Texas wants 8 kids & First exposure to Dogs!!!

Sorry, I have not been posting - here is my catching up!

Texas Wants 8 Sect Kids Back
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/17/national/main4356497.shtml

Excerpts

(AP) More than two months after being forced to return children from a polygamist sect to their parents, Texas child welfare authorities want eight of the youngsters put back in foster care.

Individual hearings for the four mothers of the children, ranging in age from 5 to 17, are set to begin Monday.

Child Protective Services has asked Texas District Judge Barbara Walther to return the children to foster care because their mothers allegedly have refused to limit their contact with men accused of being involved in underage marriages.

"We continue to have concerns in particular for these eight children, which is why we have asked the judge to review the case," said CPS spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner.

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The issue, as it was in the earlier case, is "whether the children are in any immediate danger simply because their parents choose to raise them in this religion," he said. "The substance of what they're doing here is fundamentally the same."

FLDS Children See Dogs For the First Time in Their Lives
http://radio.woai.com/script2/print.php?page=/cc-common/news/sections/newsarticle.html&article_id=4108587&feed_id=119078

Excerpt

Dogs are not allowed and never have been on the FLDS compound. So most kids had never seen one and many have never even seen a picture of a dog.

But when some of the children were housed at a San Antonio shelter they requested to finally see a four footed friend.

The call for a dog went to Pasty Swendson, a former TV personality, now owner of Pennies from Heaven, a dog therapy service.

The fragile meeting was arranged. After all, the kids didn’t know a dog from a gopher. Swendson says she brought her Golden Retriever, two smaller dogs and her Irish Wolfhound.

“When we entered the room, the kids, boys and girls, showed restraint. But soon enough they became excited and the first dog they went to was the 135 pound Wolfhound.”

Swendson says the children were well behaved, spelled aloud the dogs names, examined their fur, toes and faces and expressed amazement at them.

The 90 minute “therapy session” was over too soon says Swendson. “I could tell one little boy did not want to go back. He wanted to stay there with us.”