2023 September Oak Cliff Advocate

Running on recycled parts

Mike was an avid runner, but his severe liver disease kept him away from his beloved races. The specialists at The Liver Institute at Methodist Dallas Medical Center diagnosed him with two chronic inflammatory diseases. Mike needed a liver transplant. Luckily, he was in the right place to get one. Today,

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sept 23

contents

OAK CLIFF ADVOCATE VOL. 17 NO. 9

PROFILE

6 Built by beauty

DINING

14 Easy margaritas

FEATURES

8 Godfather of animal rights

12 Snowy squirrels

16 Neutral hues in a globally inspired home

31 Speakeasies, gambling rooms, Bonnie & Clyde

COVER

22 Shelter surge

Tepetán’s four cold press margarita mixer varieties utilize various fruit and citrus flavors. Read more on page 14.

Photography by Kathy Tran.

MORE THAN PRETTY FACES

Malysa Correa drew up a blueprint for a unique work life that balances beauty and building

Story by CHRISTINA HUGHES BABB

Photography by LAUREN ALLEN

On a sultry day last April, a crew from ABC News was at The Mason on Beckley recording interviews for an upcoming true crime documentary. Rather than bringing a makeup artist along, the New York City-based production team hired a freelance beauty professional from our neighborhood, Malysa Correa.

Correa spent the morning applying cosmetics, chatting politely with program guests and explaining to mascara-averse interviewees the difference between everyday makeup and TV makeup. For another eight hours she watched monitors and popped up intermittently to brush back a subject’s stray hairs, powder sweaty brows and touch up pale lips.

Though her days on set are long, Correa’s confident, cheerful energy never wanes. She loves being a professional makeup artist.

“Ever since I was really young I always had a passion for beauty and creativity,” Correa says.

With her thick hair and lashes, glowing skin, thousand-watt smile and dewy lips, Correa looks every bit the beauty expert.

However, her appearance while working a movie set or bridal suite is unlikely to betray her other profession, a second career she takes as seriously as the first. She’s a general contractor with construction jobs underway all over Dallas.

She is remodeling rooms and homes in Highland Park, Preston Hollow and Lakewood, as well as properties in her own Oak Cliff neighborhood.

Her interest in homebuilding precedes even her love of makeup.

Her parents owned an HVAC electrical company, and she watched them play a major role in building homes and helping Americans achieve their dream, Correa says.

“The work, the beauty and aesthetics involved in bringing your idea and vision to life” — it’s what drew her to both professions, she says.

She began working in makeup in 2002. By 2017, having enjoyed success in both the remodeling and beauty industries, she felt pressure to choose one. She stepped back to reevalute and was leaning toward the latter.

“I was 20 and torn between the real estate and makeup industries. I had a meeting with a mentor. He said, ‘Malysa, we all have a God-given gift. What is your gift? Once you know what that is, follow your passion and dreams.’ I went home and did a lot of thinking, and at that moment in my life, I wanted to inspire women and show them how beautiful they are in their own skin.”

In the beginning she did not expect to stay in Dallas. Los Angeles was the place to be for celebrity makeup artists. But she soon found there were plenty of gigs to be had here.

Without leaving town, she’s readied Mark Cuban, Canelo Alvarez, George W. Bush, Bryson DeChambeau and Deion Sanders, to name a few, for the screen. (“Oh, yes, men on TV wear makeup too,” she says.) She’s done makeup for those famously funny Poo-Pourri commercials and for the WFAA news and weather team (yes, she’s had Pete Delkus’ face in her hands).

But when she wasn’t doing construction, she missed it.

There had to be a way to do both, she (correctly) believed. Both jobs require education and experience, patience and planning, vision and commitment, problem solving in any situation and compulsive attention to detail — she had those things, she says.

Both careers also thrive on good relationships and word-of-mouth recommendations.

“I build friendships, not just clients,” she says. “I really love that I can build bonds with the people I work with, and they trust my expertise, and they always refer me to a neighbor,

family or friend.” That’s how she just finished a third fencing job on the same street in University Park.

