Texas mayor in doo-doo over Shih Tzu
 

Did anybody see this? This woman is off her rocker. I totally understand her concern...but she went about it all WRONG. She was on the TODAY show...there is a link below so you can see the video.:rolleyes:

Woman forced to quit for keeping neighbor’s dog, but insists it was a rescue

It’s one thing to give up the throne of England for the love of a woman, but to give up the mayor’s office for a scruffy dog named Puddles?

This is a story that you can file under “Only in Texas.” And the woman at the center of this dog fight insists she would do it again.

“Being the animal lover that I am, I think it’s worth it,” Grace Saenz-Lopez told TODAY co-host Meredith Vieira on Thursday from Alice, Texas, where until early this month she had been mayor.

On her lap, oblivious to the international attention he’s generated, a perky Shih Tzu snuggled happily in her hands.

Saenz-Lopez says she rescued the dog, which she has renamed Panchito, when she agreed to care for it when her neighbors, Shelly Cavazos and Rudy Gutierrez, the dog’s owners, left for a short vacation last July. Cavazos and Gutierrez say she stole the pooch, which they had purchased early last year and named Puddles.

Puddles/Panchito was a sick puppy when Saenz-Lopez agreed to care for it last summer. On that, everyone agrees.

He was infested with fleas, and so seriously ill from chemicals used to kill the fleas that a veterinarian had recommended a blood transfusion to save his life. Unable to pay $700 for a transfusion, Cavazos and Gutierrez were treating the dog with vitamins and other medicine.

While on vacation, the original owners called Saenz-Lopez to ask about the dog, and the then-mayor told them Puddles had died. But several months later, a friend told Cavazos that she had seen Puddles at a grooming parlor in a nearby town.

Why, Vieira asked Saenz-Lopez, would she say the dog was dead when he wasn’t?

“Because I knew if he went back in this condition, he would definitely die,” the 64-year-old woman said.

Instead, she hid the dog at her twin sister’s house. When she was found out, she refused to give the dog back. Initially, police would not charge her with theft, but public sentiment in the small town was such that a recall petition was initiated. Before it could go to a vote, Saenz-Lopez, who in January was indicted for stealing the dog, resigned her office.

“I didn’t steal the dog,” she told Vieira. “I did not return him to save his life. I did not steal it. She turned it over to me. I just did not return it. But I did not go to her house and steal it.”

Cavazos said she did not neglect the dog, arguing that she has another dog that’s now 7 years old and two cats.

She left her sick dog with Saenz-Lopez, she said, because, “I trusted her. I knew he was sick. I never thought this would happen.”

“Two wrongs do not make a right,” said Deeann Torres, attorney for Cavazos and Gutierrez, who joined the discussion from nearby Corpus Christi. “She kept the dog when she was only supposed to have her for the weekend.”

Saenz-Lopez, with her own attorney, Homero Canales, beside her, clutched Puddles/Panchito, and insisted the dog was a victim of neglect.

“They cannot take care of it,” he said of her neighbors and former friends. “They will not take care of it. It took time for him to get in such a deplorable state. It was neglect.”

“She knows she did wrong,” countered Gutierrez, who said he never believed Saenz-Lopez when she initially said the dog had died. “She’s just trying to wipe her hands clean of this thing and say she’s a humanitarian. It’s not true. We’ve done nothing wrong in this case. We will continue to fight until we get this dog back.”

“I saved him, and he’s healthy and happy and hopefully I can keep him,” the woman who gave up her office for a pooch told NBC News in an earlier interview. “He was neglected ... I told myself, ‘Little guy, you’re not going back.’ ”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23164197/

I just have to say I love Shih Tzus :D

It would be very hard to see a dog in such a terrible state and not take it and care for it. Stealing is wrong of course though.

Both parties are crazy.

They are going to sue the ex mayor but they couldn't pay for the dog to have a blood transfusion? How typical.

I agree. I understand why but she should have talked to the family at least...And then telling them that the dog died...that was just plain wrong.

Shih Tzu's are adorable! My friend has one and he is so sweet!:D

I saw this on yesterday, I thought it was very odd. I understand what the lady was trying to do but you think being the mayor she would have gone about it in a different way.

Yeah, good point:thumbup:

I'm not saying the mayor did the right thing but honestly, those people did not need the dog back if they couldn't afford the health care. They should have used some of their vacation spending money to get the dog the care it needed BEFORE going on vacation.

She could have done things in a better way. She stole the dog but yet she is sitting on tv with her stolen goods. And it seemed clearly her sister didnt agree with her tatics..

AND they knew the dog was sick!...So you go on vacation...knowing the dog is ill? I guess two wrongs dont make it right...but the only good thing is...he is healthy and alive.:rolleyes:

I didnt even think about that. They couldnt afford to get her healthy, but they went on vacation. hmmmmm.

Here's my Lola...her eyes look funny cuz I tried to darken them in so she didnt have "dog eye" from my flash, lol! Shih Tzus and Yorkies are my most favorite little dogs!

You got that right, Kyle.

The dog is adorable, but it's seems so odd that a mayor would do something like that. And she's still got the dog! I'm surprised the animal control (or whoever is in charge of such things...if it were a child it would be child welfare and put into a foster home). Very weird to me.

That is a very strange story! That must be a tiny town. The MAYOR is neighbors with people who can't afford proper vet care?

:yelrotflm I know...interesting huh? I think the town is small. They showed the mayors house and it was not very big.

I didnt realize that this was considered an off topic discussion. Sorry.:rolleyes: