What? Rain on consecutive mornings in Dallas? Never happens.
Of course, it does rain cats and dogs around here all the time.It’s the last day of May and already the June special is in effect at Dallas Animal Services.
We’re going to talk cats a little bit today. You can see in that poster – click on it to make it larger – that Dallas Animal Services is more than ready to try to get what Readlarrypowell.com will call a “positive catflow” – you know, adoptions and rescues rather than the other thing. The one with the needle.
Lately, the Dallas shelter – and every other shelter in the area – has been overloaded with cats and kittens. We’ll touch on The Colony’s cats and remind you that Carrollton’s shelter eased some cats off the euthanasia list this week in hopes of placing them before next week.
Arlington? You bet they have cats in Arlington. Got a peahen, too. (Google Arlington Animal Services and you can see how to adopt this peahen for $7. ) Unless my studies at the American Academy of Ornithological Identification fails me, a "peahen" is the female of the peacock varity. I was absent the day they studied "peafowl" so I'm not sure if that fits this bird bettr than "peahen."
So, Irving got cats? Natch. Cats and dogs.
Pick a town, it’s got unwanted but available cats.
The City of Dallas Animal Services shelter is constantly loaded with unwanted animals. There’s no break. It’s like Niagara Falls. Take a look at the report (click on it to make it larger) that I lifted from the most recent Dallas Animal Shelter Commission meeting – March figures were the latest available at the time of the meeting – that was at the outset of “kitten season.” If you can read a chart, you can see how many cats and dogs come in and how many don’t leave.
Don’t blame the shelter – blame the people who let the animals roam or dumped them or ran them off. These animals had already been designated as “unwanted” by their owners.
So, the core of the problem is not within city government but within residents who just don’t give a flip about the animals.
Fort Worth got residents to respond to the threat of a mass killing of dogs.
The reality is whether it’s a steady flow or a mass event, animals are still killed at big city shelters because nobody outside the shelter wants them.
Look, again, please, at the figures in the Dallas chart. The only people who work to save those animals are the same worn down rescuers and organizers and city employees who steadily plug on.
For a couple of years now – ever since the “Let-the-Cat-Die-in-the-
Wall” tragedy, Dallas Animal Services has been partnering with rescue groups, opening up paths by which animals can be extracted and working with other shelters and agencies.
But the bottom line is too many animals come in, too few are saved. And why is that? Is it because the people who have homes don’t respond? Maybe. Maybe they’re not paying attention.
Maybe, also, it’s a case of the people who have the unwanted animals don’t have a problem treating them like trash. Tired of that dog? Dump him. That cat not entertaining enough? Run it off.
Seriously, what is a city shelter to do when residents keep delivering unwanted animals in droves?
It isn’t like there are unoccupied kennels and cages in a vast basement that had been built as a bomb shelter during the Cold War.
What’s the answer?
If you think you have one, go ahead and build your own shelter. To borrow from Field of Dreams, “If you build it, they will come and bring their animals.”
You’ll be full by sundown. Then what will you do? Set them free the next morning and declare a “do-over”?
In the meantime, Dallas Animal Shelter Adoption Center Manager Jody Jones, who has been operating with a short management staff (hiring process is under way) and short, inexperienced line staff since she arrived last year, says that adopt-a-cat month will also involve dogs. Adopt ‘em all – dogs and cats.
She says, “The promotion was set to launch June 1 but since the shelter was so crowded, they started earlier. To use restaurant terms, the place is “slammed” or it’s “in the weeds.”
How can the public help?[LARRY ASIDE: Look, this situation in Dallas is every bit as threatening on a daily basis as the situation in Fort Worth that caught the TV cameras and inspired people to line up to adopt animals. Inexplicably, people in Dallas do not react the way people in Fort Worth did. In Dallas, the reaction appears to be adding more animals to the shelter population, not gleefully taking them away to happy homes. What gives with this attitude? Help me off this soapbox before I snap some slats and fall onto my giant brain.]
