Update on the neighbor "problem"

This morning we confirmed that some very nice neighbors who live further up our hill and had earlier called too see if we had seen their Husky mix (who turned out to be Cheyenne, the Husky we rescued on Friday the 11th) do want to take complete custody of Cheyenne. What had happened is that an elderly couple had given Cheyenne to these neighbors because the couple could not care for the dog properly. Our neighbors had had Cheyenne for only two days, and when they were gone Friday, the dog had dug out of their yard, and apparently shortly thereafter Cheyenne came running onto our property to be "rescued" again.

Cheyenne is now back with her new owners, our neighbors up the hill, who are going to continue the heartworm treatment that our vet had started, which is, of course, essential as no dog can live very long infested with heartworms. (Sorry, no pictures of this beautiful dog.)

Semi-Feral pup Bobby goes to Dallas for a second opinion on his hips and knees

Bill and I took Bobby (the semi-feral, year-old pup) to the Dallas Veterinary Surgical Center early this morning. Our vets had referred us to these specialists for a second opinion on Bobby's hip and knee problems and these vets agreed that Bobby needed surgery on both knees to correct problems caused by birth defects. The veterinary surgeons will operate on his left leg first and then about six months from now, Bobby will have the surgery done on his right knee.

After the doctor made Bobby's appointment for early Tuesday morning for the surgery, we brought Bobby back home and will take him back again to DVSC tomorrow. He would be much too frightened to leave him at their clinic for the whole day and night. If you could see the almost constant expression of fear on Bobby's face, you would understand immediately what I am saying. (The following photos were taken for our October 3, 1999 newsletter.)

Although they've been with their mother since birth, Bobby and his sister Briar (and perhaps other siblings) probably had no contact with humans for at least the first 10 weeks of their lives.

Ron Gilbert, a contributor from Arizona visits

Bill and I had just arrived home from Dallas with Bobby, when a wonderful retired gentleman, Ron Gilbert, a regular contributor for several years whom we had never met, surprised us with a visit. He lives in Arizona and had been driving from Florida back home to Arizona when he decided to come through our area and stop by.

We had corresponded so much by mail over the years that I felt he was a dear friend, and I was so pleasantly surprised when he showed up this beautiful morning to visit our Happy Home for Strays. It was wonderful to finally meet Mr. Gilbert in person.

Straydog Inc. a beneficiary in Mr. Gilbert's will

He told us that he had recently included Straydog Inc. as a beneficiary in his will and suggested that we ask others to do the same. He emphasized that we should stop feeling uncomfortable about asking for money for Straydog since not even one penny of our incoming donations has ever benefited us personally.

Fence man comes to measure

2:30 p.m. - A fence man came to do some measuring for the sound-barrier security fence around the dogs' kennels. He will call later with his estimate.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2000 - Bobby goes for knee surgery, Rex is adopted and the angry neighbor calls us to "come get another stray before I kill it!"

6:30 a. m. - Bill, Bobby and I left for Dallas for Bobby's surgery at the DVSC. We got him settled at the doggie hospital and then made the hour-and-a-quarter drive home once again, and then Bill had to turn around once again and drive back to his regular job in Dallas.

10:00 a.m. We had just arrived home as Rex's new "mommy" drove up. Venita is the wonderful woman who adopted little Emily two weeks ago, and when both of us realized that Emily was not at all adjusting well to living with her wonderful new family, we both agreed that it would be best for Emily to come back here. Venita wanted to adopt another dog, and when little Rex came along I told Venita all about him and sent her pictures of the fellow. This morning she came to adopt him.

Venita followed me to our clinic to pick up the adorable pup and all his records showing that he had been vaccinated and neutered, etc. Rex snuggled up in Venita's arms as she held him for the first time. This pup was destined to have a wonderful new mommy and a very happy home. [Later we learned that Venita and her family decided to rename Rex to "Tyson."]

The angry neighbor calls

12:00 Noon - I had just arrived home from the clinic when the phone rang. It was the angry neighbor. I had told this mean person during our "discussion" last Friday when we rescued the pup he was about to shoot to call me if this happened again, and we'd come and get any stray on his property. Well, he was calling me, he angrily announced, for me to "come get this black, chicken-killing stray dog out of my yard before I kill him!"

As Tammy and I rushed to the car we shouted to Randy and told him where we were headed. I felt relieved that Randy and Sue would be here to tend to all the dogs while Tammy and I rescued this stray.

As we slowly drove by the Angry Man's house, he stood in his driveway pointing up the road, which we figured was the direction the scared dog had run when the man shooed him off. We couldn't find the dog anywhere along the roadside and then I remembered that I had seen a black dog hanging around another neighbor's property on up the road, but I had thought that the dog belonged to that neighbor. I drove up that driveway, and sure enough, there was the terrified big black dog in the neighbor's garage where he had gone to hide.

We got out of the car and knelt down talking quietly to the frightened young dog, asking him to come to us. He was so scared, but finally he came crawling over to us, and we talked calmly to him and fed him crackers. After a few minutes Tammy gently slipped a cloth leash around his neck, and I made a muzzle out of the other leash since we had to lift this very scared, fairly big dog into the car.

"Pokey" will be fine, the doctor said during our visit to the clinic. The hip x-rays show that he has one pretty bad hip, but other than that his health is ok. No heartworms, thank goodness! Pokey is about a year old, and is a beautiful black chow mix weighing 56 pounds. He is a precious dog and is extremely frightened right now.

