Lending a Paw, Finding My Dog

The nation’s economic woes stretch further than what we see on the nightly news or skim over in our morning newspaper. Home foreclosures, downsizing, inflation; these things affect us all, all the way down from the head of the household to the household pet as it ends up.
  
Do a quick Google search for the words “overcrowding, economy” and “animal shelter” and you’ll see what I mean. Across the country people from all walks of life have fallen on hard times...and by association, so have their pets in some cases.
  
Like I said it’s a national problem, but one that affects us here in Madison County as well. For my article in the February 9 edition of the Madison County Record, I interviewed Caren Sharp. She works at the Madison County Animal Shelter and she’s also a part time animal control officer for the city of Huntsville. She tells me that finding a stray alongside the road was never all that uncommon, but now she’s seeing a lot more of it.
  
Caren attributes the upsurge to the troubled economy. Pet owners surrendering their pets isn’t a new phenomenon, but the reason for surrender has more and more commonly become that the family just can’t afford the extra mouth.
  
I recently covered a small story about the St. Paul library, where I met Bonnie Rodgers. She also volunteers at the Madison County Animal Shelter. She tells me the shelter often waived the nominal fee to surrender an animal if it was being handed over by a good Samaritan who simply found the pet wandering around. Not surprisingly as the economy tanked, more good Samaritans were “finding” the animals they were surrendering to the shelter.
  
That comes at a cost to the shelter; that then has to feed, house and provide veterinary care for the animal. Factor that with the fact that the shelter is small and can only hold very few at a time and you’ve landed yourself smack dab in the middle of one of those terribly sad commercials with Sarah McLachlan playing in the back of your head. If you don’t get that last reference, I envy you. Those Humane Society commercials haunt my TV viewing pleasure nightly.
  
If you can’t tell, I’m about to go Bob Barker on you. It won’t end the problem, but it will make a difference. Spay or neuter your pets. If they could weigh in on the subject your pets would probably tell you to skip it, but then again they don’t have to watch those depressing commercials.
  
There are discounted  spay and neuter programs available that can make the process a little easier on your wallet. Madison County doesn't have one, but you can search the web for special programs or you can just get in touch with these good people.

If you've spayed or neutered your pet already or don't have a pet at all. A great way to help out would be to head down to the pet shelter and adopt. It's not a pleasant subject, but the bottom line is - the more animals that are adopted, the fewer shelter volunteers are forced to put to sleep. I worked in a veterinary office in college. Euthanizing animals is awful and really takes a toll on the folks that have to do it.

I know not everyone can adopt a new pet, but that doesn't mean you can't still help out. If you've read this far then you probably have some interest in lending a hand to the good men and women of the Madison County Pet Shelter. If that's the case, below I've included a wish list compiled by the shelter.

Towels for bedding (no blankets)

Canned/Dry kitten food

Shelter Volunteers

Pet Foster Volunteers

Yard work outside the dog area

 Canned/Dry dog food

 Monetary Donations

One last thing the shelter could use that could truly make a difference - grant writers. Writing a grant is a bit of a difficult process and the shelter would love to get in contact with someone who can help them write and apply for various grants. If you're that person, I know they'd love to hear from you. Here is their number....479-738-1505.

Finally, I couldn't write this entire article followed by a blog about the same subject without doing my part. It only took one visit to the shelter before I made the easy decision to bring this little girl home. 

I'm not sure what to name her yet. Any suggestions?

The Commercials of Super Bowl XLVI

February 6, 2012

Let’s talk Super Bowl. Not about the game but about the commercials. Okay, we can talk a little about the game. It was a nail biter. I don’t enjoy a strong defensive Super Bowl because it makes for a low scoring game - which was certainly the case with Super Bowl XLVI. That aside, this game was a nail biter right up to the bitter end. I did, without question, enjoy that.  
  
The commercials were all a tad lack luster, in my opinion. In fact it seems like the quality of Super Bowl commercials has declined significantly over the last ten years or so. That doesn't mean there weren't a few gems though.
  
