Missing Doctors

It's been 9 months since Hurricane Katrina largely destroyed New Orleans and just today I discovered the optometrist Jane and I see is out of business. I knew he was shut down by the storm, as all four of his offices (three in New Orleans and one in my suburb) were destroyed by the storm. All of the partnership's (he was in partnership with one other Optometrist) equipment was washed away. I had called the local office several times and spoke with an answering service that told me the doctor would be back in practice "son".
But my newspaper today announced that "Due to the effects of Hurricane Katrina we must announce that our practice has closed." Further, "Arrangements for copies of your medial records must be made no later than...". A telephone number is given, and I will phone to have that done.
This is a microcosm of the mess the storm had left the city. I read recently that only 20% of the physicians that were in residence here before the hurricane are now practicing in the city. And I know that the doctor who delivered Jane 12 years ago has relocated to Colorado, his home so destroyed that it was bulldozed moths ago. I think the future of New Orleans is at best, tenuous. This example is one small one in a growing list of problems the city is facing.
But in Thailand, even the dogs are faring better. Uh....that is in Bangkok a director of a dog grooming school, Anupan Booncheun, is barking a tune that even the dogs love. Anupan has just launched a Bangkok internet radio station that is just for the dogs. Dog Radio (I am not kidding, this is real) supposedly puts Fido in a better mood so the dog handlers who play the station at work can handle the dogs more easily. Though the tunes on dogradiothailand.com consists mostly of Thai pop music, Anupan says the disc jockey also always "talks to the dogs on Thai" and that the dogs are asked to respond to that talk."At 9 am., we may have a dog greeting show, in which we repeat 'sawasdee' over and over. If we say sawasdee the dog may lift both paws in response. If we play a slow song we may have the DJ howl....because dogs howl, too, when they hear sad sounds."
Hmmmmmmm I don't know about you, but I think someone ought to bite Anupan until he howls....