How Could You Say No to this Face?: A Message from Sully

Dear all,

If you are at considering adding a pet to your family please, please consider searching Pet Finder.com using zip code 52317 and/or treking to the Cedar Rapids / Iowa City area to look at pets available at one of three shelters: the Cedar Rapids shelter, the Iowa City shelter, or the Cedar Valley shelter. Both the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City shelters have temporarily relocated to larger facilities so they can house both the adoptable animals they already had and take in both pets who families could not bring with them to the evacuation shelters and the animals that have been recovered from the flooded areas. I haven't heard numbers on Iowa City, but the Cedar Rapids shelter anticipates having over a thousand animals! Owners have 13 more days to claim their pets, and after that the Humane Society will be looking at finding permanent homes. But regardless of that window, they are still adoptable animals waiting at all these shelters (Cedar Valley is at full capacity since it is housing animals that were originally at the Cedar Rapids shelter). It would certainly help if some of these adoptable animals went to good homes now.

I can attest to how wonderful the people at the Cedar Rapids shelter are! They picked me up when I didn't have a home, feed me, and gave me love. My mom says she knows how much they loved me, because when she contacted them five months later, they were so happy to hear I was doing well and asked my mom if she could send some photos so the could see my beautiful self!

Please pass along the word to anyone who might be looking for a pet! My mom, who is obsessed with language, worried the weekend before she got me because my name is "Sully," and she feared that it was a sign that I would dirty up their lives. Well, I have made things messy here and there, but neither my mom nor dad would trade me for the world. If pressed, my mom would even admit she missed our 7 am walks when she was in Omaha last week. Isn't it nice to be so loved?

I wanted to include here a montage of me making sad faces with Sarah MacLachlan's "Angel" playing in the background - just like that SPCA ad that makes Mom cry every time. My mom said that would be a little much, but she said I could post one sad photo and put a link to James Carrington's "Ache." This is one of my favorite songs my dad sings to me. Yes, my dad sings to me all the time. I typically prefer '80's power love ballads - Lionel Richie and REO Speedwagon are some of my favorites, but I can get down on anything about love or how beautiful I am. This is a newer song, and although my dad didn't know it, people on petfinder.com actually use this song a lot when they make montages of pets who need homes. The first couple lines are, "Isn't it strange? / The way things can change / Life that you lead turned on its head / Suddenly someone means more than you felt before / House in its yard turns into hope." When you get to the chorus, I prefer that the last line be sung, "Have I told you I ache for you - puppy?"

James Carrington, "Ache"

XOXO,
Sully