Adopting animals from the shelter will help open cages for the next load of unwanted animals. People can be responsible for their animals, too, instead of just dumping the responsibility onto the city. Though, as Director Jones notes, it’s better that the animals come to a shelter than just be turned loose to starve, get hit by cars, create public threats with disease and behavior, etc.
Other things she says people can do:
-- Spay-neuter. “Tell your friends about the vast number of low cost and free options in our community,” she says.
--Keep your cats inside. (Larry aside: An indoor cat will wander from room to room, not yard to street or yard to shelter. They’re safer.)
--:Microchip and register your pets so they can be returned if they somehow wind up in the shelter.
--Educate and advocate for TNR programs – that’s trap-neuter-release which means that you catch a feral or stray cat, get it fixed, then return it to where you found it where it will live a natural life.
-- Donate small soft bedding and toys to your local shelter to help reduce stress in the animals at the shelter.
-- And her last suggestion off the top of her head is a marketing idea that refers people to the Dallas Animal Services website,. She suggests, “Distribute the Pet of the week cat to your friends, family and colleagues at work.”
These are simple things but they all help save lives. You can see how to adopt by going to www.dallasanimalservices.org. You can also drop by the shelter at I-20 and Westmoreland, just west of downtown Dallas.
It is worth the trip to see how vast this shelter is and how many animals are there because your friends, relatives, fellow taxpayers and village idiots don’t care.
We’re have further reports to come regarding Dallas Animal Services and its attempts to juggle tight budgets, public tendencies and big hearts.
With the help of a converted general public, we'll probably have this problem all wrapped up by October and I will be in a short red skirt and festive blouse and kicking it with the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall this Christmas.MEANWHILE IN THE COLONY: Our pal Patricia Barrington, the Animal Control Division Manager for The Colony, just north of Dallas, reports that the shelter is hustling to find homes for four kittens. Not just four ol’ kittens. Some extra special kittens. That orange cat is Otis. That big black cat is a dog, the Great Dane Archie. (Larry aside: They’re not much more trouble than a cat in that they’re usually in your place on the couch or in your chair.)
”We have 4 adorable kittens that we have painstakingly nurtured since they were each a few days old – bottle feeding some, surrogating others. Anyway, praise all higher powers, they are ready to be adopted.”
[Larry aside: We have seen the work of this shelter up close. For quite a few months the shelter “painstakingly nurtured” a butterscotch boy cat named Marsden. Our friend Jo Wallace needed a cat. We drove Jo from her home in a southern suburb to The Colony to meet Marsden. He curled up in her lap and they’ve been pals ever since. She’s nuts about Marsden and he’s crazy about her. And Marsden’s demeanor reflects the socialization he enjoyed at the hands of The Colony’s staff.]
To ask about giving any of the four “painstakingly nurtured” kittens a home, e-mail pbarrington@thecolonytx.gov or call 972-3370-9250. You can see more of The Colony’s adoptables by clicking HERE.BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR A BELOVED DOG: Marc Thibodeau is looking for his dog Kansas, a 9-year-old Lab, Chow and Husky mix who vanished from his boss’s backyard near Central at Fitzhugh on
May 8. He says Kansas “got out of her harness” and left the yard.
He says he has visited local shelters to look for her and had no luck.
”Kansas is a friendly dog but she does not do well with strangers and may seem mean if approached. She will not and never has bitten anyone but will snap if cornered or scared,” he says.
If you have seen her, call 469-546-5338 or e-mail inkmusclepup@gmail.com.
“She means the world to me and is my baby girl and it is killing me thinking how scared she must be out there all alone.”ENDANGERED IN ROCKWALL: We got a note from Rockwall Animal Shelter volunteers Patti Watson and Brian Jackson about two dogs that have been at that shelter for quite some time. And even though Rockwall is working hard to be no-kill, time is just about up for these two dogs.
