ONE PARTICULAR NOVEMBER DAY, SOME ANIMALS NEED HELP; WE LOOK BACK BRIEFLY, TOO

EDITION OF TUESDAY, NOV. 22, 2022 [PetPowellPress] On this particular day, we’re going to move right into the good side of humans and how they’ll work to save animals and help each other save animals and …. well, you know. As Thanksgiving approaches, it’s appropriate to be thankful for the “animal nuts” of our part of the world. We’ll have a Contemplation, too.
AND HERE’S A NOTE
ABOUT TULA THE CAT
You may remember this beauty Tula. We’ve been keeping up with her via our longtime tipster, the veteran animal advocate’/rescuer Kimberly Jones. 
She reports that from a clowder of cats abandoned when their humans left and the house was demolished, there is now just Tula needing a home. Her former partner in waiting, Frida, has been adopted.
Tula is “living alone now in the cold on the empty lot where her home once stood,” the update reads.
She’s adorable and adoptable and the contact is Hailey Bell at [email protected]. 
Tula is the only cat of 5 remaining unadopted after their home was flattened several months ago. [LARRY ASIDE: Ain’t people just swell sometimes! Makes you proud as all gitout, don’t it! — Larry FYI: I lapsed into my Northeast Texas Accent of Astonishment.]
A COUPLE OF DOGS
WAITING IN FERRIS
We learned of these two “new” listings from 4-Legged Helpers. Both of these dogs are in the small Ferris Animal Shelter, known for being light on human visitors. 
The Helpers report that Emma is a “Golden/Lab Mix.” Just a baby — only 11 weeks old “and she is SO sweet,” her bio reads. “She adores everyone and everything. Loves to be held. Found out and about as a stray.”

That brings us to Leo, a 9-month-old “super cute and super lovable boy” who is “a puppy still.” He is described as a “Carolina Dog.”
The bio reads, “Playful, fun, cute.  Adores everyone and everything including every person and every dog he meets, LOL.  SO CUTE!  He as found out and about as a stray in Hutchins.”
Keep up with 4-Legged Helpers’ attempts to help animals by going to the non-profit’s Facebook page HERE
. And to help these animals or to help the Helpers, call or text 214-949-2726 or email [email protected].

AN UPDATE: TURKEY TOM

HAS PEOPLE WHO ARE HELPING…
You possibly recall seeing this fellow in Monday morning’s report about how he was found in a dumpster, starving to death, very cold and needing treatment for a puncture wound — could have been stabbed — on his backside.
We’re going over this stuff because Turkey Tom still needs help and Mazie’s Mission still needs donations and support to make sure the dog gets every good break in life, including a proper adoption into a happy home.

Mazie’s MIssion’s vet team’s exam revealed that newly-named Turkey Tom was “filthy, emaciated, dehydrated, and has a large puncture wound over his rear end. We are not sure what caused his injury as it does not appear to be a pressure sore. He has extensive tartar on his teeth due to a poor diet, despite only being about two years old. This poor boy only weighs about 30#, And he should weigh closer to 45 or 50#. Lucky for Turk, he is heartworm and fecal negative!!!
“Despite the abuse and neglect Turk suffered at the hands of humans, he is such a gentle soul and has already won over the hearts of our entire medical team.”
After he was rescued from the trash bin, the Mazie’s Mission folks reported that “sweet Turkey Tom had many firsts. He got a bath (photo on the left) to wash off the smells of the garbage he was found in, a nail trim so his overgrown nails won't hurt him to walk, and he was given his very own soft sweater and a stuffy to keep his bones warm while he gains weight.”
Keep up with him on the Mazie’s Mission Facebook page  where you also can see how to help him and the non-profit make sure he’s healthy and happy and adopted.
That photo with the “stuffy” is the first picture we posted of Turkey Tom. The others show the soft side of him, except for that photograph of what an example of starvation he was when he was pulled out of the trash bin.
[LARRY ASIDE: If anyone recognizes him and knows who dumped him after starving him, let us know — email [email protected] or, better yet, call the cruelty case authorities. And if you can’t do any of that, send Mazie’s Mission a supportive note and a donation in honor of Turkey Tom, the nearly starved dog who is making a comeback because more people care about loving him than care about dumping him.]
CONTEMPLATIONS
THINKING ABOUT 1963
Nov. 22, 1963? Feels like only yesterday,. But it was, for me, high school. 10th grade. Texas High School, Texarkana, Texas. I came out of the school cafeteria and walked to the front of the school on Pine Street — traditional noontime gathering place. But this time campus conversations were NOT loud and laugh-filled. 
I saw people gathered around the open doors of cars and listening to something on the radio. It wasn’t music — not Walk Right In by The Rooftop Singers or Martha and the Vandellas performing Heat Wave. No. Just the broadcast voices of newsmen. NewsMEN, in those days.
At one of the cars, I learned down to listen and one of my schoolpals says, “Ain’t that some bleep.” And it was. At that point we’d only been told that there’d been gunfire near the presidential motorcade in Downtown Dallas. The buzzterms “grassy knoll” and “triple underpass” hadn’t even been invented yet.

The campus bell rang and we all went to our classes. 
My first class after lunch was Mrs. Hamilton’s Latin II. But, Latin wasn’t our focus. We couldn’t focus. Mrs. Hamilton worked hard to keep our young minds on the old world instead of the outside world. Lost cause. About 15 minutes into the class, the kid whose job was to pick up attendance slips every day, came to the doorway, picked up count for our class and told us, “The President is” he hesitated, then added, “He’s gone.” 
Mrs. Hamilton gasped -- might have cried. I wondered what was going on out in the rest of the world.
And I think the rest of us in that classroom — an assortment of sophomores, juniors and seniors of the Classes of ’64, ’65 and ’66 — found ourselves suddenly living in a whole new world. JFK had come to our town campaigning in 1960. This bold young candidate had stood on the post office plaza with one foot in Texas and one in Arkansas and said he wanted to be president for both sides of town. And now, that world had changed on a Friday afternoon. This new world would prove to be way different than the world our WWII parents had imagined for us.

I’ve spent a lifetime in journalism — starting in 1965. Every year in November for all those decades whatever paper I was working for, whatever TV station I watched, whatever news radio station was broadcasting, the topic was this American tragedy that happened in Dallas. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus is famous for declaring, “The only constant in life Is change.” He knew it in the 6th Century BCE, but that point wasn’t really driven home for us Baby Boomers until Nov. 22, 1963. One day you’re living in the era of Camelot, then, suddenly, you’re in the time of inexplicable tragedy and murder in broad daylight in Downtown Dallas. Still a puzzle. World gets more puzzling, too, doesn’t it.
— Offer ideas by clicking on ‘comment’ below or by emailing [email protected]. —