ReadLarryPowell.com

AFTER THE STORM, SLEEPIN' 'N' NAPPIN' AND OWNING AN OFFICE'S HEART....

After that rough spell of weather during the week. our Friday morning in the office of readlarrypowell.com consisted of a sleeper and a napper.
All others were sleeping the living room or the guest bedroom.
So. that left the adorable little dog Porche Noel on her office bed, peeking out at me with one eye as I took her photo.
The actual napping cat on The Scratching Chair is Stevie Ray, the apprentice office cat.
There is no doubt that writing is made easier when the animals in the office are snoozing.
When they all awake simultaneously and decide it's "treat time," that can interrupt a HANG ON tick tick tick tick tick tick paragraph.
I mention the joy of animals in an office to suggest that businesses that are having trouble convincing employees to return to the corporate offices, might enjoy more success if they'd establish the category of "Authorized Office Cat" or "Official Office Dog" for the corporate personnel "Happiness Enhancement Program." Be cheaper than giving everybody a raise.
Just a thought ... I mention it in case my bid on a newspaper company actually goes through and I need happy reporters and editors -- all of whom must be resolutely softhearted, kind and accurate. Free treats for the cats and dogs in the office.

Stevie Ray is young, but he really knows how to nap in that chair -- when he's not shredding it with his bionic claws. It was a free chair -- leftover from a garage sale. If I'd paid for it, he could still shred it and that would be OK with me. Stevie Ray is my boy.
[DEAR READERS: Please send photos of your sleeping dogs, napping cats, slumbering aardvarks or any other snooze-prone animal to [email protected] and we'll highlight them and their story of rescue, adoption or "just showed up" in our long-running weekend feature Let Sleeping Dogs Lie & Napping Cats Nap. Thank you for your  awareness of animal somnolentity. That may not be an actual word, but I nodded off as I typed it.]
-- Offer slumbertips or pie recipes by clicking on 'comment below' or by emailing [email protected] and put FLUFF THAT PILLOW SNOOZEBOY in the subject line. ---

IRISH GREYHOUNDS & GALT; MESQUITE BROTHERS WAITING; 'DAYS LIKE THIS'

EDITION OF FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 2022 [PetPowellPress] St. Patrick’s Day greetings and here are entertaining movies to view. John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara in the Irish romance The Quiet Man (1952). 
Oh, and how about this one? Albert Clark, Janet Munro and a newcomer in Walt Disney’s Darby O’Gill & The Little People in 1959. Newcomer? Sean Connery.
If you love Leprechauns — and who doesn’t — there’s this 1948 film with Tyrone Power, AnneBaxter and the Leprechaunish Cecil Kellaway: The Luck of the Irish. (That's the Leprechaun holding a pot of gold and talking to Tyrone Power's character.)
Ah, romance and the Irish. Happy St. Patrick’s Day and may love be in your heart. After all, as the Irish singer Van Morrison wrote positively, “When it’s not always rainin’, There’ll be days like this.” More in Contemplations.
GREYHOUNDS OF TEXAS HAVE
IRISH CONNECTION & AUSSIE, TOO
As regular and irregular visitors to readlarrypowell.com know, we are consistently fascinated by the work of the Greyhound Adoption League of Texas. Our fascination was enhanced on St. Patrick’s Day when we got this note from GALT about its reach overseas — not just into Oklahoma (more on that later).

The GALT Friday newsletter reads, “Since October 2022, we have welcomed 28 retired racing Greyhounds from Ireland! What better day than their first Saint Patrick's Day in America for an update on their progress!”