We left Pokey at the clinic for a much needed bath, vaccinations and he will be neutered tomorrow. I will pick him up this Thursday, and Pokey will never have to worry again about being shot at or shooed away by anybody. We will take great care of him until we find him his perfect family.

We gave Pokey his name because of a very nice couple who recently donated a big dog house to our Happy Home for Strays in honor of their dog named Pokey. "Pokey" is painted above the dog house door. We again thank the couple and "our" Pokey thanks you too! What a nice way to start his happy new life.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2000 - Bobby comes home from the clinic after his surgery

Ginnie and I left for Dallas early this morning to bring Bobby home following his knee surgery. When the vet brought Bob to me in the waiting room, I saw an immediate problem as dog walked through the door. He was wearing a big E-Collar (Elizabethan Collar) to keep him from bothering the stitches in his leg, and this big collar would never fit through the doorway of his igloo dog house. Geesh! We were in for some major changes to his kennel as soon as we got home.

We arrived home at 11:30 and while I walked Bobby in the big play yard, Ginnie, Sue and Tammy did some fast "remodeling" of his outside kennel. They had to take out the big doghouse and put in a doggie swimming pool, which we filled with hay for his bed. This would give him plenty of room to lie down with his big "hat" on. By noon his kennel was ready, and Bobby was comfortably sleeping in his large hay bed.

Twelve hours later I'M sleeping NOT so comfortably WITH Bobby in his large hay bed!

Bobby had become so frightened I suppose from having been separated from his mom and sister during the night that I could hear him clunking his thick Elizabethan Collar along their adjoining kennel fence and then barking, more clunking and then more barking. I went out to comfort him, and I found that the only way to calm him down was for me to climb into his soft hay bed with him. As soon as I did this, Bobby curled up beside me and went right to sleep. I dozed off with my arm around the fellow, wondering how we would solve this problem.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2000 - "Pokey" comes to our Happy Home

Randy had the quarantine kennel all ready for Pokey when I brought him home from his stay at the clinic early this morning. He is a wonderful dog, still very frightened, but he loves all the attention he is getting. I'm sure it won't be long before he realizes that no one here will hurt him.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2000 - Bobby CHEWS his way out of his kennel!

5:00 a.m. - Toby had just eaten his breakfast, and in the early morning darkness I was on my way out to the big play yard with him so that he could take care of "business," when who should I see wandering around (out of his kennel) with his big "hat"on but sweet little Bobby! He had chewed a small hole through his heavy chain-link fence and had crawled out! I can't imagine how he got through with his E-collar on because the collar is much bigger than the hole. Nevertheless, there was Bobby, out taking a stroll. More major repairs to his kennel--for the second time.

Bobby spends this night in the house!

Becoming a bit weary from worrying about what kind of trouble Bob would be getting into next made me decide that this young fellow would be spending the nights in the house for the next eight weeks! Randy set up the small "recovery" kennel in our kitchen, and tonight Bob would be in the house with me, where I could keep an eye on him!

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2000 - A calm day for Bobby. He came in at sundown and stayed in his little house kennel for the night and will go to the park at about five to do his business and then go back to his outside kennel.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 20 - Bob chews his stitches out!!!

So much for two calm days in a row with our dear little Bobby!

10:00 a.m. - I took a break from writing this report and went outside to see how all was going with the dogs, and as I looked toward Bobby's kennel I noticed that his leg was bleeding. I rushed over to him and saw that he had chewed out about 6 of his stitches and his leg was bleeding quite a bit. He still had on the E-Collar so we had no idea how he'd gotten to the stitches.

A quick emergency phone call to our vets (on this "off-duty" day for them), and we agreed to meet at the clinic as soon as we could get there (between 20 and 30 minutes) for a repair stitch job on Bob. (Dr. Collinsworth is always so nice about our occasional emergency calls on the weekend.)

Dr. C examined Bob's leg and gave him an anesthetic so he could do the needed re-stitching. Dr. C will put a "no bite" collar on Bobby, he said, which may keep the doggie from bothering the stitches better than the E-Collar. (The "no-bite" collar is like the collars people wear when they have neck injuries, which collars keep them from turning their heads.) We will pick Bobby up tomorrow morning at nine. I'm beginning to wonder what the upcoming day will bring ... Pat ...

As always, complete financial records are available upon request.

Dog food, veterinary expenses and kennel crew wages have been running over $1,800 per week, and we are quite often literally paying this week's expenses with this week's donations. We, Pat and Bill Arnold, receive no remuneration whatsoever for any work we do for our no-kill shelter, which includes managing it. (Bill pays our bills from his salary from his regular job in Dallas.)

We continue to thank those who continue to write us such encouraging letters and e-mail messages letting us know that you believe in what we are doing at Straydog (our Happy Home for Strays) as we continue to provide a decent life (as long as may be necessary) for each of our now 49 rescued dogs!

Please take a look at some of our newsletters (click on links at end of page) and see the original article in The Dallas Morning News --on the Internet at "dallasnews.com/archives" (search for Pat Arnold on March 13, 1997).

We rely on donations to keep our shelter going. If you believe in us and in what we are doing, please help us with a contribution to THE ARNOLD STRAY DOG FUND at the following address:

Straydog Inc.
P.O. Box 1465, Gun Barrel City, TX 75147

STRAYDOG - THE ARNOLD FAMILY'S HAPPY HOME FOR STRAYS

We are a 501(c)(3) Tax-Exempt Non-Profit Corporation, which means your contributions are tax deductible.