Excerpts from Pat's Daily Dog Log . . .

TUESDAY OCTOBER 10 2000 Trying Keeping Duke and Jake happy is not easy

Since Jake's little companion, Sara, was adopted last Saturday, Jake had been so sad without a doggie companion that we moved Jake in to be with Cindy, and we put Little Puppy Terri in with Duke. (Duke had been Cindy's companion).

Well, maybe these mixes and matches worked out for that afternoon, but today Duke was so miserable without his companion Cindy that he began trying to climb his fence--or jump it--wanting to get back with Cindy again.

Duke goes back with Cindy, but now Jake is miserable!

We can't have any dogs jumping their fences, and because Cindy is a confirmed jumper, her kennel is "topped." Duke, because he was now showing signs of also being a fence jumper (and because he seemed to be missing Cindy terribly), would just have to be moved back in with his best buddy Cindy.

This left poor, sweet Jake without a companion. Now Jake is very unhappy.

I spent a lot of time with Jake today, after his move away from Cindy, but he needs a dog companion to play with. We just have to find this wonderful dog a home!

(Why do I write about all this mixing and matching of dogs trying to keep all of them happy with compatible companions? This is just one of the many things that keep us so busy all day every day.)

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 11 2000 Straydog Inc. , now caring for 49 dogs, has been struggling to make ends meet, and we've been working on our emergency newsletter asking for your help

We hate to send out letters asking for donations, but we have no other choice. Our shelter desperately needs financial help. We depend solely on donations to cover the many expenses--which average $2,500 per week--caring for all of the dogs at our Happy Home for Strays. We really need a professional fund raiser to help us.

Every rescued dog we take in raises Straydog's weekly expenses

Adoptions are slow, tho we have been successful finding wonderful homes for many of the dogs we've rescued. But for every dog we adopt out, at least one more homeless dog finds us. And each time our shelter population increases, our costs increase. Our employees have to put in longer hours, our vet bill goes up, and there is often the cost of yet another kennel to put up.

Every day people call expecting Straydog to simply take a rescued (or no longer wanted) dog. We wish we could help, but we often don't have available kennel space or the funding to take care of another dog. We need financial help just to care for the many dogs we have now.

THURSDAY OCTOBER 12 2000 Johnny Blue and April, kennel companions, go to see the doctor

Johnny Blue, the four-year-old Blue Heeler mix, and his best little friend and kennel companion, April, went to the vet clinic today to have their vaccinations and for Johnny Blue to have his right back leg checked. Johnny has been limping and holding up his "bad leg" so we knew he had a problem with it again.

Johnny Blue's story

When we found Johnny in the spring of 1998, he was limping on his right back leg, and we thought at the time that his leg was broken. We took him straight to our vet. The examination showed that Johnny had had a broken pelvis and a fractured back left leg (from previous injuries), which had by then healed. The doctor thought that Johnny had been hit by a car at one time. The problem with his right leg was a degenerated right hip, which needed surgery.

We told the doctor to go ahead with the needed surgery and to have Johnny neutered and vaccinated.

The cost of Johnny's surgery for the hip operation and for his vaccinations and to be neutered came to $515.22.

Back to the hip problem that brought us to the clinic today. Good news, the doctor said. Luckily nothing major had gone wrong with his hip. It was probably just that his buddy, April, had bumped into him too hard when they were playing. He should be fine and walking around with no problem in a day or two.

Little Spitz mix April's story

Cute, fluffy little April was about a year old when she came to our Happy Home for Strays on April 18, 1998, just a few days after Johnny. The woman who called us about the little stray dog said that when she had been driving home a few nights before, she'd caught a glimpse of the little Spitz mix in the distance limping along the side of the busy highway. There were no houses anywhere nearby. The woman stopped to rescue April and took her home. The woman couldn't keep April and had tried to find someone to take the injured dog but couldn't, so she called us hoping we could take April and tend to her badly wounded foot.

April's vet checkup when she arrived at our Happy Home for Strays, showed that in addition to the wound on her foot, which had been caused from some type of animal bite, she also had heartworms. She had apparently already been spayed.

April had her vaccinations, her wounded foot was treated, and she was also treated for heartworms. Her vet bill for that first visit came to $214.20.

When April was able to come home from her "hospital" stay we put her in with Johnny to become his kennel companion, and these two precious formerly homeless dogs bonded instantly. They have become inseparable. It's beautiful to see them so happy together.

Back to this morning's clinic visit

In addition to Johnny's hip checkup, April got her yearly vaccinations this morning too, and back home the three of us came.

