• 2 • Action Magazine, December 2018

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• DEPARTMENTS •

• FEATURE •Editor & Publisher ................Sam KindrickAdvertising Sales ....................Action Staff..........................................Amy Heller ReifPhotography.............................Action StaffDistribution............................Ronnie ReedComposition..........................Elise Taquino

Volume 43 • Number 12

Action Magazine, December 2018 • 3 •

advertising is worthless if you have nothing worth advertisingPut your money where the music is. . .

Advertise in Action Magazine

Patti Witten ..............................................8

• 4 • Action Magazine, December 2018

Sports related subjects published in Action overthe years have been under the byline of one JacquesE. Strap.

It is now time for old Jacques to come out of thecloset and confront a nasty, controversial subject in hisalter ego form which (or course) happens to be me.

I have been a Spurs fan since the San Antonioteam joined the NBA in 1976. It has been many yearssince I drank coffee with a young George Gervin in aWurzbach Road Toddle House.

Meeting David Robinson and Manu Ginobili onseparate occasions in the Apple Store at La Canteraprovided other memories which I will always cherish.The measure of greatness reflected in the persona ofany truly great person can best be assessed by that per-son’s humility level.

Humility is the middle name of David Robinson,Tim Duncan, and Manu Ginobili, the last superstar toleave the Spurs. These are the players who helpedshape and define what was once San Antonio’s team.

Peter Holt is a personal friend of mine whosemajority ownership of the Spurs was a credit to San An-tonio’s team. And I had the good fortune of meeting andlearning to love former Spurs coach John Lucas as weboth participated in a recovery program for alcoholicsand drug addicts.

With these and many more fond memories ofthe Spurs legend now in jeopardy, I see something intoday’s team which is both sad and infuriating to many.

The Spurs are no longer San Antonio’s team.The Spurs are now Gregg Popovich’s team.And something is gravely wrong with the Spurs

today, a condition which may be attributed to an arro-gant self-annointed activist who is more demigod thanbasketball coach.

I know the Pop lovers will hiss and spit at thisassessment, and they can take their bile to Walgreensfor all I care. I have no more respect for Gregg Popovichthan he has ever demonstrated for the luckless mediapeople he has been treating like sewer scum for manyyears.

Coach Popovich had it all planned out when hewas the Spurs general manager with David Robinsonin the fold. By firing head coach Bob Hill, who by all re-ports had been doing a good job as head coach,Popovich started paving his own street to the NBA big-

time. And then Tim Duncan landed in Popovich’s lap,

a stroke of sheer luck which guaranteed GreggPopovich more than a few NBA titles.

Donald Duck could have coached a winningteam with Robinson and Duncan working the boards.The proof is always in the pudding.

Old Pop is now experiencing life without aRobinson, a Tim Duncan, or a Manu Ginobili. With orwithout Kawhi Leonard, the Spurs boat was bound tostart springing leaks. Leonard is a two-way basketballtalent, but he lacks the character or the leadership skillsto maintain a dynasty.

With Tony Parker electing to finish his illustriousbasketball career in Charlotte, and with Leonard nowgone to the Toronto Raptors, the Spurs organizationneeds a fearless and searching inventory of its key peo-ple and parts.

If he ever had any real focus, Pop has lost it. Helost it when he divided the Spurs fan base with a need-less and idiotic series of verbal attacks on Donald Trump.

At this point, I will reiterate what I have said be-fore. I am no fan of President Trump. I did not vote forTrump and I will not vote for Trump, and my personal po-litical predillections have absolutely nothing to do withmy low opinion of the basketball coach.

By using his standing as an NBA head basket-ball coach as a platform for pot-shooting at the presidentof the United States, Gregg Popovich chose to shit onevery Republican Spurs fan who voted for the currentpresident, and the Spurs who were once San Antonio’steam and their fans do not deserve this divisive treat-ment. No matter who they may or may not have sup-ported in the last presidential election. This is not aboutpolitics. It is about Popovich and the basketball teamthat once belonged to the people of San Antonio.

Before the Pop lovers start reminding me of theNBA greats who say they would prefer to play forPopovich over any other coach, let us look at the sorrysituation of today.

Kawhi Leonard thought he was disrespected bythose who took dim views of his decision to seek out-side medical help for a nagging quadriceps injury.

