T EXAS History Speaking in public for the last time on Mar. 18, 1863, Sam Houston told the citizens of the town that bore his name, “The welfare and glory of Texas will be the uppermost thought while the spark of life remains in this breast.” Two years earlier almost to the day, the governor had polled four trusted friends on President Abraham Lincoln’s secret offer of federal troops to keep him in office and Texas in the Union.

I was thinking about certain places being, or seeming to be, desolate; sites like open plains, thick forests, endless oceans, deserted buildings, or outer space. And with that thought I wondered if that feeling of emptiness causes fear, sadness, freedom, concern, or peace.

This week at the shelter we released a very sweet and friendly cat from rabies quarantine (RQ) after a bite incident. She delivered her seven healthy babies while in RQ. Momma Myrtle and babies are all doing well and moved to foster after the state mandated 10-day quarantine. This is the beginning of hundreds of felines that will enter our care over the course of 2024. Right now, we are coordinating the rescue of 40 cats from one area. In 2023 we cared for 848 cats and kittens, 570 of those came in as strays. In June/July we took in 240 felines, in July through October, we had over 80 kittens in foster care.

To the Editor: A recent FCR letter rightly notes that “there is no advantage to playing the ‘Blame Game.’” As marriage counselors, divorce lawyers, management consultants, and wise parents remind us, be careful and respectful when you set out to blame someone for some offense. Legal proceedings are carefully established to protect the innocent.

To the Editor: A couple of letters in last week’s FCR were stunning in their hypocrisy as is usual with Democrat letter writers. One just regurgitated lame stream media talking points yet again.

If you ever travel on Highway 155 from atop the Bluff going toward Weimar and veer off at Cozy Corner onto FM 3233, you will travel about one and a half to two miles to a steel pipe gate as an entrance to a pasture. A few hundred yards further, you will see another and, after crossing Williams Creek Bridge, there is a third gate identical to the other two.

C APITAL Highlights A wildfire in the Texas Panhandle has consumed more than 1 million acres and as of Sunday was just 15% contained, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service. It is the largest wildfire in Texas history.

Dear Readers, I have recently been reading and discussing with a few others at my church the book ZEALOT. It was a best-seller of 15 or so years back written by Reza Aslan, a professor and sociologist-historian specializing in religion. The book examines the two centuries on either side of the birth of Jesus, in trying to decipher what the actual life of Jesus in Gallilee and Judea must have been like. (Aslan says he is trying to examine the life of “Jesus the Man” instead of “Jesus Christ, Messiah.”) I highly recommend the book for its insights into the political and social pressures of those times, for its insights about who Jesus was and how He understood Himself, and also for its remarkable documentation and ease of reading for lay people like me. In any case, the book has piqued my interest again in what was going on in the early church, and where all those apostles went whom Jesus sent out with his command to “make disciples of all nations,” resulting in a very rapid growth of this religion into almost all regions of the world (as known by the Roman Empire at least).

History In the wee hours of Mar. 9, 1916, peasant guerrillas cut a hole in the international fence 60 miles from El Paso and scurried toward Columbus, New Mexico.