Do what you can to help stray animals

If Mark Twain is to be believed, stray dogs once were considered unlucky. Twain, in one chapter of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," placed his protagonist and Huckleberry Finn late one night in the vicinity of a howling stray dog. The boys recognized the canine wasn't a local animal, concluded it was a bad omen, and feared for their safety. Stray dogs still don't represent a good situation, but not for the superstitious reason Mr. Twain put forth. One or more dogs running loose is a nuisance at best and a potentially dangerous situation at worst. Stray dogs taken in by an animal hoarder and kept with dozens of other dogs is unhealthy at best and lethal at worst. We can be thankful that animal shelters offer temporary homes for stray dogs and