FRIDAY OCTOBER 13 2000 Little Pete goes to clinic to have eye checked

7:30 a.m. - Oh, dear, Pete's big adoption day is tomorrow (along with his buddy Stevie [the blind dog]), and now this little fellow appears to have an eye infection. I needed to get him to the clinic quick to have his eye checked and get him started on any necessary medication. He can't go to his wonderful new home with a sore eye!

10:00 a.m. - Pete and I arrived back home from the quick trip to the clinic. We were there as the door opened at 8:00, and we were the clinic's first patients of the morning.

Just as I expected: Pete has the eye infection again. This time the doctor took a culture of his eye, so he could pinpoint the problem, since Pete seems prone to get these infections often. Then Dr. Stephen called in the prescription at the drug store. It's a "people" eye drop medication at the cost of $45.00 for a little, tiny container so small you can barely hold it in your hand! One drop in each eye, three times a day, for 10 days. This is the second time we have gotten these drops.

"Ok, little Pete, now we have you all fixed up, and you are ready for your big adoption day this Sunday," I reassured the cute little fellow after picking up the drops at our drug store.

Pete was happy now too, and I am pleased to say that little Pete, who always gets very car sick, made it all the way to the clinic without throwing up, and then all the way to the drug store without throwing up, and then almost all of the way home, where he finally "tossed" it all the second that I parked the van in our driveway! Such a sweet little doggie.

SATURDAY OCTOBER 14 2000 Doggie Adoption Day

Will Puppy Terri be adopted?

6:00 a.m. - Little Manchester mix puppy, Terri, may be adopted today. A young couple talked to me last week end about Terri, because they wanted a small companion for their little dog, Daisy, and they called last night hoping we would bring Terri to our adoption day. They would like to see her, and we have a home visit all lined up for 11:00 this morning. Let's hope all goes well.

"Gramma Dog" Katie goes on this adoption day trip too

This sweet Boarder Collie/Poodle mix is an older dog, but she needs a chance at finding her perfect home too. It may be a little harder for Katie to find her special mom and dad because she is an older dog, about nine years old, and she has a few health problems: a slight heart murmur and beginning cataracts, and she is a little hard of hearing, although we suspect she often just uses this as an excuse to not hear us when we call her name to take her from her fun playtime in the play yard back to her kennel.

Katie has beautiful, soft black wavy fur. She has a Poodle looking face, with a mischievous look in her pretty brown eyes. She is a happy dog, sometimes a bit sassy, hence the nickname "Sassy," lovingly given to her by Randy.

Like a lot of people-type grandmas, Katie prefers not to be bothered by the younger dogs or playful dogs (such as Bishop, her previous kennel companion), and Katie is happier to be in a kennel by herself where she can take a dip in the (kiddy) swimming pool whenever she wants (without having to wait for the other guy to get out of it), and she can lie in her snoozy "scoopy-hole" without being bothered by another dog companion trying to sneak into it when she is not looking.

Just like all the other dogs here Katie deserves a loving home where she can be a house pet, and we wanted to take her to the adoption day with hopes she might find a nice loving grandma- or grandpa-type person to adopt her.

So, early this morning Randy brushed Katie's pretty soft fur and put the bright red harness on her, which matched her pretty red collar and red leash, and soon Sassy Katie was all ready to go on the trip to Dallas with Jake, Tommy, Tipper and little Terri. She looked very beautiful.

Little Terri was adopted!

All went great on the home visit with little puppy Terri. Her new playmate, Daisy, is not much bigger than Terri, and after a short while of Daisy letting Terri know that Daisy was going to be the boss, the dogs began their sniffy play game and were getting along fine. Susan and I left Terri's new home with the wonderful feeling that Terri had just found her perfect home with a wonderful new mom and dad and cute little playmate. She is going to be a pampered house pet for sure! Another successful adoption.

Also today, Sara's parents stopped in at Petsmart

And they brought Sara and their other cute dog in to see us and to let us know that all is going along beautifully at Sara's new home.

Thanks to our many contributors we have been able to rescue these dogs and give them good care until the dogs have been adopted by wonderful people and now have happy lives as well-loved house pets.

Two of our Straydog volunteers adopt homeless dogs from another animal shelter group at Petsmart

Both Susans who volunteer their help to Straydog on our dog adoption days just about every single Saturday have recently adopted dogs--one just yesterday--from the other animal shelter, whose adoption team sets up near us at PETsMART.

Immediately there were jokes made like, "Whose side are you on anyway?" but these are jokes. It doesn't matter where or from whom anyone adopts a dog or puppy. It does not matter if the dog or puppy is adopted from our shelter or another shelter. What does matter is that all dogs and all puppies find a wonderful home. The life of every dog and every puppy is of equal importance.

