WARNING: You piss off the owners of Rover and Miss Fluffy Kitty (and voters in general) at your own expense!

Last week the members of Pittsburgh City Council seemed only too happy to give Mayor Ravenstahl what he wanted and seemed ready and willing to change the waiting period for euthanizing unlicensed dogs and cats from three days to two. (The story did provide the Burghosphere some merriment at Councilman Motznik's cat-envy rant -- the latest seen here.)

However, the owners of all the Rovers and Miss Fluffy Kitty's out there have been calling and emailing Council members and at least nine concerned citizens (one armed with a petition with 72 names garnered in less than 24 hours) helped to persuade Council to hold off on voting on the bill (# 2007-1430) which came up before it yesterday.

The stories told by these citizens in the Public Comments section of the Council meeting included some scary tails tales. One, of a police officer who was more than happy to claim his retired police dog (who had tags) only to discover that he'd been killed within 24 hours. There were similar stories of people turning in stray animals on the condition that they would be able to claim them for adoption only to discover that the animals had been killed in a day or two. (One good tip that I got out of all this is if you should be unlucky enough to lose a pet, make sure to call The Animal Rescue League ASAP as they are in effect the City Pound.)

However, as the Post-Gazette points out, Council members may have been responding to more than just the pleas of animal lovers:

Feisty City Council rebuffs mayor on vehicles, animal control

A week after three of its nine members were rejected by voters, a newly feisty Pittsburgh City Council put a leash yesterday on animal-control changes and slammed the brakes on a car-sharing proposal, two measures pushed by the mayor's office.

"I wish to remind the administration that council is to be included in any discussion of contracting," Council President Doug Shields said. "If you take this council for granted, you do so to the detriment of your own legislative agenda."

[snip]

Council's surliness came a week after Len Bodack, Jeff Koch and Ms. Carlisle lost Democratic primaries. Mr. Ravenstahl did not get very involved in their re-election bids, lending to the new tone on what had been a mayor-friendly council.

Yes, yes, for once, what had been an 8-1 rubber-stamp Council suddenly had all kinds of questions on proposals by the popular Boy Wonder Mayor. They actually wanted to function in an oversight role.

Oh what a difference an election makes!

Councilwoman Payne, for example, took great pains to say that while she was for the car-sharing program she had not spoken to anyone in the Mayor's Administration prior to making her decision. It should be noted that no one at the Council meeting had suggested that she had.

While no new members have been seated at the Council table yet -- hell, no new members have actually been voted into office yet -- last week's primary election certainly seems to have shaken up Luke's buddies to the point where they may actually do the job for which they are paid.

Can I Get an "Amen"?!

UPDATE: An example of a Virtual Vulcan Mind Meld in blogging here (notice the time each item was posted).
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