A note from Bill ...

Print newsletter is printed, and as I type this, Pat and Ginnie are stuffing envelopes and getting the mailing ready to go out Tuesday 9/5/00.

Excerpts from Pat's Daily Dog Log . . .

TUESDAY AUGUST 29 2000 Sue gave her notice to take job with benefits

We were all shocked at the news that Sue would be leaving our kennel crew at Straydog, our Happy Home for Strays. But, we understand. She needs to have a job which has health and dental benefits, and at this time Straydog is not able to provide any benefits to our employees.

We depend solely on donations to make ends meet each week. Our expenses include: (1) weekly payroll for three full-time employees and one part-time employee (all of whom are needed to insure that the dogs here get proper care); (2) our humongous never ending vet bill ; (3) dog food; and (4) the dozens of other dog related expenses incurred in caring for all the many dogs we have at our shelter.

We will all miss Sue a lot, and we wish her well!

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 30 2000 Little Prince went to vet again, for recheck of hips

Because Little Prince still holds up his left leg when he walks (after being diagnosed as having hip dysplasia two weeks ago by hands-on-feeling by one of our vets), and because Prince has gotten no better, this seemed to me to be more than bad hips, and I wanted to know if there might be a bigger problem which we needed to know about. So at the clinic this morning I asked Dr. Stephen to take x-rays of Prince's hips so we would know exactly what the problem is. It seemed to me that maybe the left hip had been knocked out of place or something (because of the way Prince was holding his leg up), and I was hoping the doctor could maybe just push the bone back in place--wishful thinking!

The x-rays came back showing just an extremely bad left hip. Prince's right hip, tho, is okay. That was good news.

Well, at least now we know exactly what the problem is so we know exactly what we're dealing with, so we know exactly how to treat the problem.

THURSDAY AUGUST 31 2000 Scottie and Fuzzy go for their yearly vaccinations

And also while at the clinic with these fellas, we had Scottie's nails trimmed. Scottie is one of two dogs (the other being Sunny) who does not like us to touch his toe nails. The use of a muzzle won't even work for this boy! Puppy and Teddy don't like their nails trimmed either, but I can usually distract them with doggie treats long enough to clip a few of their nails at a time. (See Sue trimming Sunny's nails a couple of weeks ago--link at end of page.)

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 1 2000 No-go for Jake being adopted!

I just heard back from the woman who was going to adopt Jake that she has changed her mind. She feels that adopting Jake would be too much for her to handle right now.

This is okay, Jake. We will find you your special family real soon!

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 2 2000 Danny Boy becomes another of our house dogs!

It's Dove Season (and I won't go into our thoughts on that), and the cracks and booms of gun shots in the distance frightened Danny so much he began tearing at his fence trying to get out to come into the house!

Just as with the sound of fire crackers and thunder, there is nothing we can do to calm Danny Boy down, except to bring him in the house to our doggie house kennel to wait out the "storm."

Randy hurried to get Danny Boy and brought him to the house. Danny rushed up the ramp and into "his" kennel (as he has done many times before) and immediately curled up on the soft mat and looked up at us as if to say, "Thank you!" And he calmed down right away.

Danny Boy has been available for adoption since the day we took him in in late 1998. Because Danny has a minor health problem--a skin disorder--along with being a big dog, a furry, long-haired dog and an "old" dog--at five young years--, he is in a category that does not adopt out easily. It has been impossible so far to find him his special home.

Seeing the relief on Danny's beautiful furry face after we brought him in to his house kennel, made me realize that Danny Boy had to become "our" third house dog, right away--until the right loving person comes along to adopt him.

Danny Boy to become a "houser"

Poor Randy! He never knows what's in store for him when he comes to work in the morning, and whatever his plans were for today, they changed as soon as I realized we had to make Danny a house dog--which meant there'd have to be lots of other changes made for Danny too.

We have two male house dogs already--Big Dog Toby (a rescued Australian Shepherd) and Little Dog Blackie (a rescued 21-pound Douxhound mix). These fellas are very territorial about "their" house (as are most dogs), and it's a wonder that they've pretty well tolerated some of their doggie friends who on occasion have had to come spend the night or day in the house kennel. But having one of these fellows (Danny Boy in this case) moving around "loose" in Toby and Blackie's house would be another story! We would have to divide the house in two to make this work out, which would also mean we'd have to enclose a kennel area outside the Danny Boy end of the house.

We had to figure out a plan to do this right away, like this very morning, without spending any money. Our shelter funds are once again dangerously low.

Randy and I came up with the idea of taking apart the presently unused isolation kennel, putting those fence sections around Danny's end of the house, to give him a secure fenced doggie yard. And because we've never had the money to get steps leading up to the "front door," Randy would build a ramp from the few remaining unused pieces of plywood and two-by-fours we had stored in the barn. Randy started on his project immediately.

While Randy was working on the new outside kennel for Danny, I began working on separating the house!

Our house is not really a house. It is a long, skinny trailer (bought and paid for by Bill) sitting in the middle of our 26 dog kennels. The trailer is really just an extension of our little office cabin, since all the rooms in our "house" are filled with our shelter-related stuff. My first plan was to divide the front of the trailer from the back with furniture and boxes.

By 2:00 p.m. Randy had finished all of Danny's new kennel, which enclosed an area around the front door of the trailer, and he had the ramp in place. I thought I was almost done with my "separation part" of the house, but then we realized that we would have to bring in a few kennel fence sections to really do the job correctly--making the separation of the house secure.

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 3 2000 Danny moves into his half of the "duplex"

This morning Randy brought three, 6'x6' fence sections into the house and attached them together forming a triangle (two of which sections are gate end panels). This looks like it'll do the job of turning this trailer into a duplex--a dog duplex.

At 11:30 Danny Boy came into his half of the house for the first time. He went immediately to a nice, cool spot in the hall, lay down, went to sleep, and he hasn't moved since, except for raising his head from time to time with a worried look in his eyes, as if he's wondering how long this is going to last. He'll soon realize that he's going to be a "houser" for the duration.

If any of you would like to volunteer your dog-caring services to help us out on our Saturday Petsmart Adoption Days, we'd love to hear from you. Please call me if you are able to help. Thank you. Pat (903) 479-3497

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