Stephen Knight with Happy Tails Dog Club members
Lorraine Wilson
The Robson Ranch Happy Tails Dog Club meets the second Saturday of the month at 10:30 a.m. in the CATC building, Room 103. We now have over 100 members, and we invite anyone who has a dog to come and check us out. New membership dues are $10 per household per year, and renewal is $5. Check out our club and our pets on our website, rrhappytailsdogclub.weebly.com.
July 9 was a great meeting with Stephen Knight of Dogs Matter as our guest speaker. As all of us dog owners know, the love we have for our dogs can be quite fierce, and we would not give them up for anyone or for any reason. But imagine if you are in the position of wanting to get better but not wanting to give up your dog. What could you do? Where would your beloved pet go? And that’s how Dogs Matter came into being. One person reaching out for help with her dog triggered Stephen Knight to start Dogs Matter. Dogs Matter offers a safe and healthy environment for their clients’ dogs while they are seeking inpatient treatment and, if necessary, until they are healthy and stable enough to take care of their dog again. It was a sincere pleasure to have Stephen as our guest and learn about this wonderful organization.
Gary B. Wells, attorney at law, was our speaker at our Aug. 13 meeting. Gary gave us a presentation about general estate planning needs, especially plans for pets. Gary is licensed to practice law in the States of Texas and California. He has also been admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and the Northern and the Eastern Districts of California. Our club was fortunate to have Gary present this valuable information so that our dear pets are taken care of should anything happen to us. We had a short presentation from Eileen Pierson, a resident here at Robson, about Apollo Rescue, a local animal rescue group.
Texas Humane Legislation Network (THLN) will be our guest at the Sept. 10 meeting. THLN is the only Texas-based organization focused on addressing unjust state animal welfare laws. They are working to stop animal cruelty and abuse before it starts. Their IRS status as a 501(c)(4) allows them to be political animal advocates by lobbying and working with our representatives to fix our lenient animal cruelty laws. While there are thousands of 501(c)(3)s in Texas formed to help animals, they are very limited in how much they can lobby and are outright prohibited from participating in any partisan activities. This promises to be an interesting and informative meeting about how our state government works on behalf of animals.