He was brought to the shelter covered in wounds and filth. Staff couldn't touch him. He hissed and growled. Trust is likely the first thing to go when you live on the street.
His cage was placed in a small ward with the door open, an opportunity for cultivating exercise and people skills. Last week CAHS discovered that Atlas wasn't as prickly as he seemed. They found Ollie and Atlas curled up in his cage, fast asleep. Since then Atlas has discarded his fierce facade and now loves to be petted and fussed over. He watches Ollie with care.
Were they bunk mates in the Dumpster? Is Atlas Ollie's deadbeat dad, now making amends? (Ollie has markedly improved since befriending Atlas.) Either way they're both sweet and loving creatures. They deserve more than harsh nights and a trash bin for shelter.
"Presidents, like leaders throughout history, have always had pets. In the old days, keeping animals in luxurious splendor — think of Mary, Queen of Scots and her pack of velvet-clad pugs — was a way for potentates to further elevate themselves above the people. In our modern, egalitarian democracy, by contrast, domestic animals let powerful politicians play everyman. Franklin Roosevelt may have been a wealthy patrician presiding over a depression-buffeted country, but when the president cuddled his beloved Fala, FDR seemed as if he could be your neighbor.
"For the purposes of political theater, though, either version of political-pet symbolism is easier with a dog than a cat: Dogs, after all, will sit still for both royal costuming and LBJ-style ear-swinging. Cats, as Socks’ photographic suitors learned, won’t sit for much of anything. Thus while a few presidents have kept cats around, according to the Williamsburg, Va., Presidential Pets Museum, they’d always played second-fiddle to the first family’s other animals. Until Socks came along."
Posts
All Comments