General contracting is a field that’s 91% men, career analysts at Zippia estimate. But on the bright side, the gender pay gap is negligible. It’s not bad for a woman in the industry these days, Correa says.

“Being a woman homeowner, I know how hard it can be to find contractors and the right people for your project,” she says. “It’s often women in the household taking care of remodeling projects. Sometimes the husband doesn’t even want to worry about it. So I come in and make the process a little easier. I feel that I can click with the women and build trust.”

She adds that if anyone did challenge her just for being a woman, she would be eager to accept that and show them just what she can do.

Oak Cliff homeowner Brad Lollar, who has occupied a two-story brick charmer in Kessler Park since 1991, says he’s a fan of his hardworking contractor. “I trust her,” he says. He explains that because he’s on a budget, she is doing one smaller project for him at a time: “the siding, then the back fence, and she’s about to measure for the deck.”

Correa has made her dual passions work for her. Though her self promotion in both realms is minimal, she remains in demand. Most days she has a makeup gig, and when she does not, she stays busy on construction sites.

She’s intimately familiar with Dallas’ neighborhoods, having been in beautiful homes all over, and she prefers ours to the rest, she says.

“The food, the culture and how diverse it is,” she says. “And the architecture, those mid-century, modern and historic homes, big wrap-around porches and patios — I love Oak Cliff.”

DOG’S BEST FRIEND

Remembering the beloved lawyer, animal activist, legend, Skip Trimble

Story by CHRISTINA HUGHES BABB

Mary and “Skip” Trimble with their dogs Bronte, Angel and Masai. Photo courtesy of Mary Trimble.

trying hard not to crumple in a fit of laughter.

The trailblazing Trimble died at 82, leaving his friends and acquaintances “stunned and saddened,” as pet news blogger Larry Powell put it at the time. “Skip earned his stars as a role model for animal advocacy and just plain being a critter fan and fine human being,” Powell noted. “Anybody who’s been around animal issues in Texas and Dallas for the past umpteen years knows of Skip Trimble.”

Skip’s earliest years were lived in Oak Cliff, where in 1957 he graduated with South Oak Cliff High School’s inaugural class. At Southern Methodist University he was a cheerleader, member of Kappa Alpha and senior class president. He remained in University Park for law school, then moved to D.C. where he worked in the U.S. Department of Justice. Within a few years he returned to Dallas, where he founded a private practice, worked with firms and corporations, and finished up his career with Catlyn Capital, which he founded with friend and colleague Baker Montgomery.

In her husband’s obituary, Mary Trimble chronicles his characteristics — “compassionate, dedicated, a storyteller, fair, social-justice oriented, best joke-teller ever, genuine ham, legal genius, master of countless college jobs, life of every party, generous with time and money, tenacious for animals, steadfast for equality …” represents a snippet.

Mary wrote about meeting her “soulmate” on a campaign bus trip. They disagreed about politics and argued about a local doctor, but they both liked country music, especially Charlie Pride, so Skip cranked up his boombox and the pair sang along to “Crystal Chandeliers.” That was the start of a 44-year romance.

They found further common ground in their fondness for animals. Mary nudged Skip to take on a pro bono case for a nonprofit rescue and shelter group that was battling local bureaucracy. That was his first call to animal welfare law, and he answered.

N. WINNETKA AVE.

N. WINNETKA AVE.

N. WILLOMET AVE.

Jason Cuccia Neville Crowell Jason SaucedoKathy HewittJeremy MooreSteve Habgood

“It was eye-opening for him to learn how animals were abused,” Mary says. “That enlightenment led to his commitment, not just to rights and protection for animals, but also to disenfranchised people.”

Skip was instrumental in the Safe Outdoor Dogs Act, animal-friendly license plates, puppy mill code, dog-fighting regulations, writing the Animal Law Section of the State Bar of Texas, closing horse-slaughtering plants, appointment of the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office’s first Animal Cruelty Prosecutor and shaping our city’s canine/feline overpopulation response — and that just scratches the surface.

Powell the pet blogger says he is “convinced that Skip is among the leading reasons Dallas has an actual grown-up animal shelter instead of [some] old mid-20th century brick structures that are nothing more than storage facilities for animals awaiting the needle.”

