LOOKING BACK AT D-DAY; LOOKING TO PEACEFULLY HELPING ANIMALS

EDITION OF TUESDAY, JUNE 6, 2023/WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7, 2023 [PetPowellPress] For some reason I was suddenly awake at 3 a.m. this morning. First thought was “darned insomnia” (or words close to that). I knew I’d awakened on the morning of June 6. God bless America. I had help with discerning the date — my phone calendar lights up and my vision’s still good enough to see big, bright numbers.
D-Day. The Normandy Invasion. June 6, 1944. You read about it in the history books — I hope to High Heaven. If it hadn’t been for the Americans and Allies invading Europe, I might not have been able to survive typing either one of these freedom of speech sentences: (A) The fuhrer was a misguided soul. Or (B) The White House has hosted more clowns than a Ringling Bros. Circus Tent. 
No offense to circus clowns. We’ll look into the day in Contemplations. Don’t expect answers; we’ll clumsily admit that we’re still puzzled by human behavior.
THE CHALLENGES THAT EXIST
IN THE SMALL SHELTERS?
Inadequate budget? Inadequate staffing? Inadequate visibility?
Ah, but there is no such thing in a Texas shelter as “inadequate inventory.”
We’ve been watching these challenges for decades now. Here are two dogs who need places to go that they can call “home.” 
We’ve mentioned them before — sometimes the cases are tougher to resolve than they look at the outset.
These two first popped up on our screen thanks to the folks at 4-Legged Helpers, the non-profit that focuses on small shelters needs.
Lainey is the Weim/Pointer/Possibly Rhodesian Mix and her bio reads: “Just the saddest situation.  This girl has been waiting since last September for her forever home or rescue. SEPTEMBER!!!!  Someone fostered her for a long period of time to help but now she is back at the shelter. Still hoping. Still waiting. She is spayed, all vaccs. Can you imagine waiting for someone this long? Please.
"So deserving!!!  Found out and about with two Heeler puppies that a rescue pulled.  We think they were probably hers. She is SO VERY cute and sweet.”
Reid, the Boxer/Basenji Mix is a fellow who is “wonderful with other dogs! Including all male dogs! Reid is a wonderful boy that was found out and about on his own. Everyone that has met him loves him. Such a sweetie pie!  He has been hoping and waiting for such a long time - and we have no idea what.  He is SUCH A GREAT DOG.”
These dogs each have a substantial donation that will go with them to a 501c3 that takes the dog. Or you can adopt the dog — not for money, but for love. To ask about Lainey and/or Reid, call or text 214-949-2726 or email [email protected].
IN THE BIG DALLAS SHELTER,
THE CLOCK IS ALWAYS TICKING
We got the tip on this guy Ghost (LARRY ASIDE: Bad name for a dog on the clock in a city shelter around here) from the Facebook group Dallas Urgent Shelter Dogs HERE.
The appeal for Ghost reads. “Adopt/Rescue —Pre-lab-Space” which I believe is interpreted as available for adoption or rescue and he’s in the “pre-lab” status just before he’s euthanized for “space” reasons at the City of Dallas’ big shelter.
Ghost is A1170332. He’s 2 years old, weighs 77 pounds is neutered and heartworm negative. 
The bio reads, “Ghost has spent time coming in and our of our shelter since February of this year. Most recently he was brought back from a foster home because he did not do well with the children and other dogs in the home. Shelter staff has described as a sweet boy who walks well on leash. When visiting him for pictures he was pretty laid back and happy to get some treats. Due to space, Ghost is at risk of euthanasia. Email [email protected] if interested in tagging Ghost.”
While you can see the “urgent” Dallas dogs on Facebook HERE, you can navigate to the less-urgent (but still threatened) dogs and cats on the Dallas Animal Services website HERE: https://bedallas90.org.
Some of the listings have been affected by the recent ransomware challenge at Dallas City Hall. Ah, but the photos of this girl Pepper have been saved. Pepper (A1179197) is a 13-year-old Domestic Shorthair who, from the photos, has an appreciation of the art of relaxation. She weighs 11 pounds and is in the current care of a foster home. Also, you can adopt her without paying a fee. She just needs a home that’ll love a healthy adult cat who appreciates The Feline Art of Relaxation.