So how about it, Spurs fans?

Was Leonard an over-paid crybaby who mighthave left the Spurs eventually over some other real orimagined affront? That is a possibility. Is he a quitter whodidn’t care enough about his coach or his team matesto even show up for the Spurs dying gasps in the play-offs. That is also a possibility.

These are questions that are certainly worthyof consideration.

Then there is the other awful, ugly, and vey realpossibility.

Did the greatest Spurs player since Tim Duncanleave the team because of a head coach who paid moreattention to Donald Trump bashing than he did to theyoung superstar he once dubbed the franchise face?

What really happened between Leonard andPopovich.

The platitude-loaded letter of farewell Leonardallegedly penned for the team and Spurs fans in SanAntonio is a joke. He obviously didn’t write it

Kawhi has kept his lip zipped on particulars, buthe has made it obviously clear that he wanted no moreof San Antonio and the Spurs. Something happenedto sour Leonard on Popovich. Bet on it and believe it.Kawhi’s disdain for the Spurs and San Antonio has notbecome manifest because Leonard didn’t like enchi-ladas and refried beans.

The elephant of Serbian descent is sitting inthe Spurs living room, slurping his wine and puttingdown those he says should be ashamed of being Amer-icans.

Meanwhile, Pop is surrounding himself with astable of newcomers as the team faces mediocrity orworse. LaMarcus Aldridge, Demar DeRozan, and RudyGay will have a rough Western Conference road to hoewith Golden State, Houston, and L.A.

Hottest prospect going is first round draft pickLonnie Walker IV, the now-injured youngster with therooster comb hairdo who says he would never celebratethe Fourth of July.

He will probably be a good fit in the GreggPopovich culture. Being a Spurs fan was alwaysfun for me. I have Spurs caps and shirts and I have al-ways displayed Spurs emblems on my truck andcar.Being a Spurs fan is getting harder, and we haveGregg Popovich to thank for it.

by Jim Chesnut Thanksgiving daymarked one year since Icompleted chemo and ra-diation for cancer. I recall that as I wasbeing slid into the longand sterile body chamberfor a scan that would re-veal the extent of the can-cer crab that had invadedmy head and neck, Icouldn’t help but noticehow cold the tray was onwhich I was placed. Icouldn’t help wondering ifsoon I would be a corpsebeing similarly stored in arefrigerated morguesomewhere. As a 72-year-oldsinger, I was not scared ofdeath. I was scared ofdying; and even morescared of having mytongue removed. I don’t know how long Iwas in the tunnel . . .maybe an hour or hour-and-a-half. It seemedlonger, like the eternity Iexperienced waiting impa-tiently for my first time toget past first base with agirl. Now, that was some-

thing. Although it wasn’t ahomerun, it resulted in atrip to the doctor for a curefor what I caught andmight have caught. It turns out that that af-ternoon of youthful unpro-tected exuberance mayhave contributed to myoropharyngeal cancer di-agnosis. I don’t know ifdocs even knew aboutHPV back in 1964, but itsure stuck around, if that’swhen I caught it. Anyway,folks need to make suretheir kids get the HPV vac-cine. It reduces their riskof getting cancer asadults. Ask your doctorabout that. In a way, life is like thatbody chamber—a tunnel.We’re born at a tunnel’sentrance, and we die at itsexit. And, if we’re lucky, wewon’t get run over by run-away trains of happen-stance while we’re inside.But, like the T-shirt says,“Stuff Happens!” After having the fullbody scan, it was a num-ber of sleepless nights be-

fore I would learn that thecancer cells lived only inmy throat above the vocalcords and nowhere else inthe body. Months before thescan, I had begun havingproblems with sinusdrainage and thick mu-cous on my vocal cords.My primary care physicianand an allergist failed tofind the cause, which wasa tumor. Through a scope,the allergist thought theremight be a fungus in-volved, but treatment forthat was unsuccessful. As the weeks went by, Inoticed a slight change inmy ability to speak certainconsonants clearly, so Iwashed my hands andstuck a finger in my mouthto see what I could find.Shazaam! I found a lumpthe size of a small, un-shelled peanut on the rightside of the base of mytongue. By the end of that day,I saw an oral surgeon andwas scheduled for a pro-cedure that week that