This was a mission, not a job. All of Skip’s animal-welfare legislative work was pro bono, Mary says.

Dozens of Skip’s loved ones professed their admiration while he was still alive, when THLN honored him in 2017. His sister, Karen Hall, called him her hero. “Our entire family is so proud of this man,” she said, detailing his profound effect on her children, nieces and nephews. Nephew Ben Hall spoke about climbing mountains with Skip in Africa’s Okavango Delta, joking that, “I’ve had two near-death experiences, and Uncle Skip was directly involved in both.” Friend Ron Marba added, “No two-legged or four-legged critter could have a better friend than Skip Trimble.”

Those who loved Skip, and whom Skip loved, are too voluminous to name, but to all of them, Mary Trimble suggests that, in his honor, they “be good-hearted, be kind to everyone, remember a story he told with all his crazy facial expressions and recall how it often made you belly laugh. And then, smile.”

1225 N Edgefield | Sold | Representing Buyer

Bonnywood | Sold

Catherine | Sold | Rep Buyer

W 8th | Sold

Finley | Sold

the nutty mascot

IN WESTWOOD PARK, SNOW-COLORED SQUIRRELS ARE NEIGHBORHOOD CELEBRITIES

Story

by AUSTIN WOOD

Photography by LAUREN ALLEN

snowball, Farrah, Sassy, Kris-T and Wilson — no, these aren’t the members of a new pop group.

They’re a family of white squirrels that have become mascots of the Westwood Park neighborhood.

Just north of Kimball High School, residents of Cliffoak Drive have named their furry neighbors, feed them early in the day and mourn their loss when an automobile-related tragedy strikes.

While some may consider squirrels pesky varmints and the bane of bird feeding, white squirrels don’t worry about hostility from this neighborhood.

“They’re not pests. They’re pretty and friendly,” says Christina Bristow, a Westwood Park resident.

Not to be confused with albinos, the Westwood Park squirrels have a condition known as leucism, or partial loss of all kinds of pigmentation. According to the National Park Service, leucism can be distinguished from albinism by an animal’s eyes.

Whereas the eyes of albinos are generally pinkish or red, leucistic animals’ eyes are not affected by the lack of pigment in the fur.

Neighbors estimate there to be close to seven squirrels, but they are unable to agree on when the population first arrived. Some say the creatures appeared at least 20 years ago, while some claim they’ve been around for longer, and some say they’re recent additions.

But one thing is for sure: As long as the squirrels are around, they’ll get fed.

“We just buy this corn, and they attack it,” neighbor Viola Hughes says.

While one might think the squirrels’ bright color might prove a liability for survival in the wild, the squirrels seem to do alright for themselves. Bristow recalls one memorable moment that helped give Sassy her name.

“There was a juvenile Red Hawk on my fence, and she chased it off,” Bristow says.

The squirrels have become an integral part of the neighborhood’s identity, which

is one of the few in the area without an existing designation. To celebrate their furry mascots, neighbors came together to design and vote on street sign-toppers that feature a white squirrel. A community garage sale was organized to raise funds for the signs.

“Everyone donated. Everyone helped. It was wonderful,” Bristow says.

The toppers have been approved by the city, and neighbors are currently waiting on an installation date. The project is not the end of the neighborhood’s passion for celebrating their snowy rodents, however; plans are in place to paint a white squirrel-inspired mural on a boundary wall at the end of the cul-de-sac.

Lowe’s has agreed to donate supplies, and neighbors have floated the idea of a mural depicting the squirrels in all four seasons.

“We have permission from the department to paint a mural. It’s a 280-foot wall. It’s long and 15-feet tall so it’s a lot of squares,” Bristow said.

According to residents, the squirrels are also a hit with neighborhood visitors.

“It’s fun for all of my friends and family that visit. They’ve coined my house the White Squirrel Inn,” Sidney Miller says.

The neighborhood sees a lot of through traffic, and residents say they often see people stopping and leaving their cars to look at the unpigmented phenomena.

“There was a work truck that came through the other day with construction workers going to a job. They all pulled over and were taking pictures,” Bristow says.

