7:00p - The family just called and want to
come and pick Honey up and take her back to their home tomorrow
night. This is great news! ... But we will continue with the story
below in chronological order.
Excerpts of Pat's Daily Dog Log ...
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26, 2000 - We receive a shocker of a phone call from Honey's "owner" (since the January 16 adoption day) saying she wants to return Honey!
THURSDAY, APRIL 27, 2000 - Straydog offers to pay for obedience training for Honey thinking the family would accept this, but our offer is declined.
Honey is a beautiful Shepherd mix with big brown eyes and soft brown fur. She is a very happy-go-lucky young dog, and her personality, being one year of age, is that of a great, big puppy-dog. She's bouncy, energetic, playful, very affectionate and a sweet, lovable young dog who loves people and children. Unfortunately, in addition to all of the wonderful qualities that Honey has, she is dog-aggressive and cannot be with other dogs, which has been made very clear to anyone interested in her.
We knew when we rescued Honey that she would need a very special family to give her all of the love and attention and the normal "puppy-dog" training that that she needed. So when the mom and preteenage kids met Honey that Sunday (January 16, 2000) afternoon, and seemed to fall instantly in love with her, we were delighted! We felt that this would be the perfect home for Honey where she would be a very well cared for, much pampered house pet, and we couldn't have been happier!
During the few weeks following Honey's adoption (that Sunday [January 16]) afternoon several months ago) I had called the family twice to see how all was going. Great, was the response, so you can imagine my shock to hear that now the family wanted to return her to our Happy Home for Strays, all these many months later. It appeared that Honey was "untrainable." The family said they felt terrible about it but felt that their only recourse was to return her to us.
Straydog's offer to send Honey to obedience school for the family, to hopefully eleviate the "training" problem, was declined. . . They just weren't sure that that would stop the digging in the yard problem or trying to get out of their fenced yard.
Of course we will take Honey back. Our goal is to find all of the dogs great homes but if it sometimes doesn't work out we will always take the dog back. We tell all of the adoptive families that if there is a problem, to let us know. Now it is Straydog that is in a bit of a predicament: we have no kennel space for Honey, but we will make room for this precious dog. Since Honey is dog aggressive we cannot put her in any kennel with another dog, so the order goes in for a rush delivery of kennel fencing and wood for the protective shelter inside the kennel, at a cost of over $800.00.
FRIDAY, APRIL 28 - Randy begins work on Honey's kennel
Thank goodness it was a beautiful day. Randy began work on the new kennel for Honey at 7:00 this morning, and by noon he had the kennel up and most of the wood shelter finished. Randy has really become an expert on shelter building around our Happy Home for Strays. He has done so many on such short notice, that he can whip these structures together faster and faster all the time!
SATURDAY, APRIL 29 - Stray dogs or a neighbor's dogs (who knows which?) cause tremendous ruckus at our Happy Home!
How are we ever to tell whose dogs these two fellows belong to? What is wrong with people?! How can they just let their dogs run loose?! This is not America 1947!
First, I guess that I'd better explain that our security/sound-barrier wood fence is far from being finished. After our "Emergency" newsletter of February 13, 2000 we received enough ear-marked contributions to construct two long sections of fencing (which cost $6,000) that we are sure at least somewhat block the sound of our dogs when they bark, and just as soon as we can raise the $7,000 more that is needed to finish the fence around our entire facility, we will have it done. Then no animals (including stray emus) will be able to get close to our dog kennels.
Seeing these two dogs stick their heads around the end of the partial security fence sent all our dogs into an uproar, and me too! Since I know that all of our neighbors have dogs and that all of our neighbors have visiting family members and friends who all have dogs and that every one of these people lets their dogs run loose, my first thought was that the dog(s) belong to some neighbor, friend of a neighbor or visiting kids of a neighbor.
One of the two unwelcome visiting dogs took off the second I spotted him (or he spotted me) but the other dog would not leave at my command to "Go Home!" This fellow was sort of a Heeler/Shepherd mix, several years old, appeared to be in very good health and was wearing an expensive (tho mean looking) fish-pinch collar. Randy said that these collars were training collars. This dog in no way appeared to be a stray.
This Heeler mix was not about to move at my "suggestions" for him to "Go Home!" so I called for him to "come on," and he began to follow me down the hill. I was going to walk him over to the neighbors' to see if he belonged there, since I had seen people and cars around their place earlier this morning, and as soon as we got to the bottom of our hill, the dog took off toward the neighbor's house. Good! He must be with the people visiting the neighbors, I thought, and I trudged back up our hill.
I had just gotten to the first strip of wood fence at the front of the kennels when who should run by me but the dog I had just escorted down the hill! He ran straight to Dallas and Julie's kennel and went right up to their fence! What a horrendous problem this caused! Dallas and Julie went into a frenzy trying to get out at the dog. This caused all 45 of the other dogs to go nuts too!
I called for Dog to "come!" trying to get Dog away from the kennel, but Dog would not move. And now the hair on Dog's back was beginning to rise, indicating the imminent possibility of a horrible dog fight through the fence, which would inevitably lead to a horrible fight between Dallas and Julie as well as other pairs throughout the kennels.
I picked up the poop bucket and small shovel and began banging loudly on the bucket hoping this would scare Dog away from and Dallas and Julie's kennel. This didn't work and Dog continued his stiff legged walk closer to the kennel, ears laid back. I grabbed the nearby watering hose and turned it on in Dog's direction. That did the trick, and Dog began running down the hill.
I remained "on guard," stationed at the opening between the two standing sections of the wood sound-barrier/security fence so that Tammy could safely walk the rest of the pairs of dogs past that area to their play yard without any interference from Dog should he return.
Randy finishes the new kennel for Honey in record time!
By 1:00 this Saturday afternoon Randy had finished building the shelter in Honey's kennel, and now the kennel fence and everything was all ready for Honey's arrival tomorrow morning. Randy is very used to these kinds of "emergencies" and always gets the needed emergency project done in time.
7:00p - The family just called and want to
come and pick Honey up and take her back to their home tomorrow
night. This is great news!
[UPDATE TO COME]
If you would like to adopt one of these wonderful puppies or dogs, please call us at 903-479-3497.
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.
