Excerpts from Pat's Daily Dog Log . . .

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 4 2000 Danny loves being a house pet!

Danny loves being in the house so much that I actually have to coax him (with treats) to get him to go outside to his yard just for a little fresh air, or to go potty. And he loves his big, soft peoplebed in his bedroom. He is sure a happy fellow! (See several photos of Danny in last week's edition of Straydog Journal via the link at the end of the second page.)

Happy and Rover take over Danny's outside kennel

Since Danny Boy's outside kennel was now empty, we moved Happy and Rover to Danny's empty kennel. They both had the greatest time running all around their new kennel checking everything out. They really like the switch a lot. This kennel is closer to the house and all the action.

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 5 2000 Danny is a super good house dog

No potty accidents in the house, and he has "woofed" a few times to let us know he's needed to go out to take care of business. He always likes to come right back inside and hop back up on his bed. If I forget to open the mini-blinds on the window by his bed, he will paw at them to let me know he'd like to be able to see what's happening outside. His window view is of the west kennels and the big play yard (which we call the park). Danny is such a wonderful dog.

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 6 2000 Danny stays out in his new yard for longer and longer periods

There is nothing much new to write about today except that Danny has now begun to realize that he can come into his end of the house anytime he wants too, so he feels comfortable in staying outside in his new "yard kennel" for longer periods of the day.

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 7 2000 Pixie, Dixie and Buster pups go for second puppy vaccinations

Randy had to help catch the three big fearful pups this morning for their trip to the vets for their second puppy vaccinations.

Even tho these pups are still afraid of people, they are showing progress and are slowly becoming less fearful. They happily come to greet us for their cookie treats (dog biscuits), which we give them frequently to help gain their trust, and I even get puppy kisses on my nose from Dixie (Wow, do I ever feel honored!) when I kneel to talk to her through the fence, or when I'm in visiting with her and her adult kennel mate, Tommy. We are also now able to leash up Dixie and Pixie to take them to the big play yard with their respective adult kennel mates for playtime fun. It takes forever to catch these pups, however, when it's time to go back to their kennels again.

The pups still show their fear of people by not coming to us for petting or attention or to even let us pick them up, as normal puppies do. And they still run from any new person going into their kennels.

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 8 2000 Two more dogs are rescued!

9:00 a.m. - Things seemed almost too normal this morning as I headed to town to get dog supplies at Wal-Mart. As I neared town, suddenly everything changed:

"Oh, no!" were the exact words that I uttered when I saw a black "dot" moving along the side of the highway in the far distance ahead of me. What else could this moving dot be but a dog? As I drove on, the "dot" in the distance gradually became bigger, and soon I was able to make out that it was just what I expected--another stray dog trotting along the highway. Cars were just whizzing by this fellow as if they didn't even see him.

You can tell that a dog is a stray by the way he walks along looking back and forth, hoping to see his "owner," the person who may have once loved him and has now abandoned him.

You see the anxious, scared expression on his face and the fear in his eyes when you pull over to help him. Sometimes he'll come running to you, so happy to have contact with a kind human again that he will jump right into your arms and literally cling to you. Sometimes stray dogs are so frightened when you stop to help them that they sit frozen in terror as you approach them. Some strays run in fear, not knowing what to expect, afraid that they will be mistreated again.

I slowed down as I neared this medium size black dog and pulled off to the side of the road, just slightly ahead of where he was walking. I grabbed the extra dog leash, got out of the van and hurried around to the other side of the van to rescue this fellow, and there sat the frightened dog just a short distance away from me, waiting. As soon as I knelt down and called to him he came running to me.

I took the rescued stray to our clinic right away

I spent several minutes talking to "Duke" at the side of the road, and then with just a little coaxing he hopped into one of the dog traveling crates in the back of the van, and we were off to the clinic.

Duke is a medium-size, Black Lab mix, several years old (I guessed), an unneutered male, and judging from the loss of hair on one side of his face and ears he most likely has mange (probably Sarcoptic mange, which is the very contagious type), and because of his being in such poor condition I also figured he has heartworms.

