ReadLarryPowell.com

MUSING ABOUT THE FUTURE OF LITERATURE, SLEEPING DOGS & NAPPING CATS -- SORT OF

    Once upon a time a guy with a low-profit past and a murky future as an unbelievably wealthy writer flopped onto his bed with his handy notepad, a couple of pens and some inspiration that vanished.
    He was quickly accompanied by his loyal canine companion Porche Noel, a dog with more than 15 years of experience as both a writer’s inspiration and a well-paid advisor in key moments of literary stress.

    Porche Noel had won her job at Christmas in 2009 by agreeing that the Oxford comma was needless punctuation in American English. "Needless," she snarled. It is difficult for a dog to bark “Needless,” but she really wanted the job and she’s an achiever.
    Back to the photograph that opens this edition of Let Sleeping Dogs Lie & Napping Cats Nap.
    The picture, as you can see, has both a sleeping dog and some napping cats. And you see to the right the left foot of the guy shooting pictures with a phone in the 21st Century.
[LARRY NOTE: That phrasing “see to the right the left” is almost clever, isn’t it? Some readers will be right in the middle on judging the success of that wordy gimmick.]
   It is not often that this particular individual human gets sleepy in either the daytime or the nighttime. He'll stay awake nights wondering if he's an insomniac.
   Still, with faith in his Slumber Indicators, he stumbled from his office, careened down the hall to the bed in hopes of achieving what normal humans refer to as a “refreshing nap.”
  While desperately sleepy (until he crash-landed on the mattress), the would-be wealthiest writer in Texas quickly got un-sleepy. His eyes popped open like the hood on a fancy electric car. [Did you see the news this week? Headline read “Tesla recalls 1.8 million cars because their hoods can open while driving.” That’ll keep a driver awake, right?]
Back to the guy on the bed. His plotting-while-paragraphing brain had slapped shut like the open path to the goal-line for a Dallas Cowboys running back in the playoffs.
    Suddenly the hack writer was reduced to sports comparisons — it was like running for office without a 3-point shot. Or trying to hit a curve ball with a tight grip on a handful of spaghetti. [LARRY NOTE: You see now why my career as a sportswriter at The Shreveport Times didn’t last much longer than a 100-yard dash.]
    So, in summation, we have no plot, our characters are not well-formed and we have no agent.
[LARRY ASIDE; This stretch of weekend prose is what happens when we have photos of no other sleeping/napping animals than critters fully employed by readlarrypowell.com. They think I’m probably going to win Lotto Texas and bail ‘em out of this minimum-wage existence. For the sake of my dogs and cats, send photos of your sleeping dogs and napping cats to [email protected]. With your help, readlarrypowell.com will give ‘em a loving weekend spotlight.]
CONSIDERATIONS
IN A CLOSING SEGMENT
    It may be time to write a biography of former U.S. Congressman from Tennessee, the honorable David Crockett. We’ll call it “The Cowtown Coonskin Cap Caper.” Ol’ Davy didn’t go straight to San Antonio when he first came to Texas. In this story, he stopped in Texarkana to get photographed while standing with one foot in Texas and one in Arkansas. Then he rode a local mule to Dallas, swapped it for a higher-price-than-expected prairie pony from a guy named Ford (some say it was the first Mustang) and moseyed on to Fort Worth. Before he left Cowtown, he penned a note
for Robert LeRoy Parker and Henry Longabaugh reminding them "You boys behae yerselves." Who? Oh, come on. Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid — two once-upon-a-time kings of Cowtown.
    Whatever turns up in the tale, credit for authorship will go to the girl with the faux flower collar, Porche Noel. She adores the collar her devoted companion, Larry “Madly Typing” Powell, bought her one afternoon when he went to a pet store looking for dog treats, cat food and inspiration for a novel. Two outta three, yep, two outta three.
   As you see, in addition to the “Afternoon Sprawl” photo, I’ve included mugshots of the two cats nodded off with Porche. Me? No picture, except of my well-socked foot and a layer of cat hair in that photo with Stevie Ray. I was in my socks because I’m careful with my soul. What? Oh. It’s “sole.” Good catch, Porche. The cat with the blue eyes -- that's Hastings, a kitten I rescued from Hastings Street in Duncanville.
    In summation: You'd think a person would be able to build a best-seller on the foundation of a free Dallas dog, a free Dallas kitten (Stevie Ray) and a free Duncanville kitten. We'll work on it. Senior Office Cat William Powell -- a very stern manager of the operation --says he'll schedule some time or us.
[SEND YOUR SLEEPING DOG, NAPPING CAT, SNOOZING IN-LAW photos to [email protected]. We’ve been posting these slumbering critters every weekend since May 14, 2005. That’s more than 19 years. Yes, unlike the last time the Dallas Cowboys won a Super Bowl (Jan. 28, 1996), Let Sleeping Dogs Lie & Napping Cats Nap is from THIS century.]