If you've ever wondered why M&M commercials never feature the most common M&M color of them all, brown; the Mars corporation answered that question in a commercial that took my number 3 spot.. It's funny, it's clever and full of the animated M&M charm that we've become all too familiar with over the years.
   
It was pure comedy that led me to my number 2 choice. Chevy presented this hilarious offering as the winner of its Chevrolet Route 66 Contest. Filmmakers from 32 countries submitted entries to have their ad played during Super Bowl XLVI. A man named Zack Borst took the prize and I'm sure you'll agree it was with good reason.
   
Number 1 one my list goes to Honda and Matthew Broderick. The "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" parody for the new CRV was priceless. I must have watched that movie dozens of times as a kid and I appreciated that Honda catered to the fact that I'd be watching the Super Bowl on Sunday. If you missed it, you can check out an extended version here.
   
USA Today is allowing viewers to vote on their favorite commercials from this year's biggest of all football events. Right now America is voting a bit differently than I have here, but if you'd like to add your two cents; you can do so by heading to www.usatoday.com/superbowl46/admeter.htm
   
The Super Bowl has once again come and gone. Many of us ate too much (it's statistically considered the second biggest 'pig out' day for Americans next to Thanksgiving), some of us probably lost a little money (I ended up handing over three dollars to an eleven year old) and a lot of us didn't even have a horse in the race. If you love the Super Bowl, you have a whole year to look forward to the next. If you hate the Super Bowl, you have the same amount of time to be free from the hype. Either way, it's now time to focus on more important things...like March Madness.
Go Hogs!

Take it easy on old Phil

February 2, 2012
It’s a official. At 7:25 A.M. on February 2nd, Punxsutawney Phil emerged from his burrow and saw his shadow, predicting six more weeks of winter.
   
Now you can make of that whatever you like. Some might say, and have said, that they’ll be happy to take six more weeks of the type of winter we’ve been having. As I type this BLOG it’s 36 degrees outside with a prediction for a high of 64. That’s the kind of winter that most of us can welcome with open arms, but just how much can we rely on the prognostications of our beloved and famed groundhog forecaster?

I’ve done a little research.
In the world of weather forecasting, Punxsutawney Phil isn’t as beloved as we might think. After hearing of Phil’s most recent prediction, WGN meteorologist Tim McGill responded by calling the adorable little rodent (yes, he is a rodent folks) a “punk.” “We might as well ask a giraffe for stock tips. He could probably be just as accurate,” McGill said.
   
I probably won’t be hitting up any giraffe exhibits for my stock tips any time soon, but McGill’s comment did get me thinking. Really, how well do  the meteorologists we know, love and trust stack up to old Punxsutawney? Not as well as you might hope.
   
By all accounts I’ve been able to dig up, Punxsutawney Phil is only accurate 39 precent of the time. Remember the record snowstorm on Groundhog’s Day in 2011? Phil woke up that day and predicted an early spring. Don’t jump the Good Ship Punxsutawney just yet though.
   
In a seven-month study of weather forecasting at Kansas City television stations conducted over 220 days, from April 22 to November 21, 2007 - meteorologists weren’t batting a thousand. When predicting whether it would rain or not, most stations were correct roughly 85 percent of the time one day out. They were correct only about 73 percent of the time seven days out. That’s pretty good, but the study also showed that if a forecaster ALWAYS predicted NO RAIN...they would be correct 86.3 percent of the time. Yikes.
   
Regardless whether it was rain, snow, temperature or whatever; the more days out it was from the day in question - the harder it was for meteorologists to accurately predict an event. Punxsutawney Phil’s prediction covers six weeks.
   
I’m certainly not trying to cast dispersions on meteorologists and their predictions. Throughout my time in the news business I have often said they have the hardest job in the business. Literally dozens and dozens of times I have relied on a meteorologist to guide me around a storm during a day of storm chasing. I have a great respect for them.
   
In turn, I think they should maybe ease up a little on poor Phil. He’s doing the best he can and come on, let’s be honest; he’s adorable.
   
If you’d like to check out any of the articles mentioned above, I’ve included links to them, and I predict with 100 percent accuracy that they appear below.