Because the doctor was unable to see Duke right away, I left him at the clinic for the usual new arrivals' thorough checkup and the heartworm test, vaccinations, stool sample, to have his mangy face checked and to find out when he will be well enough to be neutered. The vet assistant will have the doctor call me as soon as Duke has his checkup.

Later Juan brings us "his" rescued stray!

With Duke finally settled at the clinic, and the dog supply shopping finally done, I figured nothing else could go "wrong" today. I was out tending to the dogs at about 3:30 when suddenly all of the dogs gave out their "someone is driving up our hill" alarm.

I hurried to the front of the kennels to see who had arrived, and there was Juan coming to meet me with the news that he had just rescued a dog from the roadside as he was driving home. The person in the car ahead of him had tried to run over the dog, Juan said. Juan pulled over to rescue the dog. He felt sure this was the same dog he had seen several times before as the dog scavenged for food along that same road. Now the dog was in Juan's car. He knew we would want to help this stray, and he had just barely enough time to get her to our clinic before it closed. I went to take a quick look at her before Juan left.

"Cindy" is another Black Lab. She is a young, nursing mommy dog so now we have the problem (challenge) of locating her pups--more to worry about. Juan said that when he rescued Cindy, he had also noticed that she was a nursing mother, so he had looked around the area for puppies before bringing the mother here. No puppies could be found, and Juan did not want to leave the stray mother dog along the roadside, where he'd seen her almost get hit by a car.

Cindy goes to clinic; update on Duke

When I called the clinic to say that another stray was coming in, Doctor Collinsworth gave me the update on Duke:

Duke is about five years old, and he does have heartworms and mange--Sarcoptic mange, the very contagious kind--and also hookworms. The clinic will board Duke for two weeks while treating him for mange, and when he is back to good health, they will begin the treatment for heartworms, and as soon as possible this sweet fellow will also be neutered and vaccinated. What a rough life he must have had!

Update on Cindy

Just before the clinic closed for the day, I got the report on Cindy: She is a Black Lab about one and a half years old, and her health is much better than Duke's health. Her only problems are ear mites and fleas and hookworms, all of which are easily treated, and she's been vaccinated.

They don't want to spay her yet (because she's a nursing mother), so she can come home this Monday morning.

[FYI: The average cost of medical care for each new stray we take in is approximately $170, which includes the initial check up, the test for heartworms, tests for other parasites, vaccinations and spaying or neutering. The cost of treatment for heartworms, which Duke has (and six of our other rescuees have had) runs close to $300.00.]

The search goes on for Cindy's puppies

Since we don't know anything about Cindy or what happened to her puppies, we don't know if Cindy had a home and had been dumped after the pups had been given away, or if Cindy and pups had been dumped because she had the pups, or if Cindy had been a long-time stray and had given birth to her pups in the wild.

Juan and Randy will search the area again where Cindy was found, with hopes of finding her puppies. If they don't find the pups, then on Monday when I pick up Cindy, we will take her back to the area where she was found, and walk her around on a leash in hopes that if her pups are there, she will lead us to them. It's terrible not knowing what happened to her puppies.

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 9 2000 - Another Adoption Day at Petsmart

Many thanks to Petsmart for allowing us to visit their store with our furry friends.

We had a new doggie-sitter volunteer, Consuelo Murry, who has been a long time friend of Straydog. She joined our group for the adoption day and helped take great care of Jake, Raven, Tommy and Tipper.

Consuelo's dog, Noodles, who is very pretty, and our fellow Stevie (the blind dog), have written notes to each other. Noodles' first note to Steve was really cute: Noodles asked Stevie if he had a "girlfriend" yet.

Susan Southerland, Charlene and "Big Dog" Pippin volunteered for the day also. We are very grateful for their help.

No dogs were adopted today, but all the dogs had a great time. This was Raven's first trip, and she received lots of attention (as did the other dogs). Raven is the very pretty, gentle, affectionate year-old Black Lab who had been taken to our clinic by her owner to be boarded for three days, then abandoned there by the owner. The the clinic finally officially declared Raven "legally abandoned." Now Raven is with us and available for adoption. She is a wonderful dog and loves people and children.

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

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.

A note from Bill ...

Print newsletter was mailed Tuesday 9/5/00.

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