MONDAY FEBRUARY 19 2001 Columnist Jacquielynn Floyd with The Dallas Morning News comes to see our shelter

What an exciting day this was! We felt so honored to have Jacquielynn Floyd, a columnist with The Dallas Morning News come to visit our shelter. She arrived at 10:30 this morning and spent a lot of time with us asking lots of questions as she took the "tour," visiting all of our many furry friends, and she was immediately drawn to Sandy when she first saw him.

(Sandy is the four-year-old Shepherd mix I rescued from a shelter several years ago because he was due to be euthanized simply because he had a broken leg.)

Jacquielynn was pleasantly surprised at how healthy and happy all of the dogs are, and she was pleased to see that the kennels are all so large and kept spotlessly clean. It was a nice visit, and we are all looking forward to reading her column in tomorrow's newspaper. Click here to see Jacquielynn Floyd's column in The Dallas Morning News

George is returned to us by his owner

It will probably always shock us when the new "moms" and "dads" call us to say they are returning their adopted dog to us. "He jumps the fence" was the reason George's new dad wanted to return George to us--today. He had spent a several hours in a panic trying to find George after the dog's last "escape."

George, a year-old big puppy-dog (a red Chow mix), had been adopted during our Saturday adoption day a little over two weeks ago on February 3, and after we made the home visit with George, we were thrilled that all had gone so well, and we thought that precious George had finally found his forever dad. We had heard from the dad a few times during the past two weeks, saying that all was going along just great and that George was becoming quite the pampered house pet. So you can imagine our surprise this morning when the dad wanted to return George.

We don't like the idea of any dog jumping his fence (this is a serious problem) and naturally we gave the dad a few suggestions on how to handle this situation, and we also suggested that the dad take another dog to be George's companion, to keep George from being lonely when he was by himself, but the dad felt it best to return George to us.

By 5:00 p.m. George was back at our Happy Home for Strays and was once again settled in his "old" kennel with his best buddy, and previous kennel companion, Scooter.

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 22 2001 "Can you please take this stray dog?" a caller asked. "He has only three legs."

Our shelter is always full, but when we hear of a really desperate situation with a stray dog, or puppy, we try very hard to make room for the dog in need. Such was the case with the phone call I received this morning.

The gentleman calling said that the dog appears to be sort of a yellow lab mix and may be about six years old and has only three legs. The dog showed up two weeks ago and the man had been feeding the dog during this time while he tried to locate the dog's owner. He just couldn't keep the dog any longer and had read Jacquielynn Floyd's column about our no-kill shelter and was hoping we would take the dog in.

Taking in another dog presented a bit of a problem for us because of lack of kennel space but this was a truly needy fellow, so we will work something out.

The man said he would hopefully be able to take the dog to his vet tomorrow for a checkup and the necessary vaccinations and then bring him to Petsmart to meet us this Saturday, and we will bring the fellow to our Happy Home for Strays at the end of our adoption day.

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 24 2000 Adoption Day at Petsmart/ George is Adopted!

This was to be an exciting day for George. One of our wonderful Saturday adoption day dog-sitting volunteers, Judy, has been interested in adopting George, and the plan was for George to meet his new family this morning. Judy has two other dogs, Teddy and Peanut, and her Teddy fellow needed a playful companion. George is a very playful pooch, so we were all hoping this would work out for the two of them.

The introduction of Teddy and George out in front of thePetsmart store went very well, so the next step was to take George to Teddy's house to see how Ted would accept his new friend in his home, along with companion dog, Peanut, and the cat.

Another of our dog-sitting volunteers, John Pippin, M.D. (known to all of us as "Big Dog") made the home visit with George, and all went great, Dr. Pippin said when he returned. All three dogs were having a fun time playing together when he left to rejoin us at Petsmart for the rest of the afternoon.

Puppy Dog Gina comes in to visit us with her new dad and his little girl

What a great surprise to see Gina! She was the last of the three big puppy dog siblings to be adopted. Gina had gone to her new home two weeks ago with her new dad and his adorable little girls. How nice of the dad to bring Gina to Petsmart so we could see her again. She is beautiful, happy and seems to have grown a lot!

Lets hope we find Silver a Home!

Silver, the beautiful Shepherd/Malamute/Husky mix, needs a loving mom or dad to adopt her. She has been so unhappy since she was returned to us at the end of last month. We're giving her lots of extra attention, and she even gets extra play times in the big play yard, but she needs a loving family to adopt her. (Silver had been adopted and was with her new mom for eight months, and then the mom returned Silver to us.)

Silver is a Shepherd/Malamute/Husky mix, about six years old and is spayed and up to date on all vaccinations. She is a gentle, affectionate beautiful dog. Silver loves people and needs to be the only pet in the household. She does not get along with other dogs, does not like cats, and is leery of small children.

Three-legged stray never shows up

The new stray desperately needing a home was not brought to us today, so we make the trip home without him, and I'll call the man who had called me Thursday to see what happened.

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!

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 25 2000 Emily's distracted by the birds in the tree in the park

Since the weather's gotten warmer, Emily spends most of her play yard time staring up at the tree top and running around the bottom of the tree.

Randy finishes the new kennel intended for the 3-legged stray

Beautiful weather for working outdoors, which is were almost all of our work is done. I've put several calls into the rescuer of the three-legged stray but haven't heard back yet.

Shannon, a new employee, started today

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