Click images for enlargement. Advertisement

Great grooming

"It's new" and in my opinion, one of the best.

I don't generally speak about one business or another, but this has impressed me because I so needed to find a great groomer located in Pahrump where we lived for years.

Not only did my dogs come home looking amazing, but they were relaxed and feeling wonderful about themselves.

Thanks so much D is For Dog for giving me back some trust in groomers in Pahrump.

SARAH RAVLIN

Mariahs S.P.C.A.

Let's help each other

Are you living with an Alzheimer impaired relative? If so, and you would like to help start a support group, call me.

My husband, Claude (Whitney) and I were married when we were 70 years old and have been married for 15 years. The first 10 years were wonderful, with lots of RV traveling all over the country. He had lived in New Jersey most of his life and had never visited a National Park. I had lived in California and we had camped with our three children all over the west. We were married for 35 years and my sons are now 50 and 63 years old and my daughter is 53.

Then five years ago, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. I had never been exposed to anyone with that disease before. So, I researched the Internet and the library for information.

There is no support group here in Pahrump. Doctors gave him extensive medication but it was my responsibility to care for him.

Neither his two sons, or his two brothers offered any moral support. It was a hard life, alone with this confusing disease. None of our friends understood and neither did I.

But, luckily for him, my adult children came to his aid and got guardianship. So, one day when I went to a meeting at the Nugget, I called home to see if he wanted to come to town for lunch. No answer. I called several times--no answer.

So I went home immediately, afraid of the worst, and asked a neighbor to check the house before I went in.

He said "nobody is there." My husband had gone to California with one of my sons.

From that time on, I had no control over my husband's future. I had planned on investigating the veteran's home in Boulder City, but now I have no authority to assist him. My family brought him back to Pahrump and since February, 2006, he has been renting a room a few miles up the street from our home for $2,700 per month and has a nice car, and gets around to the clubs and casinos.

We have acreage here. If the vets had a waiting list, we could have put up a fifth-wheel trailer on our property for him temporarily. We have full hook-ups here available for that idea.

So, we need a support group and I am willing to do whatever I can to contribute to it. At least we would have each other to discuss problems and ideas for solving them.

I have a recorder on my phone, so please leave a message if I am not available at that time.

Let's help each other.

Sincerely, and with regrets for a lost marriage,

MAUREEN SHERWOOD

775-751-2769

Thanks E. R. staff

I would sincerely like to thank the ER staff at our Pahrump hospital for their concern, attention and treatment regarding my visit Aug. 8.

Even though it turned out to be just a migraine (which I had never before experienced), I was extremely frightened and distressed. The staff was exceptionally comforting, compassionate and understanding to my feelings. Seeing as there were many other serious injuries that needed their attention, my appreciation to them is just that much more.

I'm sorry I do not know anyone's name that were there. I hope whoever you are, you will read this and know.

JACKIE ZENS

Scenarios make no sense

Although I left Pahrump in the spring of this year after living there for four years, I still have many friends and connections in your fair town. It is for this reason that I feel obliged to respond to Mark Smith's "Who's defending whom from what?" column Aug. 10.

Firstly, why the assumption that some citizen carrying a perfectly legal handgun would become "over-excited" and start shooting at a town meeting? That scenario is about the least likely of all to occur. Citizens carry sidearms for self defense, not aggression, and people openly carrying a weapon are not the ones we need to worry about at meetings.

Secondly, why would the second private citizen draw his weapon if his life was not being endangered, especially if the deputy already took care of the situation? I certainly wouldn't. Again, this scenario just doesn't make sense except for the case of sensationalism.

Thirdly, I've been a "combat soldier" in the Vietnam era, and the training I received was nothing compared to the many courses I've taken at Front Sight regarding self defense. If Mr. Smith hasn't taken a course at Front Sight I would suggest he refrain from passing judgment on their courses and their mission.

I'm sure Dr. Piazza (of Front Sight) would gladly provide Mr. Smith a free course if so requested. It's there for the asking.

But more important to the situation being discussed, the training at Front Sight is exactly what is needed to prevent the bloodbath that Mr. Smith predicts as the outcome of having an armed citizen present. The training I've received has taught me not only marksmanship technique, but more critical, it has taught me when the law allows me to draw my weapon from the holster and fire it in order to prevent the loss of life, namely mine.

Lastly, regarding the Flagman, I must disagree wholeheartedly with the characterizations made by Mr. Smith. Ray is in fact defending something: He is defending the Bill of Rights as carefully composed and written by our Founding Fathers.

He is trying to educate those of our modern society who would wish to treat it as a smorgasbord where they get to pick and choose which parts they like and which parts they don't. He is also defending it from the likes of Mr. Smith who believe that it is a "living document" subject to modern interpretation.

Nothing could be further from the truth. No, it is a rigid document and it means exactly what the Founders intended. It can be modified only through the constitutional amendment process, not through the likes of editors who might wish it to mean something more in line with their personal beliefs.

Thank you for giving me this opportunity to respond. I may now live in Wyoming, but part of my heart will always be with the people of Pahrump.

MAC FRANK

Pahrumpians are heroes

I have been following the story about the Bond Street cat "sanctuary" since it was taken over by Nye County and Best Friends stepped in to help. What a heartbreaking story, and what harsh desert conditions for it to be playing out in.

But in the face of all this adversity, the people of Pahrump have proven themselves to be superheroes. The outpouring of support in the form of volunteers, supplies and donations has been astounding. That the casino jumped in to provide a staging area for an adoption event is just over the top.