While the traffic stemming from interest shows the growing popularity of the squirrels, it can also be quite dangerous, as cars seem to be their biggest predators. Two recent deaths have put the squirrels’ importance to the community in perspective, only invigorating the sense of appreciation among neighbors.

“I guess in the last maybe four months, two have died and gotten run over so seeing them still is like ‘uh please don’t ever leave us,’” Miller says.

The Westwood Park squirrels have a condition known as leucism, or partial loss of all kinds of pigmentation. While the condition is often confused with albinism, the eyes of the leucistic squirrels are not affected by the lack of pigmentation.

Hot Tin Roof, The Classic and Spa Day are three margarita mixer varieties sold by Tepetán.

a cold pressed marg

by EMMA RUBY | Photography by KATHY TRAN

THE COCKTAIL of the Lone Star State, served on the rocks or frozen. Occasionally swirled, often rimmed in salt or Tajín. Perfect in the summer but delicious year-round. You know it. You love it.

The margarita is hallowed for its simplicity and its ubiquity.

And Kessler Park couple Chris and Elsa DeGroot are making the threeingredient drink even simpler.

In 2020, homebound by the pandemic, the DeGroots began tinkering with their margarita recipe. Three years later, the couple juices as many as 12,000 limes on batch days, and Tepetán, a cold press margarita mixer sold in four flavors, can be found on the shelves of local stores, Spec’s and Central Market.

“We’re in too deep to turn around,” Elsa says.

The idea for a cold press margarita mixer company came from Chris, who, even before leaving his job as an airline executive, had done “light weekend research” on the cold press technique.

Cold pressing a liquid is a process that ensures harmful bacteria are unable to grow without cooking the liquid itself, as is standard in the pasteurization process.

It’s a technique that has been around “forever” but is “incredibly difficult to pull off.”

And it’s what sets the finished Tepetán product apart from margarita mixers that may not be made with fresh ingredients or lose their fresh taste through pasteurization.

A finished bottle of Tepetán is put into a steel tank and is flooded with cold, pressurized water. (The DeGroots have moved out of their home kitchen and into an industrial-sized space.) As cold water is forced into the tank, the

pressure works at a “molecular level.”

“This is the part that’s hard to get your head around, is it doesn’t squeeze the bottles. The juice is the same density as the water that’s coming in,” Chris says. “It inactivates anything that’s dangerous but leaves the things that make something taste fresh like your vitamin C, and all those things. Those are largely left alone.”

On top of learning about cold pressing juices, Chris read textbooks and academic articles that dove into topics like mixology, and the technicalities of juicing a pineapple or lime.

“On the back of my mind was, ‘Why hasn’t anyone done this type of thing?’” Chris says. “So it turns out nobody’s done it because it’s really freaking hard.”

While Chris “tinkered,” Elsa says she felt like she had a “crazy scientist” in her house. Neighbors who could see Chris experimenting with equipment through the DeGroots’ kitchen window began referring to him as Beaker.

The rest of 2020 was spent making margaritas and testing recipes, Elsa says.

Elsa says she’d enjoyed taking entrepreneurship classes while a student in the McCombs School of Business, but with two children and a mortgage, she was “terrified” at the prospect of the business failing.

“It just got stronger and the passion got bigger and then I started getting excited when I saw the final products,” Elsa says. “There were a lot of margaritas at home. We had a lot of friends come over and taste different iterations of recipes.”

They settled on four, perfected recipes: Lime Sour, Orange Pineapple, Hot Tin Roof — an orange and jalapeño mix — and Spa Day, made from cucumber and mint.

Before launching in stores, they had to settle on a name. And they landed on Tepetán.

While it’s a made-up word, Tepetán carries symbolic meaning for the couple. Originally from El Salvador, Elsa enjoyed the sound of the letters “tepe,” which appear in many town names in her native country. Tepe also means “the hill” in indigenous languages from Mexico and El Salvador, which reminded the couple of their main belief — that a good margarita makes you feel like you’ve been transported to vacation.

First, Tepetán got onto the shelves of 10 stores. Then 15. Then 20.

Elsa walked into retailers and liquor stores to market the juices. She says she often found that if she could get someone to try one, she could get them to carry the product.

