In the mid-1990s, a woman called our local media and announced that there was going to be a major protest at the County Animal Shelter. The media showed up, and a single protester walked outside our doors with a sign that said, “Save Pookie, Neuter David Flagler.”
In all of my years in animal control, I have to say that was my favorite sign—not that I had many to choose from. Pookie was a Rottweiler who attempted to eat the neighbor’s child. The child was climbing the chain-link fence that separated the two yards, and Pookie grabbed the tip of the child’s shoe and attempted to pull the child through the fence.
Given the circumstances, I deemed Pookie dangerous. My decision was overturned in court when the audience showed up wearing t-shirts supporting Pookie. Then and now, we live in a climate that supports the underdog.
We go, almost daily, reading about protests in our communities. The latest one in my community had 200 protesters, but the media could not discern what they were protesting. It doesn’t matter, people protest everything…. Immigration, transgenders in women’s sports, Trump cleaning out the waste in government spending. We have such a large pallet of causes that it no longer matters, we’re just going from one complaint to another.
All of these protests later, I regret not getting my hands on that first protest sign because Pookie was saved and eventually Flagler got neutered. As I think back, I was probably already neutered at that time. But anyway, it was a comforting thought.