An email this past week from a friend who'd read about Sparky:

"It hurts my heart to hear about Sparky. ...Thankfully Sparky will be able to
greet us with open eyes at Rainbow Bridge. ... Love you guys, Lou."

The following also came this week, printed in NO-KILL NEWS, a quarterly newsletter (www.dtfa.org) :

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.

When an animal who has been especially close to someone dies here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable. All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor. Those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by. The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing: they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent. His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face, your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together.

Anonymous

 

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 6 2001 Emily may be adopted (again) soon

A friend of Doggie George's new "dad" is also looking for a dog companion, and I talked with her today by phone about Emily. Emily is a small dog, about three years old with beautiful short golden hair, and she seems to fit the description, almost perfectly, of the type of dog the woman is looking for. We're going to take Emily with us on this Saturday, February 10 adoption day to meet her "maybe, soon-to-be mom."

Emily has been with us for several years. She is such a sweet little dog, very gentle, playful and affectionate. She has been adopted two times and was returned to us both times.

We're not really sure why things didn't work out for Emily either time; we just know that at her first new home Emily was so petrified in her new surroundings that we went to get her after her short two-day stay there.

Emily was adopted again several months later and according to the first few phone calls from her new "mom," Emily had adjusted beautifully and all was going along just great with her companion dog playmate. But the mom called us at the end of three weeks saying they were returning Emily due to house-training problems.

Maybe this third time "will be a charm" for Emily. We hope so.

[Later the woman called saying she'd found a dog at another shelter and had adopted the dog, so Emily is still with us at our Happy Home for Strays.]

Gina is going to her new home this Saturday

Last Saturday at our adoption day at Petsmart in Dallas, a nice dad and his little girl came over to visit our dogs and puppy dogs, and they fell in love with Gina. They wanted to adopt Gina, but the dad needed a little time to think it over. Yesterday he called saying they had decided to adopt Gina. What wonderful news! We'll be taking Gina to her new home this Saturday.

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 7 2001 Vet trip for Silver and Bobby

This is the day beautiful Silver, a Husky/Shepherd/Malamute mix, goes to the clinic to have a little sore on her paw looked at, and since Bobby, our semi-feral two-year-old has been coughing a little, I'm going to take Bobby too.

Both dogs checked out okay. Thank goodness it's nothing serious.

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 8 2001 We need office help!

Seems like every day the desks and tables in our house-office, are stacked higher and higher with Straydog paperwork and computer work that needs to be done, which Bill and I just don't have time to get to. We realize we need help to just get caught up with things around here and then to keep caught up!

I called a young woman who had shown interest in wanting to work with the dogs, and she had also mentioned that she's very good at office work and is computer literate. What could be better?! She will come tomorrow to meet the dogs, and to see what all needs to be done in the office.

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 9 2001 Buddy's hip problem appears to be getting worse

This cold, damp morning, Buddy, the big, one-year-old Rottweiler's hips were really hurting. He has hip dysplasia and so does his sister Betsy (as well as many of the other dogs here), and we know that the cold, wet weather does affect how the dogs feel, but we could tell that Buddy was really hurting a lot this morning, so I had him at the vets by 8:00 this morning to have him looked at again.

The x-rays that our vet took show that Buddy's hips are getting worse. We discussed Buddy's problem, and our veterinarians think that Buddy will soon need major surgery on his hips, an operation that will cost about $3,000. Another vet we consult with from time to time, William F. Falconer, D.V.M. at Alternatives for Animal Health in Austin, Texas thinks major surgery can be avoided, so we will try Dr. Falconer's method of treatment first.

All the dogs love Tonya, and office work appears to be no problem for her

Tonya came today at 1:00, and I took her to meet all of our furry friends, just so she'd see if she'd like working with the dogs if a dog-care position should open up (which, as you know, does happen around here, quite unexpectedly sometimes). Tonya is a natural with dogs, and the dogs all loved her!

I showed her our pile of office work and all the computer stuff, which Bill will have to explain to her, and Tonya assured me this wouldn't be a problem for her either.

Looks as if we may have help after all.

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 10 2000 Saturday Adoption Day in Dallas--Gina is adopted!

This turned out to be a great day for Big Puppy Gina. She went home with her wonderful new family! It was close to the end of our afternoon at Petsmart when the dad and his two adorable little girls came in to see us, to take home "their puppy." Our doggie-sitting volunteer, John Pippin, M.D.(aka "Big Dog") took Gina to her new home and reported that all had gone well and that Gina will be very happy with her new family. The little girls had made pretty pictures saying "Welcome Home, Gina!" in anticipation of bringing home their new puppy pet.

Now all three puppy siblings (Bunny, Nina and Gina) are with their wonderful new families.

Puppy dog Scooter misses his little playmate, Gina

Gina was Scooter's kennel companion here at our Happy Home. Now that Gina has been adopted and is with her new family, nine month old Scooter has no best buddy to play with anymore.

Scoots came very close to being adopted too, but he was just about 30 pounds bigger than the type of dog the couple hoped to find to be a companion pet for their little female dog, who weighs just 14 pounds. The couple seemed to fall in love with Scoots anyway. And cute Scooter really played it up big to the mom of the family. When she sat on the floor to pet Scooter, he crawled in her lap, snuggled up to her just as close as he could and gave her lots of "take me home" kisses. We felt really sad that they didn't want to adopt Scooter because it seemed to us that this would have been a wonderful home for him.

Starting tomorrow, so that Scooter won't be lonely, we'll put our happy-go-lucky little Emily in with Scooter for a while every day to become his part-time playmate. Emily is kenneling with Pokey right now, but she seems to accept and love all dogs and makes a great part-time playmate for the fellas that need a friend.

When little Penny pup is out of quarantine, she can be Scooter's playmate. They will have a great time together!

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 11 2000 We first try Silver with Scooter, but she says, "No Way!"

This cold, misty morning we thought we'd introduce Silver to Scooter, thinking this would be good for Silver, who is a single dog in her kennel, and also for Scooter, who is now a single fellow in his kennel.

We took both dogs to the big doggie play yard on leashes for the introduction, but beautiful big Silver rejected Scooter right off the bat. "No way is this going to work," Silver let us know as she growled at and showed her teeth to Scooter. So we took Scoots back to his kennel, and when it's his turn to go to the play yard, we'll introduce him to sweet little Emily.

Emily and Scooter hit it off just fine, as I was sure they would

These two had a grand time sniffing at first and then chasing each other around the play yard. Now Scooter has a fun, playful, part-time companion, and he is happy!

Counting the days till little puppy Penny is out of quarantine

Having dogs or puppy's go through the two-week quarantine period here is rough on all of us. It's chlorine bleach/disinfectant city for me, since I am the one who handles the pups and dogs in quarantine, and the sweet little animals can't have a doggie friend to play with during the whole two weeks, or longer sometimes--till they get a clean bill of health from the vets.

Puppy Penny, who was Sparky's little playmate, has just four more days to go with her extended quarantine time, counting today, and I cannot wait to be able to have Puppy Penny "free" to play with our other puppy-dog, Scooter, and to be able to have the freedom to run and play in our big dog play yard like all the other pups and dogs do. I am counting the days and hopefully all will continue to go well for this precious pup.

We want to thank all of you who have given (and continue to give) your support to our shelter. We will be forever grateful for your help.

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!