Kiss Your Pets

I have written in previous postings about the adventures and misadventures of my wife and I as pet owners. This is not about that. This is about the stat I read this morning in The Arizona Republic.

For the week ending October 9th, at the 11 Maricopa County shelters, they did intake on 1,679 pets. For the week, 710 pets were adopted and 855 were euthenized (humanely put to sleep). Years ago, my wife and I watched a documentary about humane societies and the rampant lack of care of pets that leads to this population explosion. It was a deeply emotional program, and actually led us down one of our pet misadventures (check previous pet postings).

So, this leads me to a baseball topic. Yes, I hate the St. Louis Cardinals, but manager Tony LaRussa is a remarkable man. LaRussa heads ARF, a charity involved in humane treatments of animals. LaRussa was a decent ballplayer, a lawyer and perhaps the top manager in the game. Plenty of teams have talent, but LaRussa is the game’s top strategist. With pitching coach and long-time friend Dave Duncan by his side, he has commandeered the A’s and Cardinals to greatness. After reading this stat about Arizona-area pets today, I might be forced to root for the Cardinals today. After all, I hate Roger Clemens.