“I think proving ourselves and showing that the philosophy of the product is good really gave us confidence to be like, OK, we can start thinking about other retailers. And my dream has always been Central Market,” Elsa says.

Central Market is no small beast, but it’s necessary to make it in the Texas market, Chris says.

Earlier this summer, Tepetán recieved permanent approval to be on Central Market’s shelves. For a couple whose early dates consisted of homemade margaritas (part of Chris’ “charm,” Elsa says), the journey has been long but delicious.

“We get a lot of momentum and fuel from seeing people enjoy it,” Elsa says. “We just get true fans and true enthusiasm that are not just from our friends and family. For me, that really makes some of the long days that we’ve had just worth it.”

Tepetán, tepetan.com

Kessler Park couple makes our favorite drink even simpler Story

in the

Devil Design Details

Caris Fawcett and Tyler

Sharp’s East Kessler home is globally inspired and ethically sourced

Story by DANIEL ROCKEY

Photography by KATHY TRAN

The term “dark and light academia” may conjure up mental images of cloaked figures studying in shadowy libraries or Indiana Jones sitting with his feet propped up on a wooden desk while rows of leather-bound books sit in the background. But for Caris Fawcett and Tyler Sharp, the concept extends past fantasy and cinema.

It’s how they describe the style of their lives inside a single-story yellow house on the corner of North Winnetka Avenue.

The recently engaged couple share a similar aesthetic, which results in a

home that is an ever-evolving collection of adventures.

Plus, it’s the home of their fuzzy dog, Wyatt.

Sharp makes a career from a combination of photography, writing and curation. He operates a publication titled Modern Huntsman , which focuses on representing and redefining the world of hunting through photography, film, discussion and storytelling.

Fawcett, who studied printing and painting at Savannah College of Art and Design, uses her artistic expertise at The Citizenry, a company focused on producing home goods and

furniture that is ethically sourced and honestly produced.

“It’s been so wonderful to work with a company that puts people first,” Fawcett says. “It’s all artisan-based, handmade products, all from around the world.”

The main entryway features a spiralhorned antelope head, which guards the living room. It looks over a plethora of leather seating, neutral-toned paints and woven baskets that hide cables and provide storage space. A zebra hide gives a textural distinction to the center of the room, and three taxidermied pheasants keep one another company next to an assortment of leather-bound and

A full-sized suit of armor on sale for $100 was a no-brainer addition to the couple’s home.

canvas books. They are not shy about displaying hunting trophies. While it initially seems counterintuitive, hunting and conservation go handin-hand, Sharp says.

He says misunderstanding about the relationship between hunting and conservation is a “PR problem” and that “the hunting industry at large does a pretty terrible job of communicating to people [that hunting] plays a role in conservation.”

The devil is in the home design details.

Expensive leathers are delightful, but too much of them can make a

BISHOP ARTS WYNNEWOOD

home feel like a furniture store. Rustic woods speak character, but one too many can quickly turn a sultry library into the decks of a pirate ship, the homeowners explain.

Fawcett has a fine-tuned eye for the textures (think burlaps, canvas, smooth-grain leather, rough-grain hide, sandy stone, throws, pillows and more rugs than square feet of floor space) and their jobs within their spaces.

The dining room includes familiar components of sturdy beam wood and conversational pieces. On a wall hang a dozen or so framed artworks

— some collected and others created by Fawcett.

“We like that museum look,” she says. “I love painting.”

Color also plays an important and interesting role in their home. Fawcett’s Instagram bio speaks proudly to her color philosophy.

“Perhaps a little too into neutrals,” she says.

But that doesn’t mean naturalist design promises nothing but beige and brown. Larger pieces such as chairs, couches and tables don’t offer much outside of this palette, but secondary items pull their weight — richly

colored books, living green plants and paintings break apart any monotony that could develop within the space.

Sharp makes the most out of a smaller hideaway between the dining room and kitchen. Only about 8 feet by 4 feet, the space is made to feel like a nook within the Trinity College Library.

A rolltop desk adorned with trinkets and photos from trips is where he writes, but you’ll find no laptop. Instead, a stack of paper and a metal ribbed pen are his instruments of choice.