Your whole community has displayed a lot of heart and a can-do attitude. You have set the bar very high for other communities faced with a similar situation. Those of us who are unable to be there are very, very grateful to the people of Pahrump.

BECKY BROWN

Mission Viejo, Calif.

In response to Maureen Rose

I have been around long enough to know that you were the only volunteer at the animal shelter told to leave and never come back by a previous supervisor about 7 or 8 years ago. I've been around long enough to know that you or anyone in your group were never authorized by the Nye County Sheriff, any county commissioner or any government official to remove animals from anyone's property. I've been around long enough to know that animal control goes out to investigate many frivolous and unfounded complaints that keep them from following up on legitimate complaints. I've been involved with animals and rescue and volunteer work long enough to know who is doing their best in efforts to help the animals in Nye County, and who sits around pointing fingers, complaining, whining, doing the least and always accents the negative not the positive.

Yes, I am familiar with Chapter 574 of the Nevada Revised Statutes. Since NRS is approximately 12 pages long with numerous articles, which one are you referring to? I assume you are referring to NRS 574.055, paragraph 1, which states that any peace officer of a society for the prevention of cruelty to animals who is authorized (keyword) to make arrests pursuant to NRS 574.040 shall, upon discovery of any animal that is being treated cruelly, take possession of it and provide it with shelter and care or, upon obtaining written permission from the owner of the animal, may destroy it in a humane manner. At this time no private animal group has the authorization to remove animals from anyone's property. Again animal control officers have to follow written laws and can only follow through on situations that are covered by these laws. They cannot randomly take the law into their own hands and do what they would like whenever it suits them.

While I agree with you that a bigger shelter or more animal service staff is needed, I do not understand what you mean by two of these 10 people employed by animal services have 3 full-time jobs. All animal services staff that I know of work full time plus many extra hours and days at the animal shelter or for animal control. The supervisors and staff for the county facilities work long hours an I have never observed them playing any games during working hours. They very seldom get a full lunch hour, which by the way is their own times and not paid by the county. The "new" ACO is doing a good job and we can only hope that the training that anyone receives while working for these departments continues, as it will only improve knowledge, skill, and performance in their job duties.

I do not think of myself as a "somebody", only as a volunteer who works hard for the animals as do other volunteers. We put in many hours "working" in trying to make life better for these animals and consider them our first priority. We do consider ourselves as part of the solution not the problem and anyone who knows the facts realizes this. While we do not do 24/7 as you claim you do (wow, you must be really tired), we volunteer many hours a week. Since I have only seen you once or twice at the shelter in the past couple of years, I can only assume you do not know all the facts of what is done on a daily basis at the facility. While we can only hope for change, new laws and regulations concerning animal welfare in our state and country, for now we can only go day by day and work toward these goals.

And no, I've never played Pacman at the shelter or anywhere else.

TERRE DESJARDINS

Proud Volunteer

Worry about God

In response to Town Manager Dave Richards interview in the Aug. 15 edition of the Pahrump Valley Times:

Dear Mr. Richards,

Your title of Town Manager does not make you an innocent victim.

I, as well, have many titles. Probably more than you, but the most important one on my list is, I am a Christian.

On Aug. 5, I was one of the twenty-two people on that Sunday afternoon league you bowled on, when that little brawl took place. Over half of those people saw and heard EXACTLY what happened and they will also be in court to testify.

Don't worry too much about them though. The one you should really worry about is the key witness...God.

Enjoy your pity party,

SANDRA S. HOLLINGSWORTH

Where's the outrage

Is anyone paying attention?

Congress just voted itself another raise and ignored our national debt which is greater than $8.5 billion and still climbing. The members pay the interest each year but nothing on the pricipal. Doesn't sound like fiscal responsibility to me. Who will be accountable and provide direction?

Our markets are open to the world and every nation wants to sell its products here, yet they won't reciprocate. Our trade imbalance exceeds $800 billion and our trade ambassadors seem unable to do anything about this one-way street. Imagine, we are importing that much more than we are exporting.

Congess has spent billions on the war on drugs which has accomplished absolutely nothing. So much good could have been done with that amount of money.

I believe we had a budget surplus when Clinton left office. I guess nobody has been minding the store and we are losing our manufacturing leadership to Asia.

Does anyone remember Osama bin Laden? Were we lied to about Iraq? Where were those weapons of mass destruction? I don't remember anyone from Iraq being tied to 9/11 yet we ended up invading the country. Smells like oil to me.

Congress needs to get the government out of our schools and teachers should be allowed to teach without the federal government essentially sitting in every public classroom in the country. America's students do extremely poor in science and math when compared with other industrialized nations.

When legislation leaves Congress for the Presidents signature it is loaded with earmarks (Can you spell pork?) so the members can show their constituents their bringing home the bacon. I think they need a rest. Most of them don't read what they enact anyway. In my view there are to many corrupt and bloated people in the federal government.

Have you ever got a straight answer from a member of Congress, particularly when asked about the war in Iraq?

Most of these people could make much more money in the private sector yet they amass millions to retain their seats. Perhaps they become addicted to all the perks.

Next time you contact one of the members, ask why we now have the biggest deficit in the history of this nation.

I'm throughly disgusted with the whole bunch and believe we would be better served if they would shut down for a year and contemplate what they have done.

LEONARD J. COENEN