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Journal friends rescue blue-eyed beauty

By S.K. Bardwell
Posted Monday, July 28, 2008

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Health warning: If you have a medical condition that makes it dangerous for you to have your heart warmed, skip the next six paragraphs.

Journal friend and neighbor Terry Bailey made a recent trip to Fort Worth to assist a family member who suffered a house fire. While everything that could be salvaged from the fire was being loaded into an RV, another vehicle slowed on the street nearby. Two dogs were ejected, and the vehicle sped away.

One of the dogs chased the vehicle, obviously thinking there had been a terrible mistake. My heart goes out to that animal – he’ll probably never understand what happened to him, or why.

The other dog, a Siberian Husky, made right for Bailey and company, which was a little disconcerting at first—huskies are big, big dogs. But this husky was only looking for refuge in a time of need, and he got it.

Now Bailey and Ron Pevey are caring for “Smokey,” who turned out to have heartworms and will need a lot of time and hundreds of dollars in medical care to become healthy again. They wonder if that’s why he was dumped. Smokey is grateful the way only a dog can be.

There need to be more people like Terry and Ron—people who are willing to accept responsibility because it needs to be accepted, not because it’s theirs. And look at Smokey’s eyes—how could anyone condemn him to the slow, painful death heartworms cause? I used to tell my late, lamented, blue-eyed cat, Buster, “If I had your eyes, I would rule the world.”

This story, and thousands like it, are why we will never pay for a dog or cat. There are too many dogs and cats out there who desperately need help, and who make the most wonderful pets.

As seen on TV!

Now that I’ve warmed your hearts, let’s talk about Dolly: First of all, I’m very sorry for anyone who suffered damage and/or injury in the storm but, second of all, that wasn’t nearly as much rain as I’d hoped for.

However, Dolly was not without value to me: I got to watch reporters, local and national, trying to hurricane their careers. Yeah, I know it isn’t a verb, but it should be. Ever since a live report from Galveston’s Seawall during Hurricane Carla in 1961 vaulted Dan Rather from relative obscurity at Houston’s Channel 11 to CBS and fame, reporters have been trying to achieve the same result.

The trouble is, it’s been done. It’s expected now. Even in the very best circumstances, reporters in hurricanes can only look like they’re doing their jobs. And sometimes they reach too far and end up looking like jackasses. You’ve seen it: the reporter wearing hundreds of dollars’ worth of heavy duty rain gear, standing in a little puddle and talking about the pervasive fear of flooding in this neighborhood. This is known in the vernacular as, “peeing on your shoes and telling you it’s raining.”

So how can a TV reporter make his or her mark, now that the standing-outside-in-a-hurricane ploy has become passé? Micheal suggests they trade in their expensive raingear for tuxedoes, come the next storm. Nude reporters being whipped by wind and debris might also boost ratings. Especially when they start shrieking like little girls.

I think perhaps a hurricane reporting contest is in order. They’re all competing, they just don’t say it out loud. Make it a real competition, I say. Here are some events I envision, based on my own experiences covering storms and flooding:

* Put them all in really old trucks that are the size of a C-130. See how long they can keep them anywhere near the road in winds over 50 mph.

* Make them conduct all their reports holding large pieces of corrugated aluminum. Prizes to the one who stays in one place the longest, and the one who flies the farthest.

* Soak them all up to their necks, and see how many days it takes them to dry in 100 percent humidity. A prize to the one who stinks the least after never being dry once in three days.

* Give them all knee-high waders and send them into water that is hip-high. See which ones can escape the old “boots filled with water” trap.

* Put them in a town where a hurricane is about to strike, is striking, or has just struck, and let them try and find a meal, at any cost.

You probably guessed, storm and flood coverage was not my favorite part of my journalism career. Or the happiest.

I picked up some nifty quotes from television coverage of Dolly. Following are some of the best, with my comments in italics after.

“As you can see (camera pans down to where about an inch of water is standing at curb) the water is piling up.” Dude. Piling up?

“People are still putting dry board up on their windows.” I’m guessing she got drywall and plywood confused with the more technical term, “board.” At any rate, I bet it doesn’t stay dry long.

“I’m standing in winds of 70 mph. It’s very dangerous, and uncomfortable.” Dumbass.

And I always thought “too dumb to come in out of the rain” was just an old saying.

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