“I try to have some separation from a creative writing space versus

Left: Fawcett’s color philosophy, “perhaps a little too into neutrals,” can be seen throughout the home’s decor. Right: Tyler Sharp and Caris Fawcett sit with their dog, Wyatt, in their East Kessler home.

an office,” he says. “That’s where I try to keep that part of my soul alive.”

On the opposing wall is a collection of spirits and liquors.

“It’s right next to the bar. So, I’m like well, I guess I’ll make a drink,” Sharp says with a laugh.

The couple has a set of rules that guide their collection.

“I’m the type of person to go on a walk where I’ll be like, oh, that’s a really good piece of tree bark; I’m going to bring it home with me,” Fawcett says.

The two of them are in agreement about most things without much verbal communication.

Take the full-sized suit of armor guarding the corner of their dining room.

“She called and said “they have a knight for $100,” Sharp says. “I said, ‘Why are you even calling me? Yes!’”

Though there is no substitute for world travel, Sharp and Fawcett don’t mean to imply that one must travel halfway across the globe to find decor.

The two of them find many of their pieces without leaving the city.

“We love going to vintage and thrift stores too, and just wandering arounduntil a piece ‘speaks to you,’” Sharp says.

In this neighborhood, you need a proven professional to help you find what you’re looking for. As Dallas’ experts on our city’s close-in communities, no one gets Oak Cliff quite like the pros at David Griffin & Company. Buying? Selling? Call us at 214.526.5626 or visit davidgriffin.com.

THE SHELTER SURGE

In Dallas, stray and lost dogs roam the streets. Found dog signs cover lamp posts. And shelters and rescues are struggling to keep up.

Story by EMMA RUBY

Photos courtesy of DALLAS

ANIMAL SERVICES

Sophia Rodriguez had been living in her Oak Cliff home in the Clarendon Westmoreland neighborhood for a year or two when she noticed a few feral cats roaming in 2013.

In an attempt to be a good neighbor, Rodriguez trapped the cats and took them to Dallas Animal Services to be neutered before returning them to the streets.

Nonetheless, 10 years later, Rodriguez says her neighborhood has become “overrun” by stray cats, and resources for those who want to help have dwindled.

“Now as I walk up and down the block, I see kittens everywhere,” Rodriguez says. “We didn’t see overpopulation of kittens or even dogs, but I’ve noticed since (COVID-19) ... we’re seeing overpopulation.”

Across Dallas, many neighborhoods are seeing a surge in stray dogs and cats roaming the streets.

You’ve likely seen the dogs running along hot streets unleashed, untagged, unchipped. Every other post on the Nextdoor app seems to be a post looking to rehome a dog, a post about a found dog, or a post about the number of dogs overpopulating shelters and rescues.

In apartment complexes, residential areas and restaurant hubs, feral cats — which once were fondly seen as an adorable method of pest control — now roam in packs and reproduce faster than anyone can keep track.

According to Dallas animal activists and Dallas Animal Services, it’s a problem that can no longer be ignored. And one that will be difficult to solve.

Population problems

Shelters usually see a surge in population during the summer months, says Amanda Atwell, spokesperson for Dallas Animal Services.

It was especially true this summer, as DAS’s shelter on Westmoreland Road struggled to keep up with the dog population, which hovered around 140% capacity for weeks on end.

The 300-kennel shelter regularly had around 400 dogs, leading to dogs being doubled up in kennels, makeshift kennels being erected in hallways, a decreased ability to take in strays and an increase in euthanizations.

While the shelter saw anywhere from 10 to 40 adoptions a day, its daily intake was nearly always double that.

“The issue that we’re having is not something that is going to be solved overnight. It’s going to take weeks of just having more positive outcomes than we have animals come to our shelter,” Atwell says.

Large dog breeds such as German Shepherds, or breeds that have been historically labeled as aggressive such as pit bulls, are most common at the shelter.

“People just don’t want big dogs right now, and so part of the issue is finding the market for those big dogs,” Atwell says.