All of us on this animal rescue mission have the same goal, which is to find (or give) each of these precious beings a wonderful home.

The pup and dog that Susan and Susan adopted are lucky little animals now. They have found their perfect families. Today when we saw the skinny, white Boxer mix puppy that one of the Susans adopted from the other animal shelter, it made all of us feel so good knowing that this precious dog would now have a wonderful home with Susan and would be loved and well cared for.

SUNDAY OCTOBER 15 2000 Stevie (the blind fellow) and Pete go to their new home--to stay! But first ...

6:45 a.m. - Lisa brings Pixie back to stay with Jake until next adoption day because Jake is so lonely.

Here's sort of an update on Jake and his previous kennel companions:

When Jake first came to our Happy Home for Strays, he had Black Lab Raven for his kennel companion until Raven was adopted. Then Jake had new arrival big puppy Pixie for a companion. The bond between Pixie and Jake grew very strong. Then, when Juan (one of our kennel team employees) adopted Pixie, Jake had new arrival Sara move in with him. Sara was with Jake for only a week when she was adopted out to a wonderful couple. Now Jake was very lonely, and we had no kennel companion for him, except for Cindy, but Duke was with Cindy.

Jake seemed to be becoming very depressed with no dog friend to play with, so we decided it would really be best to move Jake in with Black Lab Cindy. Cindy's kennel has to have a top on it, because she is a jumper and can jump a 6' high fence with ease!

Well, a new problem developed when we moved Duke out of Cindy's kennel, so that Jake could move in. All was great for Jake and Cindy but poor Duke was heartbroken. He tried to climb his fence and then began trying to jump it, to get back with Cindy. Duke's crying out for Cindy was very painful to hear and the possibility of him jumping out was a real worry too, so we moved Duke back with Cindy, and Jake went back to his kennel, alone.

Well, Geesh! Now a bigger problem began to develop with Jake, who now had no kennel companion. He was absolutely miserable without a kennel mate to play with. He wasn't playful anymore, he sulked in the corner, he became more and more depressed, and he wouldn't eat his meals or even his treats.

Pixie to the Rescue!

Juan and Lisa (both on our kennel team) love Jake so much, they couldn't bear for him to be lonely, so Juan said it would be okay to bring Pixie back to stay with Jake for the week, until next Saturday's adoption day.

Lisa brought Pixie to work with her this morning at 7:00. I just can't put into words how happy Jake became when he saw Pixie being walked toward his kennel. When they were finally together, they began playing just as if they had never been separated. What a happy fellow Jake is now, and Pixie is just as happy!

All problems are solved once again--for the moment at least.

Pete and Stevie go to their new home!!

This was the big day for Little Pete and Stevie. They were going to their new home.

At 9:30 a.m. we were ready to put the fellows in the car for the trip to Dallas, and Randy, Lisa and Ginnie came to say their goodbyes.We've had Stevie and Pete here with us for over two years. Saying goodbye to them brought about many mixed emotions. We all loved Pete and Steve very, very much and we would miss them terribly, but we were also so happy that Steve and Pete were going to be with such a wonderful couple, who are very sensitive to Stevie's special needs, and who also love little Pete just as much as Stevie.

Nothing makes us happier than to know that our adopted-out dogs will be going to wonderful families and become pampered house pets. And we want the same thing for every dog (and cat).

We arrive at Mike and Ann's and all goes Great!

I can sum up our visit with "the boys" as just great! The nice big fenced patio area is a perfect size for the dogs and has a nice, grassy "potty yard" inside the patio area too. While Little Pete trotted all around making himself right at home, occasionally going in the house and coming back out again just seconds later. Their new dad, Mike, walked Stevie around the patio area with the leash on Stevie for about 20 minutes while Stevie figured out where everything was again.

Then off came the leash, and Steve was "on his own," while we sat around the table talking and watching how well Stevie was getting around. He did just fine!

When Ann brought out the bowl of "cookies" (dog biscuits) and set them on the table, as she had done on our last two visits there, Stevie heard the now familiar sound of the bowl touching the table, and immediately made his way over to the table for a "handout." He knew right where to go--over to his new dad for cookies! Little Pete still wasn't feeling too good after the long car ride, so he decided to save his cookies for a bit later.

Mike brought out the two big, fluffy soft doggie-beds for the boys to have for resting on on the patio and two more will be in their bedroom, where the boys will be sleeping at night, and two more will be in Mike's office for the fellows to curl up on in the the day, while Mike works at his desk. What a perfect home life for Pete and Stevie!

Bill and I stayed for an hour then finally decided that it was time to go, time to leave Stevie and little Pete with their new mom and dad. This was an answer to our prayers for these precious dogs.

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 many of them into good, loving homes.