Dachshunds rescued: The long and short of waiting for a home

Almost three dozen dachshunds are available for adoption, the result of a rescue effort by Rescue the Animals in Abilene.

The dachshunds come from Mesquite, where law enforcement officials found 87 in a house when they responded to a call after a man died in his home three weeks ago.

The dogs were taken to a shelter in Mesquite, which sent out a notice Monday that it would have to begin euthanizing the remaining 57 dogs that hadn't been adopted. Rescue the Animals sent a truck to Mesquite on Monday and brought back 35 dachshunds.









"It really was a step of faith on our part," said Paul Washburn, director of Rescue the Animals. "This is the worst time of year to try to adopt out pets because people are going on vacation. We're hoping the word gets out and people respond."

The dogs are all adults under age 5. Washburn said the shelter at Rescue the Animals is at capacity, so 15 of the dachshunds were sent to the Abilene Animal Control Center, which will handle the adoptions.

"We're contracting the adoption through the city because we couldn't handle this many," he said.

The fee for adopting the animals will be $60, which will include the first round of shots. A mail-in rebate of $20 is available when the dog is neutered. If the dog is already neutered, the fee is $35 instead of $60, with no rebate.

Washburn said dachshunds make good pets.

"They're good with children and when they become acclimated to the weather, they make good inside-outside dogs," he said. "They're great dogs and they're popular. We usually get them for a whole bunch of places west of here but we generally get them one or two at a time."

Almost all of the dogs that arrived here Monday night appeared to be well fed and in good health. Most allowed themselves to be petted, which Washburn said was a smart move on their part.

"If you're on death row, you better be smiling at the people," he said.

Washburn said the fact that the dogs were fairly calm despite the upheaval in their lives during the past month spoke well of their general health.

"The stress on these animals has been tremendous," he said.

Washburn added that it was an advantage for people to adopt a young adult dog rather than a puppy.

"There's a huge, huge advantage in adopting a young adult, because you can see what their personality is," he said. "People think they can get a puppy and mold it into exactly what they want, but if they have children, they should know better."

For that reason, Washburn said Rescue the Animals rarely accepts puppies, although he said Daphne, the one-eyed pirate dachshund, recently had a litter of seven that should be ready for adoption soon.

As for the newcomers, Washburn hopes to adopt the majority of them during the next two or three weeks to alleviate some of the overcrowding. He said people who are willing to take one or two as foster dogs would be screened and considered.

"At least we bought them some more time," Washburn said.

Washburn said a hotline has been set up to answer questions about the dachshunds at 677-7722.

© 2011 Abilene Reporter-News. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

James Franco Slams Oscar Writers for Being “Not Funny”

He wasn't happy about that whole dress-in-drag at the Oscars thing

By Beth Stebner



James Franco is still a bit bitter about that whole Oscars thing.

In this month’s issue of Playboy (yes, Playboy), Franco obviously has some beef with his slightly unsatisfactory co-hosting of the Oscars with Anne Hathaway.








“I don’t know why you hired me, because you haven’t given me anything,” Franco told producers. “I just don’t think this stuff’s going to be good.”

Franco was upset the producers cut a segment where he was to dress in drag and play Cher, but when the song from “Burlesque” wasn’t nominated. Producers still wanted Franco to dress in drag, this time as Marilyn Monroe.

“Me in drag as Cher trying to sing like her is a thing,” he told Playboy. “Me in drag is not funny.”











“There were a lot of cooks who shouldn't have been cooking but were allowed to,” Franco said, referring to the producers and writers of Hollywood’s Biggest Night. Apparently, some choice Judd Apatow jokes were tossed out like yesterday’s soup.

For a while, Franco was Hollywood’s golden child—starring in soaps and scoring an Oscar nod for his work in “127 Hours.” Not to mention his superb acquisition of advanced degrees (resume: NYU, Yale, Rhode Island School of Design, University of Houston), and his work as a writer and artist.

Many critics touted Franco’s performance for being unenergetic. To that, Franco said he was trying to compliment Hathaway’s bubbly, energetic route.

“I thought I would be the straight man and she could be the other, and that's how I was trying to do those lines," he said.

"I felt kind of trapped in that material.”