would ultimately deter-mine—a long week later—that the tumor wasmalignant. It seemed like arunaway train had hit me! Treatment soon began,first, with a Mediport surgi-cally inserted in my upperchest, followed by nineweeks of chemo cocktailsand seven weeks of dailytied-to-a-table radiation.Early in treatment, Icaught some kind of bac-terial infection, becamedehydrated, and spent afew nights in the hospital.During that time, the Medi-port became clogged andhad to be replaced. Moresurgery. Yuk! To cope with the emo-tional impact of this expe-rience, I began to writeand produce a new album.Did I mention that I am asinger? What? I did? Ok, fine, Iwon’t mention it again(maybe). Anyway, the process ofwriting gave me some-thing I didn’t expect. In-stead of surrendering to

the impact of the runawaytrain that had hit me, I goton board. I rode thatsucker bareback, ac-cepted where it was takingme, and enjoyed atremendous reduction ofmy anxiety. As I write this, almost ayear since treatment wascompleted, it appears thatI am in remission. How-ever, I cannot allow myself

to take that for granted. Icontinue to practice a mo-ment-to-moment attitudeof gratitude that I learnedwhile riding the runawaytrain. If anything, cancer andthe fear of dying havetaught me a better way tolive. Oh, and the rosessmell wonderful, and I canstill sing!

Action Magazine, December 2018 • 5 •

Musician compares cancer to runaway train

Jim Chesnut

• 6 • Action Magazine, December 2018

Action Magazine, December 2018 • 7 •

by Sam Kindrick If you love dogs youhave to love Patti Witten. She is the FlorenceNightengale of dogdom inSoutheast Bexar Countyand beyond. When we say “and be-yond” we mean far pastthe customary parametersfor canine salvation. Witten would probablydrive her car to the NorthPole to rescue a dog suf-fering from severe frost-bite. We know of instanceswhere she has drivenmore than halfway acrossTexas to complete a res-cue. . Patti is a hard core be-

liever in rescuing stray andabandoned dogs that no-body will save. “I guess I have takenthem all in over the years,”says the tall redhead. “Igrieve for them all, and Ihave cried myself to sleepon many nights just be-cause of what people doto innocent and defense-less dogs.” The conditions in whichshe finds many of her res-cue subjects are daunting:broken legs, brokenpelvis, deep wounds, se-vere worms, severe ane-mia to the point of deathcaused by fleas and ticks,parvo, distemper, severe

mange, tick borne ill-nesses, gun shot wounds,starvation/dehydration. “That’s all I can think ofright now,” said Witten. “Iam sure there are more.” Witten owns and oper-ates Witten Pest Controlin Adkins, a family busi-ness which has continuednon-stop since 1948. She points out that sheis not the only dedicateddog rescue figure in SanAntonio and BexarCounty. She is the onlyone we have know, how-ever, and we knownenough about her to morethan justify this article.She has been saving dogs

since she was 16. Patti Witten is now an

official with the TexasGreat Pyrenees Rescue

organization, but she still

Atlas is visual proof that dog rescue is notfor pussies. The German Shepherd was re-ported and picked up as a dead dog by An-imal Care Services (ACS) in San Antonio.But an ACS worker friend of Patty Wittencould not bear to watch Atlas go to the eu-thanasia slab.• 8 • Action Magazine, December 2018

Continued on pg. 9

Witten dog rescuenot for faint heartsor weak stomachs

Patti Witten, the Florence Nightingale ofdogdom in Bexar County.

Here is a shot of Atlas after Witten and herrescue people saved him from a sad death. Witten went into action as only she can do.She found the funding to save the dog, shefound a foster home for Atlas where he re-covered, and she located a forever home ina northern state for the now handsome boy.

