The Finished Flyer (with enlarged photos and type):

Our Dream: ALL Stray Dogs to Lucky Dogs!

Our Mission: We (Pat and Bill Arnold) are committed to continue to do whatever we must to help in the effort to achieve complete and total control over the size of the population of companion animals--dogs and cats--by way of spay and neuter rather than euthanasia. We believe that all who are conceived deserve to live a full and decent life.

Our Example: To inspire others to join us in the fight to gain control of the population of dogs and cats by way of spay and neuter rather than euthanasia, we will personally sacrifice whatever we must to keep our NO-KILL shelter running, and Pat will continue to report on what happens at our shelter each and every day in her Daily Dog Log, which is updated on our website (www.straydog.org) every Sunday evening.

Our Shelter Goal: To find these wonderful dogs good, secure, loving homes.

Our Vow to all dogs we rescue is that they shall never suffer again!

Our Happy Home for Strays - How We Got Started - Pat's Story: The creation of our shelter for homeless, unwanted, abandoned dogs (and cats) began (unintentionally) in September of 1992. In order to spend more time at home I had recently left my typesetting job at the same printing company in Dallas where my husband, Bill, continues to work, and I was working part time as an assistant to a real estate appraiser, accompanying the appraiser on house and property appraisals all over our area, when suddenly it seemed that my eyes opened up to the widespread problem of strays. Almost everywhere I went, I began seeing stray dogs. Our Happy Home for Strays was officially founded without our really planning it when we rescued our first sick, abandoned puppy, Happy, on a cold, rainy morning in the fall of 1992. I had pulled into a country store/gas station that drizzly, gray day to buy gasoline, and as I stood in the downpour filling my gas tank, a frightened, golden-haired, eight-month-old pup came crawling over to me on her tummy. She was cold, wet and shivering and looked to be sick. The owners of the convenience store said the puppy had been hanging around for a week. I cuddled the sick little puppy in my coat to warm her and drove to the local humane society and left her there hopefully to be adopted during "her three-day stay." Half way home I realized that the puppy would not receive any medical attention, and because she was sick, she would probably be euthanized right away. I turned around and went back, got the little dog and drove right to our local veterinary clinic where "Happy" was given treatment. And this is what started it all. Next came Misty, then Toby, then Pup, then Angel, then Blackie, and then Blackie Cat and then Orange Cat, and by the fall of 1994 we were up to eight former stray dogs and two former stray cats. (Continued on other side.)

As we reported last Sunday, one of our regular contributors recently asked us to create a flyer and print several hundred copies for him to use in a fund raising effort. Since there's not enough time in two weekends to create a flyer AND update our website with a new edition of Pat's Daily Dog Log, we've spent a second week and weekend finalizing the flyer and printing it (free of charge at the printing company where Bill works). Please feel free to make copies of the flyer and distribute them to other animal loving people. (Note that the photos are the correct size when viewed (and printed out) using Internet Explorer, which is my only option at work. The flyer was written using Netscape Navigator and had to be modified for Internet Explorer.)

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 all our bills and living expenses 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 below) 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 Straydog Inc. 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.