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THE NEW TANNER THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 2010 6 Distributed to every home in Acton and area, as well as adjoining communities. 373 Queen Street East, Unit 1 Acton, Ontario L7J 2N2 email: thenewtanner@on.aibn.com By Angela Tyler Editorial with Frances Niblock (519) 853-0051 Fax: (519) 853-0052 Every effort will be made to see advertising copy, neatly presented, is correctly printed. The publisher assumes no financial responsibility for typographical errors or omissions in advertising, but will gladly reprint without charge that part of an advertisement in which an error may occur provided a claim is made within five days of publication. All articles, advertisements and graphic artwork appearing in The New Tanner is copyrighted. Any usage, reproduction or publication of these items, in whole or in part, without the express written consent of the publisher of The New Tanner is a copyright infringement and subject to legal action. Publisher Ted Tyler Editor Frances Niblock Editorial Contributors Mike OLeary Angela Tyler Denise Paulsen Advertising and Circulation Marie Shadbolt Composing Ken Baker Too bad Halton police cant break down the stats released last week that showed a 10.5 per cent drop in the crime rate last year over 2008 I bet that Acton would prove to be the safest community per capital of any of Haltons four muni- cipalities. It cant be done, was the response from Halton police when asked to provide division by division numbers to show how Acton or at least District one which is Acton, George- town and Milton fared compared to the rest of the region when it came to crime. Apparently, the Police Service has a new computer system that does not allow for the breakdown, key information agreed one officer. The report, released last week, showed there were 1,225 fewer criminal offences in Halton in 2009 (14,043) compared to 15,268 in 2008. The crime rate is the number of offences committed per 100,000 people. At a recent public meeting into the aftermath of the van- dalism at Robert Little School that enraged the community, a police official quoted crime stats in Acton they were all very low and then asked that the numbers not be reported. Personally, I think that Acton area residents would be very happy to know how few cars are stolen in Acton each year and how few stores and homes are broken into. *** Still on the crime scene nice to hear that the coward who mistakenly sent anonymous letters telling an Acton family with the same name as one of those charged in the Robert Little incident to get out of town, has had a change of heart and apologised. The family that received the letters telling them to leave questioned if they had made the right choice in moving to Acton several years ago, and the apology has gone a long way to again make them feel safe in their home and community *** A lot of people are feeling Olympic let down this week gone are the opportunities for patriotic cheering, great tele- vision and the knowledge that we can stand proudly on the international stage or podium with the best of them and loudly sing, even off key, O Canada, with pride and joy. Is there a lasting legacy of the 14 Gold medals? Only time will tell. Thumbs Up C To Actons George Henderson for his 40 years of support and hard work for the 1st Acton Scouting movement CTo Jordan Lenz, a grade eight student at McKenzie-Smith Bennett School who was named a Student of Excellence win- ner, honouring her good marks, many co-curricular activities and her positive, polite and respectful manner. How safe is Acton? MUMS & CHUMS: Mayor Rick Bonnette, Councillor Clarke Somerville, local entrepreneur Sara Hodge and chums, including her one-year-old son Devan, were happy to cut the ribbon and the cake last Wednesday night at the Acton arena for the launch party of Hodges online business www.mumsnchums.com. The website provides parenting issues, challenges, recipes, events, blog and online chat. Denise Paulsen photo Remember...You picked her As our lives grow together, there are things, good and/or bad in our lives that I know are totally my doing and then there are things the Dudes responsibility. Two years ago, I thought our dog Billie was lonely. He seemed depressed and I was missing hav- ing two dogs in my life so I went to work on the Dude, and before we knew it we were on our way to a kennel to pick out a puppy for our lonely Billie. I remember the day so vividly. I especially remember the Dude being enamoured by the puppies and taking it upon himself to eye the dogs, eye ball to eye ball, and picking one particular dog. I soon realized that Billie wasnt lonely. Although he would protect Daisy, his new sister, we both knew he really didnt have much use for her. He seemed to just put up with her more than anything. He actually liked being a loner dog. I was completely taken with her. I had a two-some of dogs again and we had a happy home. I thought life was perfect. That was until we got her home. Within one hour I just knew we were going to have our hands full. You see, in that first hour, she made her markliterally. As she cuddled with dad on the couch, nestling in the nape of his neck oh so cutely, she peed on him. Yep, that was the start of it. There have been a lot of chal- lenges with number two dog. Of course, many would just say it was puppy stuff, but it got to the point where even with her looks I was starting to wonder if she was a pure bred St. Bernard because number two, which was actually our third Saint, wasnt like the other two. After eating a new leather couch, we took psycho dog to the vet she was perfectly fine going in the truck, but once inside the vet clinic she became Kujo. When we had Little J, dog num- ber two was definitely a point of concern. We didnt know how she would react. Go figure, she adores Little J. Granted we dont go overboard with this, however, she has surprised us in being her protector as Billie was to Daisy when we brought her home. Just before Christmas, we no- ticed number two, who we cant figure out why this girl dog al- ways loves getting dirty, had some nasty looking ears which I clean regularly. To top it off, she had some irritations near her neck. Another psycho visit to the vet and in keeping with never expect the normal with this dog tradition we learned number two has en- vironmental allergies. However, our opinion on the allergies soon changed when they went to the kennel and she came home in top condition. With that we decided to try the kennels food. Double the price of her other food, she was back to her dirty dog appearance. After $300 worth of vet visits and medicine, special holistic type dog food and her talent of seeing dead people I have come to the conclusion that number two is probably allergic to num- ber one. Only we would have a dog that was allergic to dogs and I now have the great privil- ege of reminding the Dude when he grumbles about any of her antics rememberyou picked her.