Simba Update

Simba is doing great! Three weeks after he came down with apparent kidney failure, the Johnson family dog is all but one hundred percent. After seeing the newspaper article on the Menu food recall, we took Simba off his Nutro pouch and can diet immediately. He is now eating chicken and rice which my wife is preparing at home. There is a new brand of dry food. Also, we plan to write Menu Foods to demand reimbursement for the near 1000 dollars we spent on emergency medical bills. Thanks to everyone who called, emailed and texted us with their concerns after Simba’s story aired on WUSA last Monday and this past Saturday night.

On another subject, for those who arrived in the DC area after the mid 1980’s when Georgetown University’s basketball team last dominated, the name “Hoya” does not refer to the bulldog mascot….Last time I checked there was still some disagreement on where the name first surfaced; but it has to do with the Latin phrase “Hoya Saxa”..Which roughly translated means “What Rocks”; and that may have been a reference to the school’s baseball team a long time ago.

What's wrong with Simba?

My dog Simba had been sick for more than two weeks. Two trips to the animal hospital emergency room for X-rays and blood tests and $1000 later and we still didn’t have a clue.

We picked up a newspaper Monday morning and learned that a major manufacturer of dog and cat food was recalling more than 80 kinds of food after complaints started coming in that pets were suffering from kidney failure.

The other pet owners were experiencing the same scares as the Johnson family. Simba couldn’t hold down his food. He was lethargic and drinking lots of water. My dog was really sick and we couldn’t help him.

The vet said we should try rice and chicken. That worked for a while because we were no longer feeding him his usual Nutro Natural food from the bags, cans and pouches. When we started feeding him Nutro again, as he appeared to get better, guess what? My dog got sick again. This is no small matter.

Company President and CEO Paul Henderson told the Associated Press that 10 pets have died from kidney failure. The recall is for "cuts and gravy" style food sold in cans and foil pouches between December 3rd and March 6th.

For the complete list of recalled dog and cat food, go to our consumer page or the company’s website at www.menufoods.com/recall/. You can also call these hotline numbers 866-463-6738 or 866-895-2708.

I want a handgun in my home!

Can we at least talk about why as a law abiding DC resident, with no criminal record and no small children in my home, I can’t own a handgun?

DC elected officials have vowed to fight an appeals court ruling that shoots down part of the city’s tough hand gun ban. The court says that prohibiting citizens from owning handguns in their private homes is in violation of their constitutional right to bear arms….

Currently, with the exception of law enforcement officers, practically no one is permitted today to buy and possess a gun …and yet the District remains one of the most violent big cities in the world…

Metropolitan Police Department facts pulled from their website show that by the end of 2005 and 2006, homicides were down by 14 percent, but the number of people killed for both years still totaled 365. The telling statistic is really the assaults with a dangerous weapon. 90 percent of those assaults occurred with a gun. In 2005… 3,335 assaults took place….in 2006 the numbers had barely changed--3,322. Those numbers represent real people coming face to face with a real gun. How many of those people might be dead today had their assailants been better shots?

Robberies are also committed with guns. That’s 4,063 robberies in 2005 and 3,878 robberies in 2006... Down by only 5 percent.

My gun would stay in my home and would only be used should an intruder invade my space and threaten my family. But more to the point, I’m counting on any possible intruders avoiding my place because they will think, “That Bruce Johnson probably has a gun in there and would use it if necessary”.

Most of the violence in this town occurs in the streets, late at night or early in the mornings. I try not to be out at those times and wouldn’t be packing even if I were in the streets. But the criminals wouldn’t be so certain that I was unprotected would they? So the Appeals court ruling and my buying a gun shouldn’t be a problem for city officials. Their problems remain the same. How to get those illegal guns, now in the hands of criminals, off the streets.

A national ban on handguns would help. But how likely is the Congress going to tackle that debate? Probably when hell freezes over!