Action Magazine, December 2018 • 9 •

comes to the aid of aban-doned street dogs thatcross her path. “I started picking upstreet strays 25 yearsago,” Witten says. “With acouple of other friends, Ihelped found the SchertzHumane Society which isknown today as HomesFor Pets. Fund raising wasdifferent and hard back inthose days. Now we poston Face Book but I can re-call standing on a streetcorner wearing a dog cos-tume and holding a signwhich read Will Wag forCash.” Witten is a 56-year-olddivorcee and says she willprobably be single the restof her life because “not toomany men would be will-ing to be put on the backburner and tolerate medropping everything andrunning for a dog in needand I’m okay with that. “I’m a San Antonio girlthrough and through (bornand raised here) and 7thgeneration Texan. Unfortu-nately, living in Texasmeans residing in a statethat has the worst dogoverpopulation problem inthe United States.My interest in saving ani-mals began when I wasabout 16. At that age, Ithink I knew my mark inthe world wasn’t going toinclude being a beautyqueen, famous singer ormarketing executive onthe 15th floor of a fancy of-fice building in New York.What I did know is that Ihad a passion for the un-derdogs of the world andthat helping those in needwas my passion. I think Ichoose dogs becausethey don’t have a voiceand I wanted to be thatvoice...for them.” About 25 years ago,Witten said, she begansaving street dogs on herown, finding them aban-doned here and there and

finding homes for them. She lived in Schertz,when her eyes reallyopened regarding theabuse, neglect and in-creasing dog homelesspopulation. It was at this point thatshe and a couple offriends opened theSchertz Humane Society. “Rescue is hard if youreally put your heart andsoul into it. And this issomething I seem power-less to regulate or control,”Witten said. At one point, Wittensaid, she had to leave theSchertz group because “Iwas too in.” She explained: “Res-cue can really be hard. Itcan rip your head andyour heart wide open. I re-ally needed a break fromthe Schertz group. I washaving horrible night-mares of bathing puppiesand having them slip outof my hands in thegarbage disposal. I wouldwake up screaming be-cause in my dream Iwould be covered inblood.” Witten said the Schertzgroup is still a very activeand successful group, butthat she worked rescue asan independent untilabout three years agowhen she started volun-teering for duty with theTexas Great PyreneesRescue organization. It wasn’t long beforethe Pyrenees organizationasked Witten to apply for aboard position based onher business experienceand background in rescue. “Besides being a boardmember with Texas GreatPyrenees Rescue,” Wittensaid, “I’m also theFundraising Chairman, Ioversee our Social Mediateam. We pull dogs fromshelters, transport dogsand I handle a lot of themarketing and promotionof the organization. Inother words, I put about40 hours a week into

TGPR. It is 100 percentvolunteer. Nobody bene-fits from donations but thedogs. My biggest accom-plishment at TGPR is set-ting up the TGPR RescueSupport Team where wecan now transport dogsacross the state utilizing300 volunteers to run relaytransports which has al-lowed us to really increasethe numbers of dogs wecan help. Our group ranover 150 transports in2017 and to be honest, Ihaven’t had the time tocount this year. I plan andmonitor all of the trans-ports.” Patti Witten sustainsherself with the familybusiness. “As far as the work I dothat pays the bills,” shesaid “I’m the sole owner ofWitten Pest Control aftermy dad’s passing in Janu-ary. I’m the 3rd generationowner of the family busi-ness after my grandpar-ents opened the doors in1948. I can’t say for surebut believe we are the old-est pest control companyin San Antonio. My familyhas always been gener-ous in our business deal-ings and so I too followsuite by donating our serv-ices to a few rescue shel-ters as well and offerrescue discounts to dogrescue volunteers.” Witten explains thebackground of her chosenlife’s work: “Texas Great PyreneesRescue (TGPR) is a Texasbased 501c3 dog rescueorganization committed tothe welfare of dogs,specifically Great Pyre-nees dogs and/or mixes.TGPR along with a baseof volunteers across thestate and 9 board mem-bers work together to res-cue, rehabilitate and placeabused, abandoned andinjured dogs in long termloving homes. “TGPR has rescuedover 350 dogs thus far thisyear.TGPR has taken in many

dogs this year with parvo,broken bones, distemper,behavior issues due toabuse/neglect, and hasprovided all vaccinations,spay/neuter as needed,and general vet care to alldogs placed in adoptivehomes. Total vet bill thusfar this year: $160,000and total expenses whichinclude boarding, mi-

crochips for all dogs, food,heartworm meds and fleameds equal expensesthus far of $206,000 andthe year isn’t over yet! “TGPR does not have abrick and mortar facility.Each rescue dog goesinto foster care to allowthe dog to stabilize fromemotional trauma and be-come medically stable be-

fore being placed in adop-tive homes. All fosters arevolunteers and we haverescue hubs in Dallas,San Antonio, Houston andAustin with teams of appli-cation processors, homecheckers (all fosters andadopters receive a homevisit and referencechecks), fundraisers, shel-ter evaluators, social

