It's ruff out there

Don't bite the BARC: Animal shelter hopes blessing bonanza fixes overcrowding

Who DOESN'T need one of these? Exactly. BARC has too many of them. Take a fewoff their hands, for the love of fuzz!
The message is pretty simple: You can save an animal by adopting.

Let's face it — the Bureau of Animal Regulation and Care (BARC, if brevity is your thing) isn't always exactly viewed as one of the good guys in the otherwise warm and fuzzy realm of animal adoption. With past allegations of abuse, neglect, and overzealous euthanizing, it's hard for your bite not to be sharper than your BARC.

But in the end, the bottom line is those sweet, furry creatures that want to stick their wet muzzles in your palms, lick your faces and call you their moms or dads.

And there are far too many of them at BARC right now.

In fact, the shelter is beyond beyond capacity, with 671 dogs and cats in an establishment designed to hold 550. If you're thinking, "Yikes!" you're absolutely on par.

Needless to say, there are a lot of paws getting stepped on. And one thing's for certain — these puppies have gotta go.

But hopefully, the only place they're going to is a good home. This Saturday, from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m., BARC is hosting its biggest adoption party to date, the Pet Blessing and Howl-O-Ween Festival, at its shelter north of downtown.

If you find the event's tagline, "Our pets bless us with their unconditional love, and now it is our turn to bless them!" a bit, um, spiritual, you'd be barking up the right tree.

But when you've got an excess of living souls to manage, prayers are certainly in order. And BARC's partner in the event, the Episcopal Diocese of Houston, will be on hand to dole out the non-denominational party favors.

"Many of our Episcopal churches do pet blessings each October to celebrate St. Francis Day, and we're delighted to take that tradition to BARC," Carol Barnwell, communication director for the Episcopal Diocese of Texas, said in a press release.

While some of the focus may be on the celestial, the real temptations are on Earth. Not only does the bow-wow include free food and free drinks, but between face and pumpkin painting, a pet costume contest, a bounce house, and microchipping, the command is quite clear — c'mere, Houston, Houston, Houston!

Put any hard feelings aside, and treat your tricks to a rescued puppy (or kitty!) this Halloween. Because the alternative fate for many of these shelter animals is far more terrifying than any haunted house.

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income analysis

Texas families need to make this much money for one parent to stay home

Photo by CDC on Unsplash

With costs to raise a child soaring over $20,000 a year in Texas, some households might decide to have one parent work while the other stays at home to raise their child.

As the cost of raising a child balloons in major cities like Houston, many families are weighing the choice between paying for child care or having one parent stay home full-time.

A recent analysis from SmartAsset determined the minimum income one parent needs to earn to support their partner staying at home to raise one child in all 50 states. In Texas — not just Houston — that amount is just under $75,000.

The study used the MIT Living Wage Calculator to compare the annual living wages needed for a household with two working adults and one child, and a household with one working adult, a stay-at-home parent, and one child. The study also calculated how much it would cost to raise a child with two working parents based on factors such as "food, housing, childcare, healthcare, transportation, incremental income taxes and other necessities."

A Texas household with one working parent would need to earn $74,734 a year to support a stay-at-home partner and a child, the report found. If two parents worked in the household, necessitating some additional costs like childcare and transportation, it would require an additional $10,504 in annual income to raise their child.

SmartAsset said the cost to raise a child in Texas in a two-working-parent household adds up to $23,587. Raising a child in Houston, however, is somewhat more affordable. A separate SmartAsset study from June 2025 determined it costs $21,868 to raise a child in the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands metro.

In the report's ranking of states with the highest minimum income needed to support a family with one working adult, a stay-at-home parent, and one child, Texas ranked 32nd on the list.

In other states like Massachusetts, where raising a child can cost more than $40,000 a year, the report acknowledges ways families are working to reduce any financial burdens.

"This often includes considerations around who’s going to work in the household, and whether young children will require paid daycare services while parents are occupied," the report said. "With tradeoffs abound, many parents might seek to understand the minimum income needed to keep the family afloat while allowing the other parent to stay home to raise a young child."

The top 10 states with the lowest minimum income threshold to support a three-person family on one income are:

West Virginia – $68,099
Arkansas – $68,141
Mississippi – $70,242
Kentucky – $70,408
North Dakota – $70,949
Oklahoma – $71,718
Ohio – $72,114
South Dakota – $72,218
Alabama – $72,238
Nebraska – $72,966

texas income smartasset family