Stel-l-l-l-l-a-a-a-a-a-a

It was this time last year when we went to New Orleans.  Clay went for a work convention.  I tagged along and my mother joined us there.  We happened to be there during the Tennessee Williams Festival and one of the events was a Stella yelling contest, in which contestants would re-enact the scene from "Streetcar Named Desire" where Stanley stands in the street below and screams for Stella. 

This year my "Stella" experience is quite different and hopefully will not involve any screaming.  I drove down to Farmville* today (several worlds apart from New Orleans) and brought home a female shepherd named Stella.  She came from a place even further south in rural Virginia.  "Rural Virginia" is shorthand for "born ignorant with no inclination to change."

Stella had originally shown up at her home a few years ago as a stray.  She had puppies soon after, which they gave away.  They never got Stella spayed but at least they did prevent her from getting pregnant again.  A neighbor's girlfriend recently moved in with said neighbor, bringing her small dogs along.  I guess Stella didn't care for them and it became an issue between them because all the dogs were allowed to run at large.  Fortunately, Stella's people sought out a rescue instead of shooting the dog or dumping it at the local shelter like so many do.
 

Small dogs aside, Stella seems like a really great dog.  She was very excited and happy to meet me and went with me willingly.  I brought her home and moved her into the big kennel and then moved Frank in with her.  She showed him that she's the boss (typical female shepherd), but there were no problems.  She appears to be about five years old, she's been very well fed, and her coat is soft and beautiful.  She has some indoor experience and house manners, but how much, I'm not sure.  I'll try to get her vetted next week and spayed as soon as possible.  I think she'd be an easy foster so I may try to find someone else to take her in to improve her adoption prospects.  She's very pretty.

 

 

 

* Farmville, in Prince Edward County, VA, is notorious for its involvement in the Massive Resistance.  After the 1954 Supreme Court ruling against the concept of "separate but equal" education in Brown v. Topeka Board of Education and its companion cases, the good christian people of Prince Edward County (and elsewhere) closed their public schools rather than integrate in accordance with the Court's decision.  Whites-only private schools opened up all over while African-American children were denied public education until 1964.  Brown was actually the lead case of fives cases from different states that presented the same issue.  One of the other cases was Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, Virginia, making Farmville the locus of the issue in Virginia, but schools in Front Royal, Charlottesville, and elsewhere in the state were also involved. 

 

This shameful bit of history is worth noting for two reasons at least: 

1. There is nothing explicit in the Constitution that makes "separate but equal" an impermissible construction of the equal protection clause, it's merely a matter of interpretation, which of course depends on who is doing the interpreting.  Brown overturned a contrary decision by the Supreme Court, Plessy v. Ferguson, from just some 50 years before.  So called "strict constructionists" such as Scalia and his ilk on the Supreme Court would likely decide Brown differently today, returning us to an era where segregation was constitutionally acceptable.

2.  When communities closed their public schools to avoid integration, the state of Virginia offered tuition grants for private education, the same thing Republicans propose today to undermine public education in favor of private education for the 1%.