HOUSTON DOGS, OKLAHOMA DOGS, DEAF DOG & LOOKING BACK: JOHN FRED & HIS PLAYBOYS

EDITION OF MONDAY, APRIL 15, 2024 [PetPowellPress] Ah, Monday in America. Let’s just jump happily into — wait. This is the American income tax day. I have no idea what that means to people who got a great deal on paying off their college loans. I also had no college loans. I got car loans instead. Needed a way to get to junior college for a year and a half while holding down a nighttime reporter job. Moving along — and bless the animals and their human protectors. My office cat, William Powell, charged a giant fee to do our taxes. He’s very happy. FYI: We’ll get to some John Fred music in CONTEMPLATIONS.
TWO DOGS IN HOUSTON
NEED A QUICK BIT O’ HELP
The story on these two came to us from our pal Alexandra Kelsey in Houston.
She wrote, “Two bonded girls found a nice lady's porch and wanted to relax and stay forever. But, the family is going through the Full-Plate stage of life, dealing with a cancer patient, and they cannot keep the dogs.”

And AK adds, “I am sure I can get backing for the dogs, if we can get rescue help. If you can help these very
sweet dogs, there is a phone number in the email, or you need more information, please email me at [email protected] or call 832.275.8561."
The original appeal, written by the person who is protecting them, reads, “Desperately need help as these two beautiful, very sweet and friendly female dogs have been dumped at my house.  I am unable to care for them as my husband is undergoing chemo and very ill.  These dogs are bonded together and not chipped.  Looking for immediate help to find a wonderful forever home for both, or fostering until adoption.
“Please circulate to all your contacts, and call me with any leads or possibilities.  Thank you so very much.  Shirley.”
FROM HOUSTON, WE GO TO
A BIG HEART IN OKLAHOMA
(YEP, RESCUER TERRY LYNN FISHER)
[LARRY EXPLANATION] Most recently we’ve been watching the legend of Burns Flat, Okla., Terry Lynn Fisher try to rescue dogs dumped in “the middle of nowhere” north of Burns Flat near a major busy highway, I-40. We’ll shorthand this: She got two out of the four dumped pups early on and now has another one, but the one missing disappeared and it is feared the dog fell to natural mayhem among the coyotes. We’re working on that story. But for now, take a look at this note from Terry Lynn. She writes from the heart, as you will see.]

From her heart, Terry Lynn wrote: “I am so freaking furious right now.  It’s taking all I have not to totally go off on someone
“ I got a call Friday about someone needing to re-home  a dog I spent a couple hours finding a place   Finally found rescue in Tulsa  
“They were supposed to come Saturday. They ended up needing someone to meet half way   I wasn’t in town today so I couldn’t.  Of course, the owner wouldn’t  they rarely do.
“ I told her the soonest I could take would be Monday     She said she was going to look for a home near by.
“Another lady sent me the picture with the quills    It’s the same dog    She said she gave it to a guy in the next town over — 15 miles away    But the dog was found like this just north of our town.
“Now it needs medical help ASAP.  She said she will find out what happened ... I know what happened   They dumped the poor dog   
“Y’all,   I need help.  Fast.  I’ll have to take it to Oklahoma City tomorrow to an emergency vet   I don’t know of any so I know I won’t have credit allowed.
“I’m sick over this, If anyone can help please let me know,
“First picture is what she sent to me.   Second is now.”
Email Terry Lynn @ [email protected].
MEANWHILE, IN MESQUITE
HERE’S A STARVING DOG…
[LARRY ASIDE: And he’s a deaf dog — no big deal as long as it’s no big deal to his humans, I suspect. Dogs adapt better than humans.]
The biographer of this guy Kurtis, volunteer Jamie Dotson, pegged it perfectly in this sentence: “Sweet Kurtis, you can tell, hasn’t had the best life so far.” And she added, “He is a 2-year-old neutered Argentine Dog mix that weighs 74 pounds.” He came in as a stray on April 5.”He’s clearly underweight — look at the boniness of his backside. His coat is hardly primo. Jamie writes, “He is underweight and appears to have lived outside as seen by scrapes and cuts on his arms.” [LARRY ASIDE: 'Arms' may be translated as "legs," as you know. Sometimes they're just so human!]
And Jamie writes that Mesquite “will care for him ’til he finds his loving forever home. When I told him this, he had the biggest smile on his face. He may not be able to hear me say that, but by the care, affection we have shown him, he knows we will. He is a very handsome boy that walks OK on a leash, tho he pulls a bit, and takes treats gently. He walked up our stand in the yard, and raised his head up to enjoy the sunshine on his face. He doesn’t appear to know any hand signals, but he would love to learn.” Potential adaptors might want to dog-test him to see if the and other dogs will get along, Mesquite suggests.
Jamie says he needs his “own secured yard to investigate and run in, but live indoors with his human companions. Though he didn’t show any interest in the other dogs in the bay, if you do have another dog in the home please be sure to ask the shelter for a dog test.
“If you can provide him with the special care he needs, help him learn hand signals, then he is the right pup for you!”
To ask about Kurtis, cite his ID #55668564 when you call the shelter at 972-2126-6283 or email [email protected].
CONTEMPLATIONS
A THANK-YOU MISSED….
This is a thank-you I missed — there are a ton of them. These are people I didn’t thank for their acting or songs or writing or …well, you know. People who gave us relief in life and we just didn’t have a way to say “Thanks for using your talents to make the world a happier place if only for a little while.” April 15 is the anniversary of the day in 2005 that the musical world lost a fellow named John Fred Gourrier (May 8-1941-April 15, 2005.) I first "met"him -- in the radio sense -- when his records were on Shreveport's KEEL-AM, the hot rock radio in the ‘60s at 710 AM. One of my high school buddies tipped me to his hot album 34:40 of John Fred and His Playboys. I still have a copy of it in a box in the garage — I don’t have a record player. The future was never kind to my record collection. But in honor of John Fred — a baseball coach, a basketball coach and a rock ’n’ roll star from Baton Rouge, here’s a link to the album at Soundcloud.com. 
  Some may call this “swamp rock” — but it really listenable if you’re young as I am in your rock heart.  The band’s big hit was Judy in Disguise. … John Fred and His Playboys were rocking’ along about the time The New Beats and The Uniques - country star Joe Stampley’s band — were emerging in Louisiana and the culturally hip 4-States Area of my misguided youth..
That 710 AM radio signal carried up the Red River from Shreveport into Texarkana. I think I was trying to translate Latin when these fellows were surfing’ the big wave of the English Invasion.
This may mean nothing to anyone who grew up in a car with a satellite radio.
—- Offer musical history or advice by clicking on ‘comment’ below or simply sing along with Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come.” —