Patti says that like all shelters, “this Spring we are busting at the seams with animals. Some have been there since November, including the two I am sending information about. These two are in big danger. They have been deemed too aggressive to go to adoption so now are ‘rescue only.’ And the sad part is we were told yesterday that we only have until Friday to get them rescued! So after spending 6 months in a shelter, they may now be killed anyway. “
The shelter information is that Ace (left) has been there for more than 200 days. “He isn't the most attractive dog in the shelter, certainly not the youngest, but he is a great dog. He loves to please you anyway he can. He would be a great dog for a single person or adults. He is due to be put down on Friday the 1st. He knows how to sit and shake.
“Jazzy … is distrustful of people. She will warm up to certain people and just be friendly as can be – but is particular about who she warms up to, which has made it hard for us to take her to events.”
The theory is the two formerly friendly dogs have become “cage crazy” in the shelter and it’s probably reversible if a rescue group can devote some time to them.
To ask about them, contact the shelter – click HERE. Email Patti at tricia1209@aol.com.
Patti says she knows saving these dogs is a longshot, “but I have to give everything I can think of a try.”BE ON THE LOOKOUT (CONTINUING): The folks with Animal Rescue of Texas continue to search for terrier Domino and Chihuahua Jolie, the two little dogs who ran away when the foster mom’s car was involved in a dramatic auto accident near Stonebriar Mall (Preston at 121 area) Sunday afternoon. The area has been searched and assorted blasts of posters and e-mails and publicity have failed to find the dogs. If you know their whereabouts, call 972-743-4022 or 214-697-6261 or e-mail barcsalot@sbcglobal.net.
THE FAIR PARK DOGS: A few weeks ago some animal-loving tipsters from the Museum of Science and History at Fair Park tipped us to a couple of dogs that had taken up residents in the park.
Longtime rescuer and animal fan Dealey Campbell, the Curator of Education at the Texas Historical Society, also at Fair Park, has been monitoring the dogs, too. She reports that the dogs “left the park for awhile, and were hanging out in the grassy areas over/under I-30. I was worried that they would get hit by a car, but they seem to be smart when it comes to traffic. Or maybe just lucky. As of late last week, however, they have returned to Fair Park. I saw them up close for the first time last Friday next to the Tower Building chasing squirrels as people loaded in for City Arts, and this morning [Wednesday] they were on the side of the Hall of State. My coworker gave them some kibble she keeps under her desk and I threw them each a rawhide bone.
”The German Shepherd looking one doesn’t seem to be wary of people and could ‘almost’ be persuaded to take the rawhide out of my hand (he seemed very sweet). The other dog, though, is a little more timid, but acts like s/he wants to trust people and is just scared.”
We mention these two dogs again in hopes of interesting a rescue group in saving a couple of dogs before parasites get them (it’s mosquito season), before something awful happens to them (always mishap season in Dallas) or before bad guys get them (always nitwit season in Dallas),
BITS O’ THINGS: The 2nd Annual Conference on Hoarding (not just animals, you know) is scheduled in Dallas on June 8. Get details HERE. …. What about puppy mills? Skip Trimble, the veteran animal advocate, has the answers when, as a representative of the Texas Humane Legislation Network, he is interviewed on “For the Love of Dogs” at 7:30 p.m. Saturday on Verizon Channel 27. Click to see HERE. CONTEMPLATIONS: How many times in a lifetime might a person visit an animal shelter if they’re not involved in animal rescue or advocacy? Two or three times? Tops? … Here’s something to consider. Finish the sentence: If I didn’t have my good dog/good cat I would spend my money on….? Yeah, we’d have a second home in Italy or something. ... Can’t let the day go without mentioning that the Texas Rangers were shellacked 21-8 by Seattle last night and that starter Derek Holland had famously shaved his legendarily lame moustache earlier in the day. Not that baseball players are ever superstitious, but after that beating, he’ll probably never shave again
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