Excerpts from Pat's Daily Dog Log:

MONDAY JULY 10 2000 - Tipper bites her long-time kennel companion, Tommy

Tommy Toodles and I took a trip to the vet to have the doctor look at a tender spot on his back that has been causing Tommy to cry out in pain every time we touch his back. After the doctor shaved the long fur from the area, we noticed three small puncture wounds. I knew right away what they were from, his buddy Tipper's teeth!

Tipper is a three-year-old small German Shepherd Mix, who is very playful and energetic. Tommy is a four-years-old mix breed/Spitz fellow with thick golden, fluffy fur, and he is a very laid back, quiet sort of guy. These dogs are the very best of friends, but when Tipper gets excited, as when the UPS truck drives up our hill, or the lawn man comes to mow the kennel grounds, Tipper runs around their kennel excitedly, charges at Tommy and tries to nip him, then continues running around like a nut. Tommy always heads for his dog house when Tipper is in an overly excited mood, and this is only the second nip bite that she has landed--but that is two too many for us to tolerate.

The one puncture wound was pretty deep, and this concerned us. We didn't want the next playful nip to be even worse and figured it would be best to separate Tom from Tipper as soon as possible. The slight problem with this, tho, is that we have no available kennel for Tommy, so what we can do is to take the fence sections of the smallest quarantine kennel and add them to the second quarantine kennel to make a big, regular kennel for Tommy. Randy will get on this project right away.

ROTTIE PUPPIES adopted in May escape and are found!

Geesh! While at the clinic with Tommy the receptionist told me a woman in Dallas had called earlier that morning saying that she'd found two Rottweiler pups, with our clinic tags on their collars! The new receptionist took that woman's name and phone number but wouldn't give the finder of pups our home phone number. She now knows that in any emergency situation like that she can give out out phone number.

I knew right away that the pups were Buddy and Betsy! How did this happen?! These little pups had been adopted at our Adoption Day at Petsmart on May 13 by a wonderful family in Dallas.

When I got home from the clinic with Tommy, I tried to call the woman in Dallas. Her line was busy for forever! I finally asked the operator to make an emergency "interrupt call," which she did, but then the operator said there was trouble on the line. Geesh! It took me half an hour to finally get through to "repair service" to report trouble, and they said they'd check into it.

Next I called the owner's home. No one answered so I left a message on his answering machine about the finding of his puppies.

Then I called the owner's work number. He's out of town I was told by the receptionist. I wanted his out-of-town phone number--I wanted to call him to find out if he still "owned" the pups, or if he had given them to someone, or if had left someone to doggie-sit the pups for him, in which case I could call that person. Whoever was responsible for these pups needed to go and get them. I had no idea how long the "finder" was going to take care of the pups or if the finder would soon be taking them to the pound.

The receptionist turned me over to another woman who put me in touch with a gentleman named Miguel, who was there at the office and who was supposed to be caring for the pups while the owner was out of town. Miguel already knew that the pups had escaped from the owner's yard and had been searching for them all morning.

After several hours of phone calls this story ends happily!

I never could get through to the person who had found the pups. That line stayed busy all day long. I called the operator to get the address of the person belonging to that phone number and then called the doggie-sitter, Miguel, back to give him the address.

Miguel went to the address, and with his cell phone he reported to the woman at the owner's office how his "rescue mission" was going. She and I were on one line while she conversed with Miguel on another line, and she repeated to me everything Miguel was doing as he was reporting it: "I'm at the house" was the first repeat. "No one is home." "I can't see the pups in the yard--Yes! Yes! There they are!" "I'm going in to get them."

My first thoughts, of course, were that Miguel, who was rescuing his boss's dogs was now trespassing on someone else's property and would probably be caught, arrested and thrown in jail! Then no more messages came, and the woman said she'd call me back when she heard again from Miguel.

At about 3:00 p.m. I talked with the woman at the owner's office again. All was okay she said. Miguel had gotten the dogs, taken them home, securely covered the escape hole, and the owner would be back tomorrow. Whew!

At 5:00 p.m. the "finder" of pups (and owner of the busy phone number ) called me. When she realized that her phone had been off the hook all day, she figured I had tried to get in touch with her about the dogs. She had then called our clinic again and this time they gave her our phone number (since I'd earlier told them to give it out in cases like this emergency).

She was glad the big pups were okay. All is well. (No one was arrested.)

TUESDAY July 11 2000 - Interviews completed for dog helper

I've interviewed several people over the last two weeks, and have hired two new kennel helpers.

With so many dogs to care for (now 47 [maybe more] of these furry fellas) we find that we really need much more help. Long hot summers are hard on us here. We constantly need to be outside in the soaring temperatures to keep the dogs cool. We spend all day, everyday, tending to the dogs needs, keeping their big drinking water buckets full of cool, fresh water, keeping their little swimming pools full of fresh cool water and spraying their shady areas constantly, so the dogs will always have a cool, shady place to lie in. We really need two more kennel helpers, bringing the total to four full-time, one part-time plus myself, with Bill handling dog food supplies and the newsletter and website.

Mary came on Wednesday and Juan on Thursday, and both were first were interviewed by each and every one of the dogs. They both passed this part of the interview with flying colors! (The doggie interview is done by me taking the new person into each kennel so the pair of dogs in that kennel can meet the candidate and see how they relate to each other.) All the dogs liked Mary and Juan, and I think they will be perfect for the job.

WEDNESDAY July 12 2000 - Spunky loves his new home!

Today I spoke with Arlene Clayton, Spunky's new mom, and she said that all is going so well with Spunky joining their family that it's almost unbelievable! Their two female dogs love him, and he made himself right at home from the first day he arrived. He is a big part of their family now, and all is going along great!

