My colleague in the newsroom — Theresa Marquez — made dog cookies over the weekend and brought some in for Kate. They are called Liver Chippers and look amazing like chocolate chip cookies.And the article also tells us what else we are paying a former Halliburton company to do over in Iraq.It all started when Simba, a white cat with "tabby bits," strolled onto a U.S. military base. Soon came the planning for Operation Puss 'n' Boots — as the Simba journey was dubbed by Louise's colleagues when she worked at the Army outpost near Tikrit, about 80 miles north of Baghdad.
An Iraqi working with Louise was heading to Basra in southern Iraq. She asked if he could take Simba to the border with Kuwait, where an English friend would be waiting.
Just south of Baghdad, a car bomb exploded a few yards from the cab, but no one was hurt. At the border, Simba crossed into Kuwait with the cat hidden.
Thousands of stray cats and dogs in Baghdad's Green Zone and on U.S. military installations across Iraq have been trapped and euthanized for health reasons under a program carried out for the military by the contractor KBR Inc., a former Halliburton subsidiary.
There were hundreds of people and dogs who showed up for the start of the festival. It's hard to estimate how many, but there were definitely more than last year. And DCSPCA immediate past board President Debbi Calabrese said it's going to be even bigger next year.
The Beacon Barkery was one of the co-sponsors of the event. From the looks of the traffic in and out of the shop, they did some nice business Saturday.
One of the winners of the costume contest was Daisy, a miniature Schnauzer, owned by Courtney Chandler of Hyde Park. Daisy is 4 years old and really pulls that outfit off.
It's a long-standing tradition (going back to last year) that Kate has her picture taken with the mayor of Beacon. Steve Gold, above with Kate, assumed the office in January.
No doubt about it, Beacon is a beautiful city. This view is looking east on Main Street toward Beacon Mountain. Takes my breath away.
Her majesty, er, sorry, Kate took every advantage to lie down while we were at Beacon Barks. I have a lot of video of her sprawled in the middle of Main Street. Here she is getting comfortable in Mountain Tops Outdoor and Hiking store. They graciously opened their doors to dogs and their owners.
This is not what Kate will be doing tomorrow morning.
We the undersigned feel that your business may have unintended consequences for both the animals and humans involved.And yes, I realize the petition misspells the word "prostitutes," but we get the idea.First, the pets may suffer unintentional emotional damage by not having a single stable environment to live in.
Second, this may adversely effect the humans involved if one of these animals can no longer take the pressure of this type of a life.
Finally, we feel that the use of animals for profit is unacceptable, especially when there is the possibility of emotional damage.
We will continue to feel this way until you issue a public statement declaring that you are taking the emotional well being of the animals into account and focus more on helping the animals than making money.
There is more at stake here than profit.
Pet abandonments are part of a growing trend in California, Ohio and other states hit hard by the subprime mortgage crisis, said Nancy Peterson, an issues specialist for the Humane Society of the United States. The non-profit organization has established a Foreclosure Pets Grant Fund to collect donations and subsidize shelters taking in pets that have been surrendered or abandoned by those losing homes.
"It's a problem I've seen in Boston, Denver, Colorado, Sacramento and other cities," Peterson said.
A Google search for "housing crisis pets" came back with about 276,000 articles.
