MONDAY MARCH 19 2001 Mandy is still being boarded at our clinic

As we reported last week, Mandy got out of her kennel Saturday (the 17th), and it took us six hours to find her. We're now boarding her at our vet clinic as we make her kennel even more secure. While at the clinic Mandy is scheduled to be spayed, and she'll stay there, safe and sound, until we finish securing her kennel.

Local building supply company delivers kennel-securing materials

TUESDAY MARCH 20 2001 Mike, our kennel grounds mowing man, adds finishing touch of extra security around Mandy's kennel on Randy's day off

To make extra sure that Mandy's kennel is escape proof, we called Mike the Mowing Man (who comes to Straydog when needed to mow the kennel grounds and who also comes to help us out in emergencies) and asked him to come and add the final finishing touches to Mandy's already triple-secured kennel.

Mike attached sections of eight-foot-long, two-foot-high, 3/4-inch-thick plywood along the entire inside bottom of Mandy's kennel fence. This will keep Mandy from attempting to pull up the already extremely secured bottom of her fence and will also protect her teeth.

Mandy comes home from being boarded

As soon as Mike gave the word that he was about finished with his job, I went to the clinic to get Mandy and bring her "home" again. The kennel itself, which includes the shelter and dog house, along with all the extra materials added to the kennel to "triple secure" it for this precious pooch, has cost us over $2,000.

We've topped the kennel with sturdy chain link fencing, we've put in over 140 heavy concrete blocks along the inside bottom fence line, rebraced and rewired the entire baseline of the fence and have now put in a two-foot lining of wood along the entire inside bottom of the fence. All of this has been done just to keep this one precious dog safe.

When we arrived home, Mandy (who the vets discovered had already been spayed) trotted happily into her kennel and looked all around as if to say, "Okay, everyone, I'm back again. What have you done to the place this time?"

She sniffed the fresh wood and walked over to Mike to check out what he was doing. "An Elephant couldn't get out of this kennel," Mike said as he patted her on the head.

Mandy needs a kennel companion. She and George are introduced in the play yard

Mandy desperately needs a playmate, and I had what I thought would be the solution to this problem: We could introduce Mandy and George to each other. Mandy is an escape artist, and therefore she will probably be very hard to place in a good home, so most likely she will be with us for a long time, and George will probably be hard to place too because although he never tries to get out of his kennel here, he has gotten out of the yards of his two adoptive homes. George was first adopted by a wonderful man who had to bring George back because George kept jumping the fence, and then George was adopted by a wonderful woman, