FROM BETH TO CHANEL TO PUPPIES TO PEANUTS AND THE BICENTENNIAL....

[EDITION OF MONDAY/TUESDAY JULY 25-26, 2022 [PetPowellPress] Our Monday morning stack of email is always thick. It takes nearly a cup and a half of coffee to get through the jewelry/purse advertisements. Then, there are the animal-related emails. We try to post as many as is humanly possible — and that’s not easy since DNA has confirmed I’m not really human. But, here we go and not all of these are going to be happy but nearly all of them, when they touch a human heart, will prove to be a path to happiness. Happiness? Yew bet. Our goal is to help the right animal find the right home and the right humans find the right way to help animals. 
[HAPPINESS DEMONSTRATION: That is my girl Porche Noel snoozing on Sunday afternoon while I was reading. Yes, she sleeps with a smile. And that is happiness in my life. I wish such happiness for you. We have opportunities today for you to put a smile on a dog’s face or a great purr in a cat’s mood.]
THIS DOG’S NAME IS BETH;
DOES SHE HEAR YOU CALLIN’?
OK, I confess. That headline was inspired by the KISS song Beth, but this first item was inspired by the look on that dog Beth’s face! In reality, this dog is who is inspirational. We learned of her in a note from the critter-helping folks at Mazie’s Mission, the rescue/adoption center that also functions as a rescue hospital. 
[Mazie’s Mission was founded by Dr. Erin Shults and, in January 2014, the organization opened the “very first non-profit veterinary clinic that services rescue organizations only.”]
The opening paragraph of the Mazie’s Mission appeal reads, “How is Beth still looking for her forever home?! Beth has spent the last 547 days looking for her forever... and we are absolutely baffled that she still has not found it.”
 You’ll note that there is a pair of shoes in that first photograph of Beth. We’re declaring them to be symbols of the heart in this great dog. Read on.
Mazie’s describes her as “virtually the perfect companion” who “sleeps most of the day, is trustworthy out of her crate, and loves quiet strolls around the neighborhood with her person. She has excellent leash manners.”
Now here’s that shoe thing — and most readers with dogs know how the relationship with a shoe can turn. Not with Beth. Mazies reports, “She loves her squeaky toys and will self-entertain with them. Beth has a cute habit of very carefully taking a shoe to keep near if her person is out of the house. She is very careful with the shoe (she knows her manners!) - no damage is ever done. She just brings it back to her bed and keeps it there until her person comes back.”

Beth is about 5, spayed, up today on all meds and heartworm prevention. She’d do best as an only dog and with no kids younger than around 7. See more about her on maziesmission.org. You’ll learn that she’s very affectionate and her biographer wrote, “She loves to hand out kisses at every turn. She will be laying down and suddenly get the urge, and has to come over and lick your hand or your arm. She does a little happy dance each time.” 
About being an only dog, the bio reads, “Beth does not do well with other pets. This is understandable as she had to fight for every resource she got before coming to the rescue. She was severely underweight and was surrendered due to pyometra, an infection of the uterus. She was saved by a spay surgery and now she has been on a high fat diet, just so that she can gain that weight back.
She has gained about 30 pounds since rescue and is ready to find her new furever home!” The adoption application form is at www.maziesmission.org/adopt."
A NON-PROFIT KEEPS HUSTLING
TO GET THE ‘UN-SEEN” SEEN
Here’s the opening to Monday’s email from 4-Legged Helpers, the non-profit that focuses on smaller shelters and their animals.
The note reads, “PLEASE HELP.  hese are pups and dogs (and kitties) often not seen by anyone other than shelter staff. There are zero walk-in's to many of these shelters.
 CALL/TEXT 214-949-2726 or email cat_girl_71@yahoo.com  if you can help!  PLEASE HURRY….”
That beautiful cat is “young vaccinated female” Chanel. She’s a “medium long-hair Calico AVAILABLE NOW” at the Red Oak Animal Shelter only a handful of minutes south of Dallas on I-35 if there are no freeway tie-ups in Lancaster, DeSoto or Glenn Heights. How did Chanel get to Red Oak? Unknown except to her. She was “found out and about on her own and the little pink collar she was wearing was way too tight — poor baby,” reads her bio. “She is absolutely beautiful. True Calico. Beautiful fur. Super sweet and loving.”

[LARRY ASIDE: This 6-pup litter of Aussie Shepherd mixes is emblematic of the human geniuses we are forced to live with since we eliminated the painful punishment of putting people in stocks on the courthouse lawn in the late 1700s. Sometimes my bad side comes out in my typing.]
This half-dozen bundle of babies is a rescue. The Helpers report, “A very kind person found this little litter of 6 puppies on the side of the road in a rural area not far from McKinney.  They desperately need a rescue group. … They are all very sweet and very lovable.  Approximately 8-9 weeks old.”
This guy Loki is in a small local shelter that, the Helpers’ theory is “that due to the heat, apparently the shelter shaved him. Fur should grow back quick.”
The Helpers report that Loki “was at risk in a high-killed shelter and we pulled him to give him more time in hopes we could find either an adoptor or rescue group. He is very gentle, lovable, calm and so sweet. ….seems to love other dogs…. His paperwork said he was released ot the shelter by someone due to apparently eye issues.  They will need to be checked out to see what is going on.  Note that even if it should be something genetic, placing him with another loving buddy/dog friend will make all the difference and he will have a doggie friend to help him out. We have done this in the past with both kitties and dogs that have eye issues and it works out great.”
We’ve mentioned these three dogs before. Hamlet, a 3-year-old Husky boy is sweet and loves to be petted and is in the care of a “private animal control” north of Dallas — as is Bearlee, the 3-year-old Retriever/Border Collie mix who “adores everyone.”
That third dog is Blake, a young Boxer in the Ferris Shelter. He is about 2 years old. And adorable. The Helpers’ bio reads, “So sad, because he is such a great dog that they were sure someone would come for him but no one reclaimed him and now he needs a new home. Very, very sweet boy. So much wants to be loved.”
Remember, you can see more animals that are on the radar at 4-Legged Helpers by going to the non-profit’s Facebook page HERE.
CONTEMPLATIONS
LOOKING FOR THE POSITIVES
The U.S. Mail has arrived. Our outdoor temp right now (11:56 a.m. Oven Standard Time) is a chilling 97 degrees, the phone screen says. (An  hour later the temp was ONLY 99!) Just a click and I can tell the time and temp. But I do miss the days of picking up my phone at the office and calling the “Time & Temperature” is Maine or Montana to see how much difference there was between the reading there and the reading in downtown Dallas. I’d do just about anything to get an item for a column. As I began demonstrating in late July 1965 at the Texarkana Gazette. That was a while back, wasn’t it. That's my cool cat William The Office Cat doing his impression of Howlin' Wolf at the window.…. 

As a fan of Peanuts, I am aware that creator Charles Schulz’s first book was Happiness Is A Warm Puppy with Lucy and Snoopy on the cover. That was in 1962. In 2022, in Texas, perhaps the title could be Happiness Is An Air-Conditioned Dog & A Cool Cat. ...
In the opening item I referred to KISS’s version of Beth. It’s, of course, my favorite version, but my second-most-favorite version of Beth isn’t by a rock band. It’s by the actor Paul Rudd (and cast) in the comedy Role Models. But, in honor of my twin sons’ childhoods, we’ll post the KISS version HERE. It was released in 1976, also known as The Bicentennial Year of the American Revolution. Yep, that was a big year for kids who liked pageants and festive events and fireplugs painted red, white and blue and rock bands in costumes! 
—- Offer advice or warm thoughts by clicking on ‘comment’ below or by emailing dallrp@aol.com and put STAY COOL AND MAKE MONEY in the subject line. —-