Dog rescue continued from pg 8

Riddled with mange in the upper photo, Murphywas slated for Euthanasia in another city whenPatti Witten set up relay transport to get him intoSan Antonio. The healing was long and hard, butMurphy responded with a foster family. Now yousee him in the bottom photo, happy in his nor for-ever home in the Dallas area.

Continued on pg. 10

media, transporters, etc.This is a 100% volunteerrun organization and as aboard member I can saywe are the biggest pennypinchers you have evermet; all funding goes tothe dogs! “TGPR has been in ex-istence for 15 years and isexperiencing a hugegrowth rate due to de-mand. TGPR receives be-tween 4-12 ownersurrender (we don’t wantour dog anymore) intakerequests 7 days a week in-cluding holidays and anadditional 4-6 shelter in-take requests per day. “Although we are TexasGreat Pyrenees Rescue,our presence is invaluablebecause for every GreatPyrenees we pull from ashelter, we save 2 dogs;the dog we pulled from theshelter and the dog thatdoes not have to be euth-anized that day due toovercrowding in shelters.” Witten’s love for ani-mals is reflected throughthe three dogs and onerescue cat she lives with inher home. She has this to sayabout her family of pets: “Eli is my 14 year oldsenior boy. He is aLabrador/Golden Re-triever mix. He was a 3month old puppy when acouple that adopted himfrom a shelter decidedthey no longer wantedhim. They told me to takehim or they were dumpinghim. “Natalia is my 3 yearold Catahoula/Blue Heelermix. I got her from Poteetafter a customer called toreport that she was aban-doned at a drug house.She was malnourished,terrified, abused I believeand was pretty emotion-ally and physicallywrecked. Today she ishappy and healthy. “Oliver is my apprx. 6

month old cover boy! (pic-tured with Witten on thecover of this issue of Ac-tion Magazine). He wasunderweight, had mange,kennel cough, was full ofworms and was on the eu-thanasia list in Houston.We believe this boy to bea Great Pyrenees/BrittanySpaniel mix. He is veryhappy and healthy and isnow in puppy trainingclasses. He will grow to beclose to 100 lbs. He camefrom a horrible shelterwhich is very loud and hestill is fearful of loud andunexpected noises. Thepuppy classes will helpbuild his confidence andhelp him overcome hisfears. I plan to documenthis training process to ed-ucated people about thevalue of training. Manydogs are dumped orturned in to shelters forminor issues that could beaddressed with training. “Frankie, my cat, isnamed after Frank Sinatra(he was my crush) and isabout 15 years old. He is ayellow manx and wasgiven to me as a stray kit-ten prior to weening. Hespent the first year of hislife keeping me up all nightsucking on my blanket inbed. He keeps the dogs inline and is the alpha ani-mal in the house. “I couldn’t ask for betterpets; they are like my chil-dren! Yes, they all getalong and sleep in bedwith me!” And just how long will

Patti Witten continue as apatron saint for straydogs? She said “I plan to savedogs for as long as I pos-sibly can. When I’m at mywits end, I look at mydogs and think about all ofthose out there that stillneed help. When I think Ican’t do it for one moreday, I head to the bathwhich is where I do mybest crying. I cry it out andget back to work.”

Patti Witten says:Anyone interestedin donating, foster-ing, adopting or vol-unteering in our dogrescue program cancontact www.tx-pyrs.org, or find meon Facebook oremail me atmystuf f@wi t ten-pestcontrol.com

• 10 • Action Magazine, December 2018

Dog rescue continued from pg 9

Oliver was scheduled for eu-thanasia in Houston because ofhis mange. Only 12 hours beforehis date with death, Patti Wittenpulled him from the Houstonshelter and brought him to SanAntonio.

Witten picks Oliver up at the airport before deciding to addhim to her San Antonio house-hold. He is now six months ofage and can be viewed with hisforever mama on the cover ofthis month’s issue of ActionMagazine.

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