Golden Poodle awards for January

For the first time the Golden Poodle award goes to pigs, specifically therapy pigs and their owners who have to fight local authorities to keep them.

Nadeen Darsanlal, a disabled Navy veteran, enjoys walking in Queens, NY with her service dog Harvey and her pig Wilbur. She would like to have him certified as a therapy pig to help other people, but having a pig as a pet in New York City is illegal.

Officials in Coral Springs, Florida, are finally allowing Kason Ray, a boy born with Down syndrome, to keep 6-pound Twinkie as a pet pig.

The Lizard Brain award goes to the state of Florida for three Lizard Brain stories this month.

The first to Coral Springs city authorities for calling 6-pound Twinkie “livestock.”
The second for the story about the animal control officer who wrestled a Chihuahua away from a retired nun.
And the third for the naked man who got shot while trying to choke a family’s Rottweiler.

The Neanderthal award goes to city councilman Dave Watson and his wife in North Carolina for admitting that the Chihuahua they found on their porch did, in fact, belong to a family with five children, but hey, finders, keepers.

Dramatis Personae

Misty the alpha Poodle
In her spare time
she studies quantum theory and
reads Proust
Timmy the stud muffin
aka
“The Jaws of Death”
“The Silver Assassin”
Chamois the generic dog
The world’s only
Miniature Albanian Wolfhound
because we were tired
of telling people she was a mutt
Tudee the Rescue
Half Chihuahua, half linebacker
Found in a busy intersection
telling the cars that
she was there first
Taki
A loving cat who came off the streets
and into our lives
and never left