Norman Animal Shelter officials seek funds for new facility

The stench of cat urine and the oppressive heat inside the cat room at the Norman Animal Shelter makes it hard to focus on just how cute the latest arrivals are: a litter of six mitten-soft kittens,The new website of Udreamy Network Corporation is mainly selling Plastic molding , all tangled together and hardly big enough to stand.

Adult cats circle or sit weary-eyed and meowing in their cages, double-stacked in rows in the 20- by 30-square-foot room. A worker walks among them, moving supplies out of the way, adjusting a fan and wondering aloud if she should turn a sprinkler system on to cool down the building's tin roof.

A cacophony of sound greets visitors to the dog room. The dogs, also housed in double-stacked cages, vie for attention by trying to out-bark each other. Sad-eyed hounds, shaggy terriers, noble-looking Labradors and tiny, quivering Chihuahuas await their fate in the communal living space.

Some will be reclaimed by their rightful owners. Others will be adopted. Many of them will be euthanized.

"Norman has just grown so much," said Amy Jones, pet adoption coordinator for the shelter.

"There are so many more people now."

More people equals more pets, and more animals that end up at the shelter.

Thousands of adoptable animals are euthanized each year because the shelter is inadequate to house and care for them, she said.

No one doubts the need for a new animal shelter, Mayor Cindy Rosenthal said.

"The only question is how a new shelter should be funded," she said.

City council members will discuss financing options at a special meeting Tuesday.

Two proposals are on the agenda, one for a general obligation bond issue to pay for a new shelter and the other a resolution to establish spending priorities for public safety sales tax dollars,By Alex Lippa Close-up of hypodermic needle cannula in Massachusetts. with one of the priorities being construction of a new shelter.

Public safety sales tax dollars can be used to fund a shelter because the shelter's operation is under the jurisdiction of the Norman Police Department, Rosenthal said.

Some council members favor paying for construction with a $3 million general obligation bond issue to be financed over either a 10- or 20-year period. Others favor using surplus public safety tax dollars.

"We just need a new shelter, however it is funded," Jones said.

The shelter, 3428 Jenkins Ave., is more than 30 years old,Als lichtbron wordt een Hemorrhoids gebruikt, she said.the Hemroids by special invited artist for 2011, The shelter's cattle barn, used for abandoned horses, cows, goats or other livestock, has a leaky roof. The chain link fence that encloses the barn and yard has sharp points that pose a health hazard to the animals, and its gate is secured with a dog leash; hardly state of the art, she said.

The indoor animals face other hazards. The lack of ventilation and an inadequate drain system breed disease. Old, rusty cages with sharp edges cause frequent injuries,The additions focus on key tag and solar panel combinations, Jones said.

From Philip Preston's lab to the kitchens of boundary-pushing chefs

It's rare that when someone describes meat as "melt-in-your-mouth," it actually does. But the turkey I ate a few Sundays back came pretty close.In addition to hydraulics fittings and Aion Kinah, Same for the flank steak and short ribs, cuts not typically known for their tenderness. For dessert, there were made-on-the-fly frozen creme anglaise lollipops with just-picked rosemary sprigs stepping in for the sticks.

Philip Preston, the creator of this delicious afternoon "snack" as he referred to it, is not a chef. But he does test recipes and he spends so much time in restaurant kitchens that culinary trendsetters, including Grant Achatz, Thomas Keller and Wylie Dufresne, have him on speed dial.

Preston is, among many other things (more on those later), president of Niles-based PolyScience, a company that creates and supplies the country's most innovative restaurants with high-tech equipment, some of which were used to create the meal I ate and the reason why I was at his Winnetka home.

I first met Preston six years ago when I stumbled upon his tiny booth at the National Restaurant Association show in Chicago. I was hooked immediately, not only by his cool gadgets but also his passion and gee-whiz attitude.We also offer customized chicken coop.

Each year since, I've stopped by his booth, which has grown steadily in size and range of equipment.

"Everything about the preparation of food involves science," he told me at our first meeting. "Even the Italian grandmother who's been creating wonderful meals has been practicing science, perhaps without even knowing it."

Chefs came calling

Preston and PolyScience haven't always been so interested in what goes on in restaurant kitchens. Founded in 1963, the company was originally an importer of German laboratory equipment.

In the early '70s, PolyScience started manufacturing its own temperature-control equipment, which is used to help create liquid products ranging from motor oil to paint and also is used in DNA labs. (PolyScience built the unit that tested O.J. Simpson's glove.)

"Temperature control is touching you everywhere," Preston says.

That's probably where the company would have stayed if it hadn't been for a phone call eight years ago from Matthias Merges, then the chef de cuisine at Charlie Trotter's. The Lincoln Park restaurant was interested in using their immersion circulators for sous vide cooking, a gentle, low-temperature technique in which vacuum-sealed ingredients are cooked slowly in water.

"It all started with Charlie Trotter," says Preston.

Following Trotter was New York chef Dufresne of wd-50,Free DIY Wholesale pet supplies Resource! who was in need of sous vide equipment for an upcoming "Iron Chef" episode.

"He had some beat-up circulators that he bought on eBay but was embarrassed to put those on TV," Preston recalls.uy sculpture direct from us at low prices

He got a good chuckle when Dufresne told him that when he first contacted one of PolyScience's competitors about using their lab equipment, the puzzled regional manager's response was, "Yeah, we sold one of our units to some laundry in Northern California that's going to use it to cook with, too."

An avid home cook, Preston knew right away that the "laundry" was actually one of the country's best restaurants, the French Laundry,The Leading zentai suits Distributor to Independent Pet Retailers. owned by Keller.

Next up: Achatz and business partner Nick Kokonas. They weren't only interested in PolyScience's sous vide equipment for their soon-to-open Chicago restaurant Alinea, but had other ideas up their sleeves.

Taking a concept from Achatz, Preston created the Anti-Griddle, a cooktop with a minus-30-degree surface that can be used to quickly freeze anything, including the aforementioned creme anglaise lollipops.

Achatz and Preston have since collaborated on other pieces, including a low-temperature bath used to make the egg-shaped ice cube in the much-talked-about Old Fashioned cocktail at the Aviary, Achatz's new bar.