Atwell says a rise in housing costs, which has led to more people renting, has contributed to fewer people taking in large dogs, restricted breeds or multiple dogs.

In a June briefing to the Quality of Life, Arts & Culture committee, Dallas Animal Services said the department was experiencing a staffing deficit of 21%.

According to Atwell, those shortages are not in the animal care department and have not impacted the shelter’s ability to care for the animals in its population.

But Rodriguez says the summer’s strain was obvious when she went to the DAS shelter in mid-July with two

“bitty little” kittens that had been abandoned near her home. She and her daughter decided to care for them after it was clear one was struggling in the summer heat.

But when Rodriguez’s daughter took the cats to the shelter, she says an employee did not evaluate the cats before sending her away. Rodriguez returned the next day with the kitten, who was at that point “near death,” and was told it would be euthanized because of a lack of space in the shelter and the cat’s failing health.

“I felt like if they’d taken him in (the day before), maybe he would have had a better chance. But now he was basically dying. Like, he looked like he was suffering at this point,” Rodriguez says.

The experience stood in stark contrast with the one she’d had 10 years prior, bringing in feral cats to be neutered as part of a trap, nurture and release program. While the program still operates, Rodriguez says she has noticed it is not as robust as it once was and her neighbors have begun turning to shelters in neighboring cities.

The cat population at the shelter fluctuates but hovered around 30%40% in the later months of summer, Atwell says.

The DAS shelter does have a cat NICU for infant cats that have been abandoned, but Atwell says the shelter generally encourages the public to leave kittens outside and wait for a mother to return for the “best chance of life.”

“We’ve looked at studies, and community cats are able to thrive without being a nuisance. We will take them in and spay or neuter them, and then we release them into the population,” Atwell says.

Fostering a found dog

Rescues are also feeling the burden of the number of stray dogs in Dallas.

According to Leslie Sans, founder and executive director of Dallas Pets Alive!, the rescue group is experiencing the largest dog population since pre-COVID.

Dallas Pets Alive! is a foster-based group that aims to pull medically or behaviorally needy dogs from the DAS shelter, but Sans says she has been unable to find the number of foster families necessary to field the number of dogs the rescue wants to help.

“I need fosters and I need adopters more than ever before to step up and to choose to open their homes to these animals in need so the shelters can take in the strays that don’t have

a place to go,” Sans says. “But right now they have to have an outlet to create that space.”

Dallas Pets Alive!’s intake inquiries from community members who find a stray or are looking to rehome their pet have increased 50% since summer 2022.

Sans says that the high number of inquiries led the organization to emphasize the Positive Alternatives to Shelter Surrender, or PASS, program. Through the program, the rescue is able to support anyone who may have found a stray and is willing to foster it instead of taking it to the shelter.

Junius Heights resident Amanda Wiltz says the program was a “lifesaver” for her family after they took in a German Shepherd that had been found roaming around Preston Road and Northwest Highway.

Preston, the German Shepherd, was not used to being inside a home, went through toys and food “like crazy” and exhibited other behavioral challenges that led Wiltz to look into fostering him until a permanent home could be found. Through the PASS program, Wiltz was able to access training resources, supplies and support for other challenges that came from bringing in a stray until Preston was adopted.

Wiltz, whose own dog was a foster fail, says she experienced bringing her dog home from a Chicago shelter one day before she was set to be euthanized. The shelter said the dog was aggressive, but Wiltz says she later discovered the dog had been displaying aggressiveness because she was pregnant.

The experience causes Wiltz to worry about dogs that may be “wrongly euthanized” because of an insufficient or incorrect behavior assessment.

“Knowing Preston and him not being used to even being indoors that much, I just knew that his behavior assessment was probably not going to be great and that he had a higher chance of being on the euthanasia list at a shelter. So I just honestly couldn’t live with the thought that if I had turned him back into the shelter, that he would potentially be euthanized,” Wiltz says.

The push for awareness

Rebecca King has “maxed out” the number of stray animals she is able to take care of.

A retired Gil Elementary School teacher, King says after taking in five cats of her own, she turned to the Nextdoor app as a way to raise

awareness for the stray animal issue.

King started the Nextdoor group Dallas 4 Paws For Change, which has over 200 members who share information and resources about rescues and shelters.

“I’m trying to make a positive difference in my little bit of help that I could, by communicating to the public about opening their awareness of what’s going on and trying to help others find homes or rescues for the dogs that are in need,” King says.

But the power of the internet goes both ways.

While King has been able to foster a community that focuses on positive, productive feedback and awareness, she has seen flare-ups online.

King says she considers the shelter to be in “crisis mode” but acknowledges that it has easily become a scapegoat for the emotional issue.

“There’s so many people that are bad-mouthing the shelter, saying that they’re just killers,” King says. “You know, they don’t want to have to put down all those dogs. I don’t believe that they just don’t care, that they just want to kill them all. That’s just crazy talk, but it spreads like wildfire all over the net, and

people are really being turned against the shelter.”

A primary concern of King’s is animal dumping, which has long been an issue.

One group that has formed in response to the dumping is the Dowdy Ferry Animal Commission, which monitors cameras placed along Dowdy Ferry Road, which has become a frequent spot for people dumping dogs.

As of 2021, the commission had responded to 780 dumped dogs in six years, Jeremy Boss, one of the founders of the group, told reporters.

Dowdy Ferry Animal Commission’s website features graphic videos of dogs being left behind by owners. Although hard to watch, the videos raise awareness for the issue and have helped police find the perpetrators on multiple occasions.

Without awareness, Sans says animal rights groups will continue to be in the difficult situation they are in now.

“I don’t foresee it getting any better until we start talking about it and letting the community know that we have to have their help to solve this problem. We absolutely do,” Sans says.

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By EMMA RUBY

The Elmwood speakeasy

1934 Lansford Ave. is one of Elmwood’s most historic, and notorious, homes

Candice White lives in a home shrouded in mystery that even the most dedicated historians are unable to solve. And they have tried.

White’s home at 1934 Lansford Ave. has long been rumored to have been a convent, a railroad storage depot, a casino and a speakeasy that served as a stomping ground for Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow.

Evidence for some of those claims exist, White says, but most of the rumors surrounding the house have never been substantiated.

The home was the first house built in Elmwood, around the year 1900, White says. Lansford Avenue didn’t exist then, and the house faced the current backyard, overlooking a creek and the surrounding dairy farms.

For a time, the Spanish mission style of the house led people to believe that it was built as a convent by the Catholic Archdiocese of Dallas. But the archdiocese public records make no mention of the home, which was half its current size when originally built.

White has her own theory about the original tenants of the home.

“I think it was probably a house of prostitution,” she says.

Evidence of the home’s history did emerge when White and her former husband renovated the 2,100-square-foot house after purchasing it in 2000.

“When we renovated it, we took out the old carpet that was there, and there were (poker chips) on the floor, so we do

know it was a casino,” White says.

To the side of the master bedroom is a cupola tower, which had a low ceiling installed and was used as a changing room by previous owners.

When White was renovating the home she asked contractors to remove the ceiling and found a perfectly intact brick lookout with windows that can be seen from the outside of the house.

“There was a bridge that went over the creek from what is now Elmwood,” White says. “(The previous owner) said people would come that way into the house, and they used to shine a light up to the cistern to see whether the speakeasy was open or not.”

Another confusing twist in 1934 Lansford’s history is tax records, which show the home was built in the 1970s.

According to White, records became

convoluted in the ’70s after the home was scheduled for demolition but was saved by a couple — the Vaughns — who were in search of an old home to remodel.

“There it sat,” Wendell Vaughn told The Dallas Times Herald in October 1973. “The most run-down looking edifice you ever saw.”

The Times Herald article describes neighbors viewing the house as a “monstrosity” prior to the Vaughn renovation and tells stories of ghosts on the property.

Despite the storied past lives of 1934 Lansford, White says she doesn’t feel as though she is walking among ghosts.

“We love it here. It’s just safe and beautiful, and everyone who comes here goes, ‘Oh my gosh, this is the most interesting house I’ve ever seen,’” White says. “But it’s just home to us.”

The home was built around the year 1900, before Lansford Avenue existed. Photo by Emil Lippe.