TWO FRIDAY UPDATES: DOGS NEEDING HOMES? (SURPRISE…SURPRISE…ETC...)

This extra Friday edition is directly related to the earlier Friday edition just below. We’ve got not only a dog named Snooky, but we also have a dog named Wormy in the second Friday edition. And you’ll recognize the humans helping them --veterans at this never-ending mission.  Here’s our extra report for Friday:
BIANCA’S RUNNING BUDDY,
THE SHAGGY SNOOKY
We’ll start with a Mesquite follow-up. If you scroll down to the official Friday edition of readlarrypowell.com you’ll see a report on several animals from Mesquite, including this beautiful Great Pyr Bianca. We got her report from Judi Brown, one of the volunteer dog biographers at Mesquite Animal Services. She told us that Bianca was found running around with a little guy that is called Snooky.  [LARRY CONFESSION: I couldn’t find Snooky’s bio on the shelter website. But overnight, in the inbox, I got his bio from Judi’s dog-writing colleague Debra Chisholm. So now we have photos and the stories of both of these “Roaming Dog Pals, big Bianca and little Snooky.]
Debra’s bio of Snooky begins, “Have you ever had a bad hair day? Snooky has had many bad hair days as he’s not only shaggy but very matted. He’s still adorable and will be even more so once he’s been groomed.
“Snooky is a 1-year-old, approximately 20-pound sandy/copper-colored poodle. He came to the Mesquite Animal Shelter on 7/25 along with Bianca, the Great Pyrenees. They are probably from the same household. Snooky stays very close, looking up at you with adoring eyes. It’s obvious he wants to please. He knows the sit command and takes treats gently. He’s very sweet, affectionate, calm, well-mannered, alert, and gentle. How’s that for a series of positive attributes? He didn’t have a problem with other dogs. He walked OK on a leash. … As small as he is, he could go with you almost anywhere. With his easy-going disposition he probably would do well with young children. He did tell me, though that he wants to be an inside dog. The heat bothers him and he loves comfortable couches.”
Snooky’s shelter ID is #56433178. Cite that number when you call the shelter at 972-216-6283 or email [email protected]. Same system for contacting the shelter about Bianca, the beautiful and charming Great Pyrenees. She’s #56433166. [LARRY REMINDER: Scroll down to read about Bianca in our earlier edition — there are other animals, too.]
THAT BRINGS US TO
A PUP CALLED ‘WORMY’
We got the story of Wormy from our longtime rescue pal and reliable tipster Tomi Ortiz. She most recently helped us keep up with the story of Sunny, the big, thick-coated pup who’d been handed around by relatives and wound up having to live outside in this heat.
Things got better for Sunny and now the goal is to help things get better for Wormy.
Tomi wrote to us, “Well Larry, after a happy story about Sunny comes a sad story about Wormy (not sure how he got that name)!
“As usual some dog parents (if you can even call them that) have failed in understanding when you get a dog it is a 15yr+ commitment!
“Yesterday [Wednesday] my brother reached out about Wormy the Pittie who must find a home soon or be taken to shelter as an owner surrender. Which we all know…they might as well put the needle in him themselves!
“His owners are moving into an apartment where no dogs are allowed. He is almost a year-old, not neutered, great with kids, not sure about cats. I’m hoping some of the luck that we had with Sunny might rub off on Wormy! I must at least try to help.”
To help Tomi help this dog find a home that understands the need for love in a dog’s heart, email  [email protected].
[LARRY ASIDE: If we had room, I’d adopt him just so I could give him a more noble, adorable and loving name. Yes, a loving name.]
CONTEMPLATIONS
FOR A FRIDAY IN THE HEAT
If you were to be challenged “Name something constant in Dallas/Fort Worth,” you could confidently answer “Dogs and cats on the clock in taxpayer-financed city animal shelters.” ….
Sometimes when I see all the new animal notes In the in-box and on the Facebook pages, etc., I am moved to sarcastically invoke the spirit of Gomer Pyle and shake my head while lamenting “Surprise. Surprise. Surprise.”
I'll may even be moved to ask: What is wrong with the people around here? Then I remember, this ain’t Mayberry, This is Dallas/Fort Worth and dogs and cats constantly need a good break. Fortunately, there are a lot of good-hearted souls working for the animals in Dallas/Fort Worth, Etc. …
The "ETC" represents all the good hearts who live in this sprawl that has paved a larger section of the United States than the surface of the moon. Oh, I made that measurement up — I have no idea how much pavement there is on roads, driveways and parking lots in the greater DFW area. I just know that I hardly ever see a county road-grader leveling a gravel road these days. And if I’m on a gravel road, you can bet your asphalt that I, my car and my phone are lost.
—- Offer advice or respectable names for animals by clicking on “comment” below or by emailing [email protected] and put “NAME-DON’T SHAME-YOUR DOG.” —-