Greetings, Pub Quiz Adopt-A-Quiz Advocates

There's a lot of heavy stuff in the world.  I talk with you about it sometimes.

There's a lot of local political stuff in this city.  I talk with you about it sometimes.

There's oddball, eccentric, wonderful, confounding stuff coursing through all of lives.  I talk with you about it sometimes.

There are the games of skill and the skill of games, from baseball to Atlantic Yards.  I talk with you about it sometimes.

I've been reading a lot of exasperating comments sections in articles today about the Obamas' choice for First Dog.

"Isn't there anything MORE important to write about?!"  "This isn't news!"  "Get a life!"

Well, I have a life, it's vibrant and curious and looks for boundaries to honor and at the same time lines to cross.

Adopting animal companions from shelters and rescue groups is one of those honored stances.

Honored by me and a lot of you?  Yeah.  The Obamas?  Not so much.

Barack and Michelle Obama
didn't cross-their-hearts and swear-on-a-stack-of-bibles that they'd
adopt a dog.   They did, however, give us real hope and
straight-forward language that they'd do the right thing and adopt from
a shelter or a rescue organization.

Instead, they took the elite road to an expensive breeder who's clients include Ted Kennedy.

This was such an easy call.  This isn't Iraq or Afghanistan,
gay marriage, national health care, the economy.  No, this was simple: 
adopt a dog that needs a home and  send a crystal-clear message —
loving dogs means rescuing them.

Malia Obama has allergies.  I get that.  There are hypo-allergenic pooches out there who need a good home.  The Obamas' choice?  A Portuguese water dog.

I went to PetFinder.com and found lots of PWDs (also stands for Poopy Weapons of Destruction).  Here's Pepper, who, amazingly, awaits a permanent home with a rescue group in…yep…Washington, DC.

Pepper.  Too far away — not as the crow flies, but as the politician shifts…

The
Obamas just didn't try very hard on this one.  Twenty-five percent of
dogs and 24% of cats that enter animal shelters are adopted.  One in
four.  That's pretty awful.  Barack and Michelle Obama, honestly,
should have told the kids "you can have a dog, but not until the right
one needs a home."

Bo, as the new First Dog has been named, was as far from a
date with the gas-chamber as a dog in America can be.  In fact, he was
a gift from Senator Kennedy, who's bought his PWDs from the same kennel
that bred Bo.  Kennedy should have known better.  Politically, if not
morally, it's gonna be a headache Obama doesn't need.

Same for the Humane Society of the United States.   Rather
than staying on message — adopt and rescue — the HSUS weirdly
applauded the Obamas for adopting a "second-chance" dog.  This, because
Bo had been purchased by a Washington DC family and was then returned
to the kennel.

It's shockingly uncool for the HSUS to equate a well-cared-for
custom-bred trendy-breed puppy with the millions of pooches trapped in
the nations' cement-walled pens.  It's like saying someone on the Upper East Side is a homeless refugee because they couldn't get a table at Le Cirque.

Or…maybe it's the cash the Obamas are donating to their local HSUS.  We didn't do the right thing, but here's a wad of bills, will this make it go away? It sure reeks that way, a sad state from both the Obamas and the HSUS.

It's a very Bloomberg and Ratner tactic — do the
wrong thing, disappoint a lot of folks, contort yourself silly trying
to spin it, and finally throw money at your critics so they'll go easy
on you.

As for puppy mills?  They'll go into hyperdrive, churning out PWDs by the truckfull.  You know, I was maybe gonna go down to the shelter and rescue a dog, but hey, the President didn't, so why should I?

Goose, comma, good.  Gander, comma, bad.

I like the Obamas. 
But they did a bad job on this one.  Tomorrow, Tuesday, will be Bo's
big unveiling.  The Obamas will certainly try to say the right things. 
But how can it come out as anything other than "do as I say, not as I
do?"

Maybe this will help the Obamas better remember what's at stake:

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