SOMETIMES THE CHALLENGE IS FOCUSING; SOMETIMES IT ISN'T; SAVE CRITTERS BY TYPING

EDITION OF LATE WEDNESDAY/THURSDAY FEB. 7-8, 2024 [PetPowellPress] Anybody else having trouble organizing your life, your housework, you daily responsibilities? My urge is to blame something — weather, international attitudes or lack of sleep. That is my young Junior Office Cat Stevie Ray Treeboy lounging Wednesday afternoon on his official “Scratching Chair” as I try to type complete sentence after complete sentence without committing a comma blunder, a misspelling or a typographical cuh tass tro pheeee. Let’s move on before I sin agin.
TAKING A LOOK AT SOME
ADOPTABLE ADORABLES
In our previous edition we posted the story of Wiggles (#55161730) at the Mesquite Animal Shelter and we promised to spotlight some of the Mesquite animals that were mentioned in the same appeal.
Same system is still in place. Pick the animal, get the shelter ID number and call the shelter at 972-216-6283 or email [email protected]
We got the story on Wiggles — cute dog — from volunteer Mesquite Shelter dog-writer Debra Chisholm who wrote, “She is appropriately named because her tail rarely stops wagging and she is so happy and excited that she wiggles all over!"
And here are the dogs we promised we’d mention in this edition.
Check out that face and the markings! Debra writes, “This happy-go-lucky girl is Daphne [#55183073], picked up by one of our officers as a stray on 1/29 …She is listed as an American Bulldog.” Daphne, at about 2, weighs 60 pounds and, as Debra writes, “You will note that in all of her pictures she appears to have a big grin on her face! She has so much enthusiasm and just seems happy to be alive!
“Unfortunately, this sweet girl does not have an owner looking for her at the shelter… [She] is OK with joining with another family or person who will stay committed to her. She walks well on a leash, but does have a bit of a strong pull. That may be because as soon as she entered the yard, she did her business! She had fun doing zoomies all around the yard even though it is wet due to so much rain. She didn’t seem to mind getting mud on her feet because she was having such a great time stretching her legs! She will sit for treats, and she takes them nicely. This is a girl with an extra dose of energy and she would love to be in a home in which she would get daily playtime, exercise, and enrichment. … Daphne is friendly and happily allowed me to pet her, especially if I had a treat in the other hand!”
DEBRA REFERRED TO PHOENIX as an “attractive youngster” and explained that he came in as a stray on the 29th. He’s about a year old, weighs 50 pounds and “has a mellow demeanor, is calm, well-behaved and doesn’t jump on you. He is a gentle soul! He did his business as soon as he got out into the shelter yard. He also climbed up on our play equipment in search of some yummy treats he saw me put there (very observant fella)! He walks quite nicely on a leash. Phoenix does not seem to know any commands, nor is he interested in toys or balls. His main focus was on the receiving of treats! He is amiable and had no issues with me giving him pets and loving!” Phoenix is #55183076 when you contact the shelter at 972-216-6283 or email [email protected].
As Debra writes, “This big handsome boy is Xavier, a German Shepherd picked up by one of our officers as a stray on 1/28 … He weighs 66 pounds and is approx two years old. This lively, active and high-spirited boy was thrilled to pieces to play Sherlock Holmes in the yard sniffing out all the various smells, and wondering what dogs left all those interesting scents. He is curious and stood on the bench, looking through the window at the dogs across the hallway in their various kennels.
“Xavier walks well on a leash. He loved the yummy treats I offered him. He does not appear to know any commands but seems like a smart boy, and could doubtless respond to obedience training! Xavier would be delighted to have his stay at the shelter be a brief one.”
Xavier is #55175224. Use that ID number when you call the shelter at 972-216-6283 or email [email protected].
Sienna is a year-old, 35-pound terrier mix who came in as a stray on January 31, Debra reports. She’s #55195096.
Debra writes, “She is uneasy in the shelter environment, nervous, and a little timid. She has a low to moderate activity level. She was not interested in toys or balls. She does not seem to know any commands. This very likable girl takes treats and does so gently. She is friendly and wants to be close to a human companion. Whenever I sat down during the photo session, she would come over and put her paws on my knees and want to be close. She was more than happy to be petted and loved on.
