Adios to Houston animal advocates

Dear Houston animal rescuers, advocates, friends:

I will be leaving Houston soon.

It has been a pleasure and an honor meeting you and learning about your efforts to make this a better place. It makes the leaving somewhat easier knowing that Houston animals have so many passionate defenders. Would that I could have helped more, but Astra, Janowitz, and Mago, all rescued here and soon to live in Fayetteville, AR, think I did alright by them.

This is not to say goodbye, but to ask to be removed from blast e-mailings asking for assistance. I'm hoping to limit the intake of appeals to which I can't respond.

Arkansas is not without its challenges for people like you and me: Deep woods awash with puppy mills and hunters ... Would you believe there is a Robin killing season in Arkansas? Tens of thousands of the orange-chested heralds of Spring are massacred by so-called "robiners." But even this outrage pales in the shadow of Tyson slaughterhouses in Springdale. It will take a seachange for the carnage and the brutality to cease, but in Texas, in Arkansas, and everywhere there are people like us doing the ant's work toward that end. If nothing else, perhaps the Humane Society of the Ozarks can use another dog walker or foster home, do you think?

So, again, please spare me the sadness I leave behind, so I can concentrate on what is ahead. Houston animals are in your able hands and caring hearts.

One final word: Large and small animal organizations, rescue groups and individuals, armchair activists.... philosophical differences aside, you complement each other. Try to collaborate or at least draw from each other's strengths; don't squander energy you should be using in the frontlines, helping animals and neutralizing --and neutering whenever possible-- their tormentors.

To conclude, the inspirational words of a great Houston animal advocate, Col. Stan Horton, "NEVER LET THE HEARTLESS BASTARDS OUT THERE EVER GET YOU DOWN!"

With gratitude and much admiration. -- Dolores Proubasta