Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

This fight is for everything.

People are complicated. Love is not.

I was promised a recession.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. don’t touch it.”

Chutkan laughs. Lauro sits back down.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

American History and Black History Cannot Be Separated

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

T R E 4 5 O N

As long as McCarthy is Speaker, the House will never be in order.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

White supremacy is terrorism.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Dog Blogging / Friday Evening Open Thread: The Most Important Dog Skill

Friday Evening Open Thread: The Most Important Dog Skill

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A timeline cleanser to start the weekend. (Don’t miss the closing paragraphs!):

Animal control officers in Chattanooga, Tenn., got a call about an abandoned dog cowering beneath a car in a parking lot in January. When they arrived on the scene, they found a stray dog that couldn’t walk and was covered in splotches of oil.

They took him to the McKamey Animal Center in Chattanooga, where a veterinarian concluded he had been hit by a car and was partially paralyzed.

“After the hit and run, he’d pulled himself to safety under the car, and we had no way of knowing how long he’d been out there,” said Lauren Mann, the animal shelter’s director of advancement.

The dog had a spinal cord injury, leaving him unable to use his back legs — or wag his tail.

He was treated for his injuries, and fitted for a canine wheelchair they had at the shelter. He took to it as soon as he was strapped in.

Mann and other shelter employees named the black-and-brown mixed breed “Ward the Wunderdog” because of his resilient nature and sweet demeanor, she said.

Once Ward gained some strength, they listed him for adoption and took him for regular physical therapy sessions at a local veterinary clinic that offered free hydrotherapy sessions for injured shelter dogs…

Then on July 11, a woman who works as a physical therapy assistant went to a Bissell Pet Foundation adoption event and saw Ward. She was immediately smitten.

Kellyn Murphy said she and her husband Matt Murphy knew they wanted him. Where other people saw a paralyzed dog who couldn’t even wag his tail, Murphy saw a loving face and a lot of potential.

“As soon as I saw him, it became my goal to get him moving and standing,” she said. “I spend my days helping people do these things, and I thought I could also help Ward.”

Kellyn Murphy hoped he’d be a fit with their three other dogs, adding that special needs animals are often overlooked, but can make great pets…

Less than two weeks after taking Ward home, Murphy saw Wade lying on the floor one morning chewing a bone. Then, in what seemed like a miracle, Ward wagged his tail.

“It was a small wag, and it was only one wag, but it was definitely a wag,” she said…

Reader Interactions

22Comments

  4. 4.

    trollhattan

    Awww, good people and Good Boy Ward!

    I’m-a save my Shasta County Republicans story for another time. No need to muck up a clean floor.

  8. 8.

    Percysowner

    We have a happy resolution to the troubled relationship between my trans grandson E and his paternal grandparents. As their normal watch E and A day approached they asked if the grandkids would be coming to their house. After a long discussion, after both boys were in bed, Grammy and Poppi have agreed to use the proper pronouns. They are going with that whatever they said, and I haven’t gotten a full account, what they meant to convey was that they love E no matter who E is. E and A did go over yesterday and things seemed to have gone fine. So crisis averted because 1) the chance of losing 2 grandkids over this was enough to have G&P rethink their attitude and 2) they really do LOVE the boys, they just can’t wrap their heads around the idea of gender not matching genitals. I remind myself that the way to change minds on the whole issue is one person at a time and knowing a trans person is the best way for those changes to happen.

    I’m sure that having E wake up one morning and realize they are wrong about being a boy will go on G&P’s list of things they pray for nightly. That list includes having both boys baptized and my daughter deciding to find God instead of being an atheist, but baby steps. All we can really ask for is that E be respected.

    Sometimes the good guys win.

  15. 15.

    KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager))

    This is such a lovely, feel-good story, and Percysowner’s news is just the icing on the cake. What a good day this is! I’m so happy for your grandson, Percysowner!

    Happy weekend all!

  16. 16.

    One of the Many Jens

    What a wonderful story, and I LOVE that Ward is going to be a therapy dog.  Thanks for sharing this!

     

    And

    @Percysowner:  I am so glad to hear it. Love wins!

  17. 17.

    Kristine

    Another doggy day brightener (gift link)

    Ellie Mitchell was scrolling through Facebook when she came across a photo of a sweet-looking black dog with floppy ears and a face flecked with gray.

    “Overlooked for 11 Years,” read the caption on a post accompanying the photo.

    “Vanessa is one of those that slipped through the cracks,” the post from Villalobos Rescue Center in New Orleans said.

  18. 18.

    Kristine

    Ward looks so happy. It would be wonderful if he could regain a little mobility, but he looks pretty happy now. The couple who adopted him are special people.

    I followed Ward on Instagram.

  19. 19.

    Ruckus

    @Jay:

    It would seem for some, yes it is very difficult. For many of us not so much. We give as we’d like to get and that solves a lot of issues. But some of us who walk upright with 2 arms and legs seem to see the world as though they own the design rights to every other human. And I think some of them might do this to back up how they feel about themselves or how they were raised, not how some other person may see themselves. They can’t see differences being allowed because that calls their views into question. We all have to be the same or they might be part of another version of humanity, and that is a road too far for them. Selfish bastards. And I do mean that in the nicest way. But each human has their own life, not anyone else’s. There is nothing but their own limitations that make them unable to see people can fit in other boxes besides the one they fit into. And that they often do. There are over 7 billion of us on this rock and we don’t and never will all think, be or act the same. Has never actually been that way and never will be. And it doesn’t hurt us in any way to let them be. Are you gay? Yes? No? Whose business is it of anyone but you? This question can be about a wide and varied range of characteristics of humanity and it doesn’t change who you are or I am in any way. Do you have red hair? Yes’? No? Blue eyes? The questions are close to endless. The answers are sometimes specifically wrong, for example if I told you I have brown eyes. But for many questions there are no wrong answers.

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