“I noticed that when I went to pet her, she would sometimes flinch.  She will discover as time goes on that the staff and volunteers at the shelter want the best for her and want her to be as comfortable as possible until she walks out the front door on the way to her very own special forever home.”
Sienna is #55195096 — use that ID when you call the shelter at 972-216-6283 or email [email protected].
You can see these animals and many more by going to the Mesquite Animal Shelter’s website HERE.
You’ll see dogs and cats. Yes, cats. Among them? This girl Marley (#55221137) is 7 months old — she came into the shelter on Feb. 5 and she’s available. She’s a medium-sized Domestic Shorthair Mix waiting in the Cat Room at the shelter. And there are several other female black kittens waiting — may be kin, may not be kin.
Remember this note from Debra: “We are desperately overfull at our shelter, and need some rescues and adoptions into loving homes, so please help if you are able.”
CONTEMPLATIONS
A CITY, ROMANCE AND A ROMAN TALE
OK, let’s be honest. Check one — only one — of these:
I despise Dallas because of the traffic.
I dislike from my heart the euthanasia.philosophy in the animal shelter, thus I despise the way so many Dallas residents disrespect their animals to death.
I despise Dallas because it is constantly changing, wiping out familiar areas for the sake of progress.
You don’t have to despise Dallas to respond to this two-bit survey. I’m also not sure the freeway merger routes of I-30 east and west and I-35 north and south were not planned by a comedian who thought it would be a great place to have a laugh during rush hour,
DALLAS THINGS I MISS? The big green building just being green. … Reunion Arena …. Taxco’s restaurant downtown. I spell that right? The sign’s gone and I can’t check my spelling. But I miss the food. I should miss more food, my docs tell me. … A chance that the Dallas Cowboys would have a big stadium in Downtown Dallas. … Grumbles Hamburgers in the West End. And I also miss the vibrant early West End, too, and The Old Spaghetti Warehouse. Am I food-centric or what? . … The El Fenix on Colorado just over the river bridge from downtown. That doesn’t have to do with food. It has to do with passion. My funspouse Martha and I “dated” there (as did her parents decades earlier. We were’t the only romantics in town who spent time there. What happened? It’s been bulldozed in favor of a multi-storied building without the soul or aromas of that El Fenix! Same fate that got Polar Bear Ice Cream on the other side of the block. Took my kids there when they were toddlers. … Every now and then I miss living in Dallas. But I get over it. I sit down and I work on my novel exposing the truth about … WAIT! I can’t go into that without my lawyer’s OK. …
TRUE ROMANCE? Have you been paying attention to the flap about Taylor Swift’s romance with Kansas City Chief Travis Kelce? These star/athlete romances are nothing new in America. Even Shakespeare had the title for this situation: Much Ado About Nothing. This isn’t anything new in the word.
FOR EXAMPLE: I REMEMBER READING IN MY LATIN STUDIES that the Roman gladiator Sharpus Spearus was having a fling with Distractda Bladeus when she winked at him and an enemy’s sword nipped Sharpus’ nose and changed his legendary profile. You probably read about that in your history books. Distractda is credited with looking at the tip of Sharpus’ nose on the arena sand between his sandals and announcing,
“Amor nasum in faucibus reliquit. Vale nasal tuum. Sic friat crustulum.”
I”ll translate what Distractda said: “Love left with the tip of your nose. Farewell to your nose. That’s the way the cookie crumbles.”
I might have made up the Roman romance part of this item. The translation is, however, accurate according to my on-line source at Latin Translation.
FYI: There is no truth to the tale in Rome that my twin boys were originally named Romulus and Remus because my grandmother Annie Mae Thatcher’s family could be traced back to Roman Emperor Caligula. We named ‘em after literary giants: Freddy and Flossie, the Bobbsey Twins. OK, I made that up. The boys are Bret and Bart, coincidentally the names of the Maverick brothers on TV, and my little boys are very forgiving of my attempts at humor. And so are their lawyers.
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