THIS WEEKEND OUT
AT THE LAKE?
Our tipster Sydney Busch of the Friends of the Animals at Cedar Creek Lake sends word that Saturday is Clinic Day in Gun Barrel City. 
|It’s the day the Friends host their Second Saturday Low Cost Vaccination/Microchip Clinic. It’s from 10 a.m. to noon at the Friends Spay/Neuter Clinic on the southeast corner of Highways 198 and 334 in Gun Barrel City. No appointment necessary, the announcement says.
But dogs must be on a leash and cats must be in carriers.
Prices? Rabies vaccination? $15. Parvo, distemper, etc., shot for dogs or the equivalent for cats? $17. Same price for the feline leukemia vaccination. [The Friends note, “There is a surcharge on each service for those animals not spayed/neutered to be reimbursed at time of or with proof of surgery.”]
The clinic “accepts most credit or debit cards, in addition to checks or cash.” And the vaccination clinic is “is open to everyone, anywhere.” 
Microchipping? A $25 fee and that includes the “permanent national registration.”
As you know, the Friends of the Animals at Cedar Creek Lake operate the world’s most successful spay/neuter clinic at Gun Barrel City, Texas. Gun Barrel City is a leisurely Texas highway drive southeast of the big metro sprawl.
CONTEMPLATIONS
A NOTE OF GRATITUDE…
From my Baby Boomer heart, as a longtime practitioner of freedom of expression and a supporter of the ability to vote for or against or to campaign out loud for change, I have sincere appreciation of the folks who went ashore June 6, 1944, and led the way to avoiding a horrible fate for all of mankind. My pop went in on D-Day Plus 2 or 3. “They were still shooting at us,” he once told me in an extremely rare discussion of his time in the U.S. Army. That's the post-induction war photo the Army sent to his mom when he was, as you can see, still a kid.  Like so many other GIs, he had that all-expenses paid walking tour of wartime Europe -- that included not only being wounded by shrapnel but also fighting his way with his outfit right up to the gate of a Concentration Camp, which they opened and set free. That scarred Pop for life. Take a look at the fresh, unmarked face on Pvt. John Calvin Powell. The war took that away. 
I could never imagine anybody hating my daddy so much they’d want to shoot him without ever having met him. Such is the nature of war, I guess. Pop never got over World War II — infantrymen have lasting memories. Maybe all people who go to war — any war — have the deep memories. 
When I was a little boy — maybe 4 or 5, I could see down the hallway from the our three brothers’ bedroom to Mom and Pop’s room in the 2 bedroom, 1 bath wood frame home on peaceful Hazel Street in Texarkana, Texas. The only chair in the folks' room was a rocking chair. Sometimes I’d awaken in the middle of the night and down the dark hall I’d see the red glow of a cigarette moving gently back and forth as my Pop sat in the rocker and smoked, trying to move past whatever scene from The War was keeping him awake. I wish I could hug him right now and tell him I’m finally old enough and have seen enough human behavior to understand why unwanted visions of the hell of war kept him awake. 
It wasn't a grand adventure; it was hell. Looking at all those graves in Normandy photos we see each June, we can comprehend that winning a war is always bittersweet. [That’s a 2003 photo of the American Military Cemetery at Normandy — taken by photographer Bjarki Sigursveinsson. It’s posted online.]
Oh, if only that big war could have been won without inflicting heartfelt suffering on mothers, fathers, wives, children, friends and others back home. Pain is deep and lasting, as story after story in the media has shown through the years. People still yearn for long-vanished soldiers, sailors and flyers to somehow manage to return. The loved ones still search for the tiniest hope in a remnant of DNA that science will confirm a bit of a human in a field or forest or on an island will prove to be the kid who once had a dream of an American life. He or she gave it up trying to save a world.
Add more places that provide history’s heartbreaks: Korea. Vietnam. The desert campaigns after 911. And, now, we’re wondering how this Russia thing is going to work out. Must these young people die so wisdom-impaired older rulers can rule in false glory? Humans — what a challenging species.
—- Offer opinions or peaceful notions by clicking on ‘comment’ below or by emailing [email protected] and put “Peace now, please!” in the subject line. —-