A little help for the President-elect

There is clearly one major concern on the minds of the American public right now: What kind of dog will the First Family get?

Conservative writer Bill Kristol actually sees the dog issue as being a harbinger of doom for the GOP as it shows Obama may be the Next Great Communicator. (Great line: “If one were being churlish, one might say that it was typical of a liberal to promise the dog before delivering it. A results-oriented conservative would simply have shown up with the puppy without the advance hype.“) Perhaps one of the great unspoken and unintentional strategies of the campaign was to let voters know that a vote for Obama meant two cute girls would get a puppy. This is of course ironic because McCain already has a huge number of pets. It’s like seven dogs, some birds, cats, etc. Even given the unknown number of houses that’s a lot of pet. But here too people wanted change over experience.

Here, as the President-elect said, are the issues: “We have two criteria that have to be reconciled. One is that Malia is allergic, so it has to be hypoallergenic. There are a number of breeds that are hypoallergenic. On the other hand, our preference would be to get a shelter dog, but, obviously, a lot of shelter dogs are mutts like me. So — so whether we’re going to be able to balance those two things, I think, is a pressing issue on the Obama household.”

The answer is simple. You do as we did and go to one of the many breed-specific dog rescue societies and get a shelter dog of the type you need. I am sure they would all fall over themselves faster than puppies trying to get to a chew toy.

We recommend a pug from Pug Rescue of New England. I have no idea if pugs meet the allergenic criteria and I don’t care. What I do know is once you get a pug, you then have a pug and what could be better than that?

All is Well.

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I’d vote for a Yellow dog no matter the party

FAIRHOPE, Ala. – One of the candidates in the race to become Fairhope’s next mayor is considerably more hairy than the rest. He also has twice as many legs and a constantly wagging tail. Wille Bean Roscoe P. Coltrane is a 7-year-old yellow Labrador retriever whose owner has taken a satirical poke at politics by launching the pooch into the race.

If elected Willie Bean will not be the nation’s first canine mayor, nor its first Labrador one.

In 2004, Rabbit Hash, Ky., elected Junior Cochran, a black Lab, as mayor. It was the second canine elected to lead the small Northern Kentucky town, according to the town’s Web site. The first was a mutt named Goofy Borneman, according to Laurie Lamblin, a resident and employee of the town’s historic general store.

A moment of silence is in order.

Mayor Cochran (“Mayor Junior” to his many friends) died two months ago.

During his time in office the mayor served as mascot for the Northern Kentucky Women’s Crisis Center’s pet protection program, helped raise money at benefits by manning kissing booths, was the subject of a 2006 TV special on Animal Planet, and in 2004 he helped dedicate an Underground Railroad Memorial in the town. I’ve known mayors who’ve done far less.

All water dishes will remain half-filled during the official period of mourning.

BTW, in 1986 Lajitas, Texas, elected Clay Henry, a beer-drinking goat, as mayor. Boston also had a beer drinking goat as mayor at the time, his name was Ray Flynn. Wait. He wasn’t a goat.

Excuse me, I do believe I may be moving to Rabbit Hash.

PS: Headline explained here.

Dog rental companies taking off in Tokyo

NOT AN APRIL FOOLS!

Puppy the World is a dog rental store. You can choose small, medium, or large breeds and rent them for $19/hr, or $100 a night. They have everything from chihuahuas to labs to border collies to papillons—and you get a 5% discount at the cafe if you rent one!

Let me know if they are franchising in the US.