Fielder hits big homer in All-Star game

By JOHN MARSHALL, AP Sports Writer

The captain of the NL's Home Run Derby team, Fielder was booed during the derby Monday night and again at the All-Star game by Arizona fans who thought he should have picked Diamondbacks right fielder Justin Upton for his team.
Fielder couldn't quiet the crowd at the Home Run Derby, where he failed to reach the finals, but sent a loud ooh! through Chase Field with a towering homer in the fourth that caromed off the top of the wall in left-center. It was the first homer for a Brewers player in the Midsummer Classic.







Boston's Adrian Gonzalez, runner-up to Robinson Cano in the Home Run Derby, hit a solo homer in the top of the inning off Philadelphia's Cliff Lee near the pool in right field. It was the All-Star game's first homer since Boston's J.D. Drew hit a two-run shot off Edinson Volquez in the seventh inning at Yankee Stadium in 2008.
The NL pushed to lead to 4-1 in the fifth inning on Andre Ethier's run-scoring single to right off Angels closer Jordan Walden, who cut down Starlin Castro at the plate with a nice barehanded stop earlier in the inning.
Arizona lived up to its sizzling reputation in its first All-Star game, a high temperature of 102 degrees making the pregame parade a quick procession through downtown.
Protesters didn't seem to mind the heat, with about 75 members of the pro-immigrant group Somas America passing out white ribbons and spreading their message against SB1070, the polarizing immigration law passed by Arizona last year.
But it was mostly calm and cool inside air-conditioned Chase Field, where the gametime temperature was 72, the anti-immigration law sentiment was nearly nonexistent and girls in bikinis swirled around in the pool behind the wall in right.
On the field, this All-Star game was more like a substitute-star game, the focus as much on who isn't here instead of who is.
Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Chipper Jones, Justin Verlander and Shane Victorino were among the 16 players who didn't play, leaving the All-Star game without some of its biggest names due to injuries, ineligibility or, in some cases, questionable circumstances.
Six pitchers didn't get a chance to play because they started on Sunday: Verlander, Yankees lefty CC Sabathia, Tampa Bay's James Shields, Felix Hernandez of the Mariners, Philadelphia's Cole Hamels and San Francisco's Matt Cain.










Mets shortstop Jose Reyes, Phillies teammates Shane Victorino and Placido Polanco, and Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester are injured, but still made the trip to Phoenix.
The player who has taken the most heat for avoiding the desert is Jeter.
Despite playing over the weekend, when he reached the 3,000-hit mark, the Yankees captain bowed out of the Midsummer Classic, citing a calf injury. Jeter was criticized by some, cut some slack by others. Either way, he wasn't at the game, in uniform or in support.
The inaugural All-Star game in the desert also figured to be void of offense, much like last year's game, a 3-1 win by the National League that ended the AL's 13-year unbeaten streak.
Scoring in the first half of this season was at its lowest level (8.4 runs per game) in 19 years and the league batting average (.253) dropped for the second straight year to its lowest point since 1985.
The two starting pitchers figured to make it tough, too.
Philadelphia's Roy Halladay, a two-time Cy Young Award winner, became the fourth pitcher to start the All-Star game in both leagues (Toronto in 2009) after going 11-3 with a 2.45 ERA in the first half to make it an easy decision for NL manager Bruce Bochy. He made quick work of the AL, working two perfect innings before being replaced by Lee in the third.
Angels ace Jered Weaver made it simple on AL manager Ron Washington, too.
The lanky right-hander earned his first All-Star nod last season, but didn't get to play because he pitched the Sunday before the game. He's had another superb start to this season, going 11-4 with a majors-best 1.86 ERA that was lowest ever for an Angels pitcher the first half of the season.
Weaver worked around a walk in the first inning and was supposed to be replaced by Josh Beckett in the second, but the Boston right-hander never made it out of the bullpen because of lingering soreness from a left knee he strained his last start.
"I could have pitched. I'm just not comfortable going out there and getting hurt in an All-Star game and costing myself starts in the second half," Beckett said. "I think that's how everybody should be. This game does mean a lot with home-field advantage and everything but at the same time there are some things that are ahead that are a little more important."
Beckett was replaced by Yankees right-hander David Robertson, who got help from a sliding catch by right fielder Jose Bautista before giving up the game's first hit, a single by St. Louis' Lance Berkman. The AL got out of the inning when Robertson struck out Matt Holliday looking and catcher Brian McCann threw out Berkman trying to steal second.
Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.