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* * *A lost Christmas, thanks to thieves
From Tina Jones
Cave JunctionChristmas is supposed to be a time of joy and giving. My family has found out the hard way that it is also a time of stealing.
The sheriff’s office tells me that there are dozens of calls each day; that we are not the only family. Apparently, tis’ the season.
I want the ones who stole our Christmas to know who they stole from. My children are 10, 12 and 14. My oldest son just shook his head. He is learning from the thieves that stealing is OK, that it is the way to get what you want.
My daughter is heartbroken. My youngest son is devastated that Christmas is gone.
Our family has gone through some tough times during the last few years. My husband is a liver transplant recipient and is unable to work anymore. He is in and out of the hospital on a regular enough basis that I am unable to work.
Our budget is very tight. There are many things that our children want to have that we cannot provide. We try, but like most kids, they want all the new and cool stuff.
Any of our kids will tell you that Mom and Dad are always telling them, “No, we can’t afford that.”
Our budget is $50 for each of our kids this Christmas. That won’t buy much. We were fortunate enough this year to have had a visit from my parents during the Thanksgiving holiday. They took us shopping for the kids and bought a “big ticket” present for each of them.
Our oldest two kids each got an MP3 player. and our youngest got a TV for his room. We also bought our youngest a small DVD player to go with his TV, and bought our oldest two a subscription to a music download site.
With a few more small things and some stocking stuffers it would have been a good Christmas.
The thieves changed that last night. They came into my neighborhood and went through every vehicle they could get into and stole everything they could walk away with.
My car was locked. The presents were in the trunk. They weren’t there the next morning. The doors were still open and the trunk was unlatched. The thieves
didn’t want us to hear them close the doors.Our Christmas is lost.
We are trying to raise our children right; to teach them better than this. The thieves are not making it easy by coming into our lives and stealing from them.
What were they thinking when they saw what were obviously Christmas presents? How can they look at themselves in the mirror? I wonder if they will read this, and if they will care.
Pit bull concerns; graphic examples
From Jim Lombardo
O’BrienDade County, Fla. is the only county without pit bull problems. There is a $500 fine for having a pit bull; $1,000 for two pit bulls.
Pit bulls have been bred for 150 years to kill. They will always use their instincts. Beagles will always chase rabbits even if they are obedience trained in an apartment.
Pet greyhounds in a field will run at 30 mph if they have never been near a race track.
One 2-year-old pit bull was boarded at a kennel in O’Brien. It was as sweet and well-mannered as any. When it got picked up it was suggested that it not be around the owners’ grandchildren. Two years later the same man brings his dog to board, but it’s a black lab.
Asked where the pit bull was he said, “My 40-year-old son bumped into it with the wheel of the lawnmower. I had to take him to the doctor with a crushed foot with the shoe still on. I had the dog put down.”
People in Grants Pass went to “Katrina” to pick up 20 pit bull-type dogs to find homes or owners for them. Good luck. In Dade County, Fla. they would have had to pay a $10,000 fine. In Cave Junction they give them away by the box full in front of stores.
One pit bull at Growers Market crushed the skull of a toy poodle. The owner said it was because a little dog had snapped at her pit bull last year. Wrong, it was using its killer instinct.
The head of animal control 25 years ago said he thought pit bull-type dogs should have a $200 dog license and never be out of a fence without a muzzle. Sounds good. It didn’t happen.
On 10/8/05 three pit bulls tore up two kids who lived on the same block. When their father tried to help, they tore him up until the cops came and shot two of the dogs.
In San Francisco the owner got a $500 fine for having his dogs off a leash. They killed a woman.
A woman from the American Kennel Club on CNN said that pit bulls like to bite small children and small dogs more because it’s easier.
On 11/27/05 a pack of pit bull/rottweiller crosses attacked a 76-year-old woman mowing her lawn.
Denver news stated that on Dec. 1 a 10-year-old’s family pit bull tore off most of his face.
Pit bull type dogs have a hair trigger. Just a little pain or excitement can trigger it.
I knew a man in Los Angeles who left a loaded .22 in his dresser. His home was a day-care center. Nothing ever happened, but it makes as much sense as having a pit bull.
Should this county wait until a death to make a Dade County law?
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