THURSDAY JULY 13 2000 - Tommy is moved to his own kennel

Since we had no available big, regular kennel for Tommy, Randy had to dismantle one of the quarantine kennels and add some of those fence sections to the other quarantine kennel in order to make a nice big kennel for Tommy.

By noon today Randy had Tommy's big kennel all ready for him, and we moved this sweet little fellow, along with his special toys, to his new quarters. We felt relieved that Tips wouldn't be able to nip him again--and I'm sure Tommy felt relieved too! We still let them play together in the big play yard during Walks, since they are still the best of friends, but one of us always stays there with them to watch Tipper in case she gets in a "nippy" mood.

FRIDAY JULY 15 2000 - New kennel helpers Juan and Mary are doing a fantastic job!

Mary and Juan have been with us for only two days and have already learned the ropes around here. They are wonderful with the dogs and are doing a great job!

Juan was determined to win over Trixie. She's the beautiful three-year-old German Rottweiler (mother of Buddy and Betsy) and upon her first introduction to a man she shows fierce aggression! It normally takes at least a week for Trixie to warm up to any man, but Juan insisted on getting to know her right away, and by his second day here he had won her trust. They've become best buddies!

SATURDAY JULY 15 2000 Another Adoption Day at Petsmart

This was to be Tony's big day! We had a home visit in Lucas, Texas all lined up for this wonderful, huge Great Pyrenees. The family interested in adopting Tony have a male Great Pyrenees and wanted a friend for him. Their dog, Einstein, is about four years old and is a very gentle, mellow fellow, they said, who needs a playmate, and the couple have two young sons who wanted another doggie friend too.

You couldn't ask for a more laid back dog than Tony! It sounded as if these two would be perfect pals.

John (Big Dog) Pippin, M.D. came to pick up Tony, Blackie Husky and Binks (and me) in his dog van. We were very short on doggie-sitters for the adoption day at Petsmart so we could only take three dogs.

The manager of Petsmart had a nice area available for us inside their store (now that the weather is so hot), and Susan Devers had everything ready by the time we arrived (our doggie playpen plus our adoption papers table and chairs). As soon as Arlene and Bob Clayton came to help doggie-sit, John and I took Tony to meet his (hopefully) new family.

Tony's home visit went Great !

It seems as if Tony has found his perfect home! When we arrived the dad, Steve, met us at the door. (He had been swimming with their dog, Einstein.) Steve and John walked Tony and Einstein, on leashes, around the huge fenced yard so the dogs could get to know one another. No problem from either dog so the men took off the leashes and let the two dogs go sniffing around together. Tony "checked out" all the shrubs, with Einstein following closely behind him. I thought for sure Tony would want to take a swim in the family's big swimming pool, but he just passed it by, being much more interested in sniffing around the yard and trees and things while Einstein followed along behind him.

The mom and sons arrived during the middle of our visit, and they all fell in love with Tony! What a great new life Tony will have now with his new doggie friend, Einstein, neat kids to play with in the huge fenced yard and a wonderful new mom and dad!

What a shocker when John and I arrive back at Petsmart: Sadie is back!

Both John and I did a double-take when we walked into Petsmart and saw Susan sitting with Sadie. "What happened?" we asked. Well, it seems that the husband had just been transferred, and the couple couldn't take this adorable pup with them (Sadie is the six-month-old Cocker Spaniel mix who had been brought to us last Saturday during Adoption Day and was later adopted.) We are shocked that they did not keep her, but extremely grateful that they returned Sadie to us (as we ask all people to do if for some reason they cannot keep the dog they adopt).

Sadie came back to us with fleas and we needed to do something about that right away, so I bought some puppy shampoo and took Sadie outside to the water spigot for a bath! She's a wiggly little pup, but I managed to soap her up really good, which took quick care of the flea problem and after both of us were rinsed off (the water comes spewing out of the spigot) she was "done." After a few minutes of walking around in the hot sun--temperature's in the 100s every day now--we were dried off.

Sadie also needed to have her sutures removed (from her spaying surgery, which the original adopting couple had told us they would take care of at their vet) so I took Sadie to the vet on duty at Petsmart, and he removed Sadie's stitches for us. All the Petsmart people are really nice!

Now we had our clean little Sadie pup all ready again for adoption, and John sat with her in the shade of the front of the store so interested folks would see how cute she is.

Sadie is adopted again!

It was close to 4:00 p.m. and we were thinking of getting ready to leave for the day when a very nice woman came over to John who had Sadie in his lap. The woman wanted to adopt a companion pet for her dog (and herself too), and she was immediately drawn to adorable little Sadie pup and wanted Sadie to join her family. We filled out the adoption papers and then while John went on the home-check with Sadie and Sadie's new mom, Denyse, the rest of us packed up and put the dogs in the Claytons' car for the ride back home to Straydog, our Happy Home for Strays.

It was a good day. John called later in the evening and said that all had gone just fine at Sadie's new home. We're hoping all the new adoptions work out. It seems as if they will, but you never know.

 SUNDAY JULY 16 2000 Update on Sadie in her new home

Around 11:00 this morning I spoke with Sadie's new mom, Denyse. All was going along beautifully at her house! The dogs were having a great time playing together and Denyse and her original dog are thrilled to have Sadie join their family. How wonderful for them all.

Update on Tony in his new home

All is going along perfectly with Tony too! Rhonda is the close neighbor and is a friend of the family who adopted Tony. Rhonda and her family adopted Jack from us last September, and she talked with Tony's family this morning and then e-mailed me that all was going along just fine. I wonder how long it will be before big Tony decides to take a dip in the family pool. I'm sure Tony's new family will call to let us know.

We continue to thank all of you for your financial and moral support, which has made it possible to save the lives of these wonderful dogs, give them the care they need and adopt them into good, loving homes.