MONDAY JANUARY 15, 2001 Little blind puppy needs a home (see photos below)

While at our adoption day last Saturday in Dallas, the other shelter that also brings dogs for adoption to Petsmart had many cute puppies and dogs there for their adoption day. When one of their volunteers walked by our area holding a fluffy white puppy, I caught a glimpse of the little fellow's face, and I could tell from that one quick look at his eyes, that he was sightless. Both of our groups were so busy talking with people about the dogs for adoption we had brought that I never had the time to go and inquire about the little blind pup.

The picture of his little face has stayed embedded in my mind, however, and I still can't stop thinking about him. I hope a wonderful family adopted this little fellow. "Special needs" pups and dogs can be very hard to place.

TUESDAY JANUARY 16 2001 Two little strays need help

Also during last Saturday's adoption day, Deborah, one of our doggie sitting volunteers told me about the two young dogs she has seen occasionally sitting beneath the roof of sort of a junk yard shop. It's bad enough that these two little strays don't have a home, but what makes this situation even worse is that the female dog is very pregnant. Deborah stops to feed the dogs every time she sees them and is able to touch the little male. The female will take food from Deborah's hand but won't come any closer and moves away when Deborah tries to pet her.

These dogs need a home--fast--before the soon-to-be-mommy dog has the puppies. So, we have it set up that if Deborah can catch the dogs, she'll let us know. She will also be trying to find a good home for them, but if she can't, we'll make room for them here. Deborah will keep us posted!

WEDNESDAY JANUARY 17 2001 Can't get the blind puppy out of my mind

My heart had gone out to this precious blind fellow the second I caught that first glimpse of his furry little face, and I haven't been able to get the picture of him out of my mind. I was still hoping he had been adopted by a wonderful family, and I wanted to find out for sure, so today I called the contact I knew at the other shelter.

It turned out that the 10-week-old blind pup had not yet been adopted. His blindness I was told had been caused by a genetic birth defect, most likely because his parents were brother and sister. The blind puppy had a little brother who was apparently born normal, and this brother had already been adopted. The blind puppy was being fostered at a no-kill shelter, who had rescued him from a kill shelter on his "last day" there, and they were trying hard to find him a good home.

Bill and I decide to take the little blind puppy

Why would we take in another blind, "special needs" puppy when we have so many "special needs" dogs here already, especially since this fella is already at a no-kill shelter? We knew after having spent a couple of years caring for Blind Dog Stevie and his seeing-eye buddy, Pete, (before adopting those two fellas out to Mike and Ann--see the October 15, 2000 edition of www.straydog.org) that we could give this new blind pup all the love and attention and special care he might require.

Stevie was eight months old when we rescued him from death row. Whoever had tried to raise and care for Stevie had (for whatever reason) given up on Stevie and had dropped him off at the county shelter, where he would have been euthanized for sure. We understand that taking in a blind dog is not easy!

We will pick up this new little blind guy this coming Saturday at our adoption day.

Katie goes for her heart checkup and Scooter goes for his "operation"

Seven-month-old,Scooter, one of our newer arrivals, is due to be neutered now, and sweet old dog, Sassy-Katie, who was brought to our Happy Home for Strays last May is one of our many "special needs" dogs, who is almost entirely deaf, arthritic and has a heart murmur, and she is due for another heart checkup. Randy helped me get these fellas in the van and off went the dogs and I to the clinic first thing this wet, icy-cold morning.

Scooter was taken back to await his operation, and then it was Katie's turn to see the doctor.

Katie's checkup involved x-rays which ended up showing a slightly enlarged heart and several new problems for this old girl. She also had her toe nails trimmed, a job which she will not let us take care of here, and then Katie and I were on our way back home to Straydog. Katie will most likely be with us for life, and we will continue to do everything we can to make her life as happy and wonderful as possible. Tomorrow I'll go back and pick up Mr. Scooter.

THURSDAY JANUARY 18 2001 Scooter is happy to be back with his buddy, George

I brought Scooter back home this morning. No problems with his operation, and he's happy to be back with his kennel mate and best buddy, George.

FRIDAY JANUARY 19 2001 Preparation going on for the new blind puppy

Now that we knew we'd be taking in this little blind fellow, we had to make room for him. Tommy Tootles had been moved a while ago to Stevie and Pete's vacant kennel, which we had put up right beside our house especially for Stevie because he was blind. This kennel would also be the perfect place for this new little blind puppy, and we could move Tommy to the side yard kennel Julie had been in when she was sick with her eyelid tumor (which you'll remember turned out to be benign, thank God--see the December 24, 2000 edition of www.straydog.org).