Call it “luck of the Irish dogs.” Not sure which one was lucky enough, er, patient enough, to wear the big, green hat!
GALT reports that 6 of “our Irish hounds have already gone to their forever homes and finalized their adoptions, and two more, Peggy and senior girl Maureen, will finalize their adoptions this weekend. Seven of our Irish hounds are in foster homes with foster parents who have expressed an intention to adopt them. Four are currently available for adoption (including Blackie, Buick, Mitch, and Pippin) and nine are still waiting for foster homes to become available so that they can start their search for a forever home.”
|As you’ve probably guessed, see the photos and opportunities by going to galtx.org. 
The newsletter continues, “We are thrilled to see our Irish hounds moving forward, not just because their progress represents the fulfillment of mission and purpose, but also because we need to make room for the retired racers from Australia coming right behind them. This week, we welcomed eight hounds from Australia (more about them soon) and we are looking forward to welcoming more in the future.” [LARRY ASIDE: They may be quick as kangaroos on a track, but as a Greyhound admirer once told me at an adoption event, “They’re really just couch potatoes.” So, if you have an empty couch and a willing heart…well, you know. Click on www.galtx.org.]
Now, there’s also this: I’ve mentioned these two wonderful dogs several times before. Nick and Nora came to GALT two years ago when they were “very thin” puppies rescued in a cruelty seizure by law enforcement officers working with animal control in Pauls Valley, Okla. They were “mistaken for Greyhound puppies.” Ah, but GALT’s bio of these 2-year-old’s explains that “once a GALT Greyhound, always an honorary GALT Greyhound! Nick and Nora are extremely bonded and depend on each other, so of course they will be adopted together, but for just the adoption fee of one. A DNA test was performed showing them to be American Staffy and Boxer crosses. They are extremely sweet and loving. We refer to them as GALT’s “Greyhound Gremlins”.
Again, go to galtx.org to see more adorable adoptables and how to get involved with GALT — fostering, adopting, etc. And, if you speak Australian, you may come in handy in a few weeks when those Down Under Greyhounds arrive. I may be kidding about translating from the Australian.
A COUPLE OF BROTHERS NEED
RESCUE/HOME AFTER A STRAY EVENT
That term “Stray Event” is completely new. I just typed it. I don’t own it — yet. So, please, don’t send readlarrypowell.com any money — yet — for licensing it via the American Animal Rescue Rewrite Wordage Foundation (AARR’F). OK. I mighta made that all up.
But here’s the deal. These two guys are Bentley and Buddy.
They look quite alike. That’s Buddy on the left. Thus, Bentley is on the right.
We got the story on them from Debra Chisholm, volunteer dog-writer with the Mesquite Animal Shelter.” 
Buddy is #52215488. Debra writes, “This cutesy pup was picked up and brought to the Mesquite Animal Shelter along with his brother Bentley as strays by one of our officers on 3/10.  The pups are ‘RESCUE ONLY’ due to their age--2 months.  They are listed as Retriever/Lab mixes and weigh around 15-16 pounds.  The boys are being given meds for coccidia which is a 5-day treatment. 
“Buddy is lively, active, frisky, perky — normal puppy-like behavior.  If you are looking for a friendly, sweet-natured youngster this may be just the dog.”
And, Debra writes, “This adorable youngster is Bentley. (#52215528) … This spunky and energetic fellow is friendly and happy to be petted and receive loving attention.”
Sibling rivalry in the shelter? Doesn’t sound like it.
Debra’s report reads, “Bentley is kenneled with his brother and they get along fine.  However, they need to be out of the shelter and in a warm and caring home in which they will receive the loving attention they need.”
You know how it works: Use their ID numbers when you call the shelter at 972-216-6283 or email [email protected].
You can see more dogs and cats on the Mesquite Animal Shelter site HERE . In honor of the Irish day I went looking for an Irish cat and this girl Rose was the closest I could find -- wouldn't call her a "wild Irish rose," however.. She’s #52127710. [LARRY ASIDE: I think that was the winning set of numbers in last weekend’s Wild Irish Rose Blarney Lotto. I may have made that up.] Anyway, this Texas Rose is one of the very rare Domestic Shorthair Mixes in the Metrosprawl. She’s about 7 1/2 months old, is small and is black and white which means (based on readlarrypowell.com's cat experience) she’ll be entertainingly zany for her entire life. Adorable, too. She came into the shelter on Feb. 24 and you can find her in the Cat Room.
CONTEMPLATIONS
Assorted Irish Thoughts
Is there Irish in your heart? Might be. Some of the folks on one side of my family pointed to the assorted red-haired relatives (my beard was reddish for years) as being evidence of our Irishness. On the other side, the claim was “Welsh.” Ultimately, I settled on “Texan.” I was born in the Republic of Texas in 1845. Wait, I need to check those records if I can find the right Republic of Texas Birth Records File Cabinet in Dublin. What? Oh, yeah, Dublin, in Erath County. It’s where Dr Pepper was bottled from 1891 to 2012 — my research shows. (Some of the previous passage may be blarney. Except for the born in Texas part. )
Let’s move along
WHILE LOOKING for a Texas connection to Ireland, I thought of the great Van Morrison. Why? Because his songs seem to fit Texas ears and, also, he’s known sometimes as The Belfast Cowboy. Online you can find that his formal name is “Sir George Ivan Morrison,” as he is an officer in the Order of the British Empire (OBE). 
So in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, we’ll post (a) THIS STUDIO VERSION OF DAYS LIKE THIS and a slightly more animated version of DAYS LIKE THIS BY THE BELFAST COWBOY AT A festival in Poland. 
And we’ll close with an optimistic line from the song: “When no one steps on my dreams there'll be days like this.”
—- Offer optimism by clicking on ‘comment’ below or by emailing [email protected] and type “DON’T STOMP MY DREAMS, DUDE” in the subject line. —-