dog named Ice, #A1145670 at Dallas Animal Services. The written bio says Chilly is “male, but “additional details” list the pup as “female.” I could not tell from the photos, but the dog is listed as a 4-year-old, 61-pound Pittie. Here’s the LINK to Ice. The written bio says Ice likes “belly rubs.” That’s when you can determine for sure whether Ice is a boy or a girl. Easier to gender id than a cat, most of the time, maybe.
LOTS OF US COME HOME TO
A DOG WAITING AT THE DOOR, BUT…
Already some of you may be enchanted by the look of this dog. Darned cute, ain’t he! 
There’s more to him. We get it from our longtime Houston tipster Alexandra Kelsey for whom he was a “first.” He’s “Buddy Dog” and AK’s subject line on the email about him read , “DOOR-HANDLE DECOR: LAB MIX BOY TIED TO MY FRONT DOOR.”
Never had that happen before, she told me. And the bio of Buddy Dog reads, “This Lab mix boy is so sweet. It’s clear that he didn’t have the best life before he was tied to my front door last week, because he has a lot of calluses and his skin was irritated. 

 “But, he is a gem.  His personality is wonderful.  He is sweet, great with taking treats and food, not noisy or destructive, rides great in the car and he was fine with a very snarky large female dog (not my dog!).  And he loves people.

 “This boy had a vet visit Saturday, and he is heartworm negative!!  He was dewormed and vaccinated, and he had his ears packed to deal with a minor issue.  He’s on Cephalexin for his skin, and after a bath, his skin and coat already look much better.”

Here is the key part: “I like this dog very much, and I want him to have a great outcome.  If anyone has interest, please let me know! He is very sweet. I have to say, it was a first to come home to a dog tied to the door.”

To audition to give Buddy Dog the best possible home, email [email protected].
THE FIRST DOG WE’VE SEEN
WITH THIS GREAT NAME…
Maybe you’ve heard of the early 1860s song by American songwriter Stephen Foster. Beautiful Dreamer. Here’s a dog who got that name courtesy of the sensitive folks who volunteer and work hard at the Mesquite Animal Shelter.
The subject line on the email from Mesquite volunteer dog biographer Debra Chisholm read, “RESCUE ONLY—BEAUTIFUL DREAMER, MESQUITE TX, ID 50474594.” 
The story reads, “This adorable skin-and-bones German Shepherd mix was brought to the Mesquite Animal Shelter on 6/18 as a stray.  We have named her Beautiful Dreamer.  She weighs 37 pounds, is 1-2 years old and is not spayed.  She does not have a microchip or ID tag.  She is badly emaciated and therefore is rescue only.  

“Though she is not technically available until 6/22, the shelter will allow her to leave with a rescue before then in order to get her to a place where she can be fed properly to put on some pounds and increase her weight to a healthy level.
“She walks very nicely on a leash, is somewhat timid and shy, is well-mannered, calm and gentle.  Beautiful Dreamer does not jump on you.  She seeks out and happily receives attention and allows herself to be interacted with willingly by staff and volunteers.  She has the softest and silkiest fur and the most gorgeous soulful brown eyes.  With the food deprivation she has experienced for who knows how long, she remains sweet-natured and friendly.”

Use her ID #50474594 when you call the sheltr at 972-216-6283 or email [email protected]. 
You can see more Mesquite dogs and cats by clicking HERE.
The shelter has many dogs and many cats. We picked one kitten of many, many kittens. This is #49954220, a little fella described as “cream and white who came in on April 12 and he’s just over two months old. He’s in the “Conference Room” at the shelter. Conferring, no doubt — or maybe conpurring.
CONTEMPLATIONS

WILL’S QUOTE, A SONG & A/C
I’m on the mailing list for a comedy site call Think & Laugh Daily. The Tuesday quote came from Washington Post columnist George Will: “The future has a way of arriving unannounced.” Might be true in some cases. Saw it coming in that Putin fellow — he telegraphed his punches, don’t you think? …
Here’s a couple of lines from Stephen Foster’s Beautiful Dreamer:
“Sounds of the rude world, heard in the day,
Lull'd by the moonlight have all passed away!”

He may have lived near a Dallas/Fort Worth freeway. …
Back to air-conditioning. I have read before that Willis Carrier invented air-conditioning in 1902. I grew up in a 2-bedroom, 1-bath, 2 adult, 3 boys, “wood frame home” that had no air-conditioning. (Through the years we had Frisky the Collie and Queenie the Border Collie and Pepper the Cat — they wanted air-conditioning, too.) 
My schools weren’t air-conditioned but my church was and, when I got a job at the Texarkana Gazette in 1965 I realized it was air-conditioned, too. So I spent a lot of summertime at church and at work. Then in 1968, I got a job as a sportswriter at The Shreveport Times and boxed my few belongings (packed it all in the backseat of a second-hand Ford Mustang) and motored down Highway 71 south to Shreveport. I was barely out of sight when the air-conditioning installation people rolled up at my childhood home and began to install a system that made my parents beam with pride. My little brothers finished out school doing their homework in “controlled climate comfort.” My parents deserved air-conditioning — invented in 1902 and arrived on our Hazel Street lot in 1968. Pop did buy an air-conditioned car in the mid-‘60s — 1957 Plymouth with push-button transmission. Yeah, everybody liked sitting in the car with the a/c on. Gasoline was only about 30 cents a gallon — doesn’t that make you miss the ‘60s! At least at the gas pump? Minimum wage in 1965 was $1.25 an hour — it worked out to even less if you were a kid reporter working extra hours just to enjoy the office air-conditioning. Ah, the good ol’ days. If you read this a/c memory, bless your heart and may you find a gas station featuring “throw-back prices-per-gallon.” That cat in the window? That is William Powell, my office cat, snoozing in the cool air at his window retreat Tuesday as this is being written. He lived outside for about 3 months, then decided he'd move in with the air-conditioned humans. He's been a happy cat ever since.
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