SATURDAY JANUARY 20 2000 Saturday Adoption Day--Nina is adopted!

The adoption of black Lab/Retriever mix, puppy-dog Nina, really made our day. The mom and her two young children had come to see Nina last Saturday too, and the family wanted to think very carefully about adopting a pet, knowing that it is a life-long commitment. They had even brought their little male dog, Woody, in to visit Nina last Saturday, and the two dogs got along fine. Now the family had come in to say they were ready to adopt Nina.

The home visit went beautifully. We know that Nina will be a happy house pet with her wonderful new family.

Little blind puppy, and his new little companion, come home with us

We had found out through our experiences caring for Blind Dog Stevie that it was best for Stevie to have a kennel companion to become his very best friend and seeing-eye buddy. This was certainly not as easy as it might sound! Steve was eight months old when we rescued him, and the several puppies that we did have at the time were just slightly younger than Steve.

We tried introducing the pups to Stevie one at a time, but they all sensed that something was "wrong" with Stevie, that he was "different," and each pup became aggressive with Steve when we tried to introduce them to each other. The pups we had at the time were simply too old--all close to Stevie's age. Poor Stevie wanted to become friends with each one of the pups, but none of them would accept him.

Then we figured that a much younger puppy might work, and we actually had to go looking for a little pup. We rescued three-month-old Little Pete on his "last day" at a kill shelter, and prayed that Pete would accept Stevie's blindness. Thankfully he did!

From this learning experience, we realized that this new little blind pup needed a companion too, and because of his disability, we believed it would be best to find a puppy his age right now so the two of them would be able to grow up together and be forever buddies.

The other shelter had many puppies needing homes, and I found the perfect little eight-week-old female playmate for our new blind fellow. The two puppies played happily in our "doggie play pen," which we have set up at Petsmart, until we left for our long ride home. The little blind male pup may be part Great Pyrenees mix and the little female may be part Shepherd mix. I'll know more after our vet visit this coming Monday morning.

New little pups, named "Sparky" and "Penny," settle in nicely

By 5:00 p.m. we had arrived back at our Happy Home for Strays and had all the dogs settled in their kennels. Tommy was happily playing in his new kennel by the house, and Randy had Sparky and Penny's kennel all ready for them too. Ginnie had put fresh hay in their big Igloo doghouse shortly before we arrived home.

It was so interesting to watch little blind Sparky find his way around their kennel. He is a very smart pup and is quickly learning the boundaries of their fence line and where their wooden shelter is. Soon he will have a good secure feeling in his new surroundings.

Tonight it will be very cold outside, in low 20s (so the forecast said), so after Sparky and Penny ate their dinner and went potty in their outside kennel, I brought them into the warm kitchen to their big "house kennel," where they will spend the cold nights (and cold days) till the weather warms up enough for them to stay outside longer. The little pups curled up in their soft bed on top of each other and immediately went to sleep. They will be happy and very much loved here.

Next I went out and brought old Sassy Katie dog inside too, to stay in her house kennel, which is also in the kitchen. Even though she has a heating lamp in her outside shelter, she often chooses to sleep on the ice cold ground long after dark, and we worry about her sleeping outside in the freezing weather for a bit "too long," so whenever the temperature is forecast to drop below freezing, I bring her in the house at night too. (Have I ever mentioned that the inside of our "house" does not even look like a house, because we have so much doggie stuff in it!)

And Danny Boy is in "his" back half of the house, snuggled on "his" big people bed for the night.

Little, old Blackie dog is curled up on the middle of our bed, tending to his toenails, while great big Toby gets all comfy on his mat at the foot of the bed--both waiting for me to turn on the 6:00 p.m. news.

At 6:30 p.m. it was beginning to get dark, so I hurried to make a last check on all the outside kennels too. It's cold and windy outside and all the dogs are inside their shelters now, peacefully sleeping in their soft hay beds until some strange sound may wake them. They are content, and I know they have all had another fun (tho cold) day. All is well.

SPECIAL THANKS TO ALL OUR WONDERFUL DOGGIE-SITTERS! Your help makes it possible to keep trying to find wonderful homes for our many furry friends. Thank you all!