EDITION OF TUESDAY-WEDNESDAY, FEB 20-31, 2024 [PetPowellPress] The online calendar Holiday Insights lists February 20 as Love Your Pet Day. We celebrate it every day, of course.
[LARRY ASIDE: These dogs were snapped as I was typing this on Tuesday morning. The big lug of a dog is Dudley the Angel, a consistently happy fellow — he’s an executive administrator in our household. The other dog you may recognize as my Office Dog Porche Noel. Sometimes when she sleeps almost on her office bed she appears to dream that she is a stingray — inexplicable, I think. I can’t recall her ever having seen a stingray, but she has her own TV, of course.]
And while the Holiday Insights folks say the “day" has existed since “the middle 2010s” on “internet websites,” they also say there’s no “congressional records or presidential proclamation” creating such a national day. So, readlarrypowell.com will simply declare Intergalactic Love Your Office Dog/Office Cat Day. I can’t imagine an intelligent planet anywhere in the universe without dogs or cats. I can, based on experience, imagine intelligent planets without human beings — every now and then I think Earth comes close to qualifying. Read this next tip on a news story:
CONSIDER THIS STORY
IN USA TODAY - TODAY
The story by USA Today writer Mark Ramirez reads, “Nearly a million more pets are crowding the nation’s animal shelters and facilities compared to three years ago, with more dogs than cats being euthanized last year for the first time since one major animal advocacy organization began tracking those figures in 2016.” Here’s the LINK (it was working when I posted it) TO USA TODAY ANIMAL SHELTERS/ANIMALS IN CRISIS story.
AN UPDATE ON MOONEY
THAT’LL MAKE YOU SMILE
OK, Dear Readers, you may remember when we first started writing about the little dog Mooney and veteran rescuer/advocate Kimberly Jones’ efforts to bail him out of a manmade jam. It was earlier in February.
Someone on a neighborhood bulletin board was trying to give this sick-as-a-dog (for lack of a better term) puppy. Kimberly knew that was certain doom for the dog and she didn’t want the dog to go to someone who didn’t know how to try to help him or would just let him die from untreated ailments— of which there were and are several.
He was starving, suffering from effects of parvo and possibly blind — plus he was having “neurologic issues” and … well, the list goes on. That’s a photo of Mooney from early in his treatments.
How’d he do over the long weekend?
Kimberly reports, “Mooney is doing well. He has a huge appetite and is always hungry. He gets to exercise and run around each time I take him outside to potty.”
As you may suspect, Mooney’s medical care is continuing. And Kimberly writes to Mooney’s fans, “I don't want to keep emailing everyone every day and filling up your emails when we are just waiting to see the neurologist on Monday... But I'm adding an update daily to the GoFundMe if you want to keep up with him until then. Thank you all for your support. I may have to add to my goal on the GoFundMe depending on what they say/do at the neurologist and how much the MRI costs (hopefully not $3000 like I've heard 😣).”
Here is that gofundme link: https://gofund.me/8cce6087
And if you click on THIS LINK you can click on the movie and see a happy boy “motoring around,” as Kimberly describes it. It’s worth the click! Heck, maybe worth10 or 15 clicks!
[LARRY NOTE: Yes, you see the formerly nearly inert little guy Mooney making a vigorous walk and all of you folks familiar with happy dogs can guess easily what event he is happily walking toward. Good boy, Mooney!]
ELARA — SWEET BUT TIMID
AND WAITING IN MESQUITE
Is this not a beautiful dog? We got her story from volunteer dog-writer Debra Chisholm at Mesquite Animal Services. She writes, “Elara is a sweet, but timid and attractive girl that arrived as a stray at the Mesquite Animal Shelter on 2/13. Elara weighs 45 pounds and is about 2 years of age.
“This attractive girl has the soft fur and beautiful blue eyes of the Siberian Husky breed. She is truly a sweetheart but has not as yet acclimated to the shelter environment.
“She is nervous and uneasy. She is not unfriendly but is cautiously friendly. She walks nicely on a leash. Elara seems to have been well-cared for and yet, sadly, her people have not come looking for her. She is active and alert and was restless in the shelter yard during her photo shoot. We will be working with her to help her feel more confident and trusting. She likes treats and yet doesn't know to sit for them.”
Cite her ID #55271965 when you call the shelter at 972-216-6283 or email rescues@
cityofmesquite.com.
There are not only plenty of adorable/adoptable dogs but also adoptable/adorable cats at the Mesquite Shelter. And if you click on this LINK you’ll see many available dogs and cats.
This cat probably has a name — in the community of cats, you know — might be “Fluffy” to the other ferals. But for now he or she is #55283935, one of the occupants of the Feral Room at Mesquite Animal Services. The stats for this cat are largely unknown, i.e., nobody’s gotten close enough to check out what’s hidden by that magnificent coat of cat fur in the “boy/girl area of determination. So, we’ll just tell you what we know from the shelter bio: Came in on Feb. 15, species is “cat,” color is “yellow” and the magnificent coat is “Domestic Medium Hair Mix.” [LARRY ASIDE: We’ve had cats through the years that started out as “feral” and wound up as “couch potatoes” and “adorable cuddlers” and experts at buying profit-making stocks. I made that last part up. Nobody in our family is good at picking hot stocks.]
CONTEMPLATIONS
RHINOS, SPACE AND OTHER NOTES
Sometimes I accidentally find out about things in the news. Like Tuesday morning when I caught a glimpse of a CBS News story on my computer screen. The headline read “Satellite To Crash Through Earth’s Atmosphere This Week.” [LARRY ASIDE: Not sure you can "crash through" air -- you might plunge through it, sail through it, fall through it...but crash?] The report addresses the return to earth of a satellite — without fuel or power or anything working. It’ll be making an “uncontrolled return through the Earth’s atmosphere.” The expert’s say it’s unlikely the satellite will hit anybody on Earth. So, here’s the reason I bring this up:
I hope you read our weekend edition of Let Sleeping Dogs Die and Napping Cats Nap. Neither species was our focus. How big is this satellite? “Weighs as much as an adult male rhinoceros,” the experts say. And our topic over the weekend was a slumbering Rhinoceros — the “babygirl” Rhino Masiki, the darling of the Wildlife World Zoo, Aquarium & Safari Park in suburban Phoenix. That’s a photo off Masiki and her mom — thanks to our source, Jolene Westerling, Director of Social Media and Events at the park (and cousin to our Eastern Seaboard Bureau Chief Andy Fisher who, with wife Annie, lives with famed cat Chloe). … Jolene also included this photo of Masiki trotting away from the camera -- might have been after a news release focusing on "What's it like to be one of the rarest animals ever to be born in the State of Arizona?"
IF ANY READER CATCHES A DESCENDING RHINO-SIZED SATELLITE on Wednesday, please let us know. Not sure satellites are cleared for landing in the Greater Metrosprawl, though depending on the angle, our backyard is big enough. We’ll print some “Media Admission” tags if any reporters show up to check out the landing zone. Oh, man, that would be a madhouse! Our dogs would bark! Our cats would call their lawyers.
—- Offer Umbrella Advice for Satellite Shields by clicking on ‘comment’ below or by emailing [email protected] and put “DEAR DOOFUS: DUCK AND COVER” in the subject line. —-
