LOOK UP: On Thursday afternoon, Julie Petitt tells us, she saw a
low-flying military-style plane in the vicinity of Fretz on Lorana
Avenue. It was so low that she could see its propellers and could
tell it was an older plane, perhaps a cargo plane. When it dipped
behind the hills, she feared it would crash but it flew out heading
east.

We know that the Buffalo to Pittsburgh area is used for military
jet training missions but this definitely wasn’t a jet, Julie
says.

Surely, others saw this plane, she says. Can anyone explain?

UGLY DOGS: There’s a new soundtrack you might want to listen to
before heading for the McKean County SPCA to adopt that new
dog.

“Ugly Dogs Need More Love” is the title track of a new CD being
promoted as “created by dog lovers for dog lovers.” Skip Haynes,
owner of Laurel Canyon Animal Co., tells us “Ugly Dogs” is just one
of nine canine-centered songs on the CD.

Skip wrote the title track with Dana Walden, also of the Laurel
Canyon Animal Co., and it is sung by Arnold McCuller, backup
vocalist for James Taylor. The song is a different viewpoint on how
you might like to select a dog when you go to the pound to adopt a
new member of the family, he says.

Here’s how the song came to be:

“I went over to my friend Spike’s house to shoot pictures of his
dogs for the CD cover because I knew he had lots of dogs that he
adopted from the pound. I figured I could shoot all the dogs I
needed for the cover at once. I was very surprised by what I saw.
There were blind dogs, three-legged dogs, really old dogs – even a
little terrier who pulled its hind legs along in a little cart.

“I asked Spike why he had so many visually challenging animals.
He told me it was because the cute dogs at the pound got adopted
immediately while the ugly dogs got euthanized, so when he adopted,
he always chose the ugliest dog at the pound because ugly dogs need
more love.”

And the rest, as they say, is history.