Mountain Xpress, September 22 2010 by Mountain Xpress

of allowing those who recognize the pastiche to enjoy the discovery on their own and to not patronize them with labels pointing everything out. The fact that you recognized the artist’s style right away with no need for a distracting “Hey, this looks like Don Martin, get it?” disclaimer wedged into the layout underscores the superfluousness of such a practice. Please understand that my reluctance to point out the obvious is not meant as disrespect to the original artist, but as respect for the reader’s intelligence; as well as a desire to do things my way, rather than the way others — or you — think that they should be done.

Rutherford County Animal Shelter: Shame on you! I am writing in regards to the recent temporary closing of the Rutherford County Animal Shelter. A representative from the shelter was on the news this week to announce that the state was forcing them to close temporarily to do some necessary maintenance on the facility. She mentioned that whatever animals remained there at the close of business on Sept. 3 would be euthanized. On Sept. 2, the Asheville Citizen-Times ran a very short article mentioning their closing and the possible euthanasia of the remaining 70 animals. To the best of my knowledge, this shelter made little or no effort to contact any of the other shelters or rescue groups in the area to see if they could take any of the remaining animals. I contacted the Animal Compassion Network on Sept. 2 and was told they first heard of the situation when they read the article in the paper and they immediately took action to see how they could help. I called the Community Pet Center [that was] mentioned in the AC-T article. The woman I spoke with said they work closely with the Rutherford County Animal Shelter and were notified by the shelter on Aug. 27 about the closure and they contacted WLOS and other forms of media to get the word out. It appears that the animal shelter made no effort to try and adopt out these animals. They didn’t extend their hours or reduce adoption fees to encourage people to adopt. (The Asheville Humane Society recently had a very successful free adoption event.) They don’t have a list of animals available for adoption

on their website, and they have seven animals listed on Petfinder, a fraction of the animals they actually have (27 dogs and seven cats). When my colleague called the shelter yesterday to ask about fostering a dog until they re-opened, the shelter was not interested. They were more concerned about getting rid of the animals permanently. What kind of a “shelter” is this? If this is their normal way of business, they need a new group of people managing it. A shelter that is not focused on the animals in its care should not be allowed to continue operating in such a manner. If the state is closing them for repairs it apparently has other issues as well. There are many shelters and rescue groups in the area willing to help as can be seen by the quick reaction of the Animal Compassion Network who responded as soon as they became aware of the problem. We thankfully live in an area with a huge amount of compassion for animals and to see this situation handled so poorly is very disturbing. Will anything change when they open back up? — Laurie Smith Arden

Sound the trumpets, grab your clippers

– cation tford! New Lourch in Mon h The C

Insidious invaders [are] in our midst. Find them in almost any vacant lot, climbing to the top of our beautiful trees. I refer, of course to the green trespassers that go by the un-English name of kudzu. Surely, volunteer organizers such as Quality Forward and United Way have not overlooked this menace. Perhaps it’s just easier to fish tires out of the French Broad than to admit the difficulty of eradicating the vine that is smothering our neighborhoods. Take a good look. Walk past the Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church and the apartment buildings on the street near the University. There is a heretic worth attacking if there ever was one. Teams of half a dozen stalwarts on weekends could go a long way to stopping the encroachment before the seeds begin their harvest. A special kind of 2010 census could pinpoint the outbreaks to organize the strategic attack. — LeGrand Smith Asheville

Asheville Greek Festival 2010 September 24, 25 & 26 Friday & Saturday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church 227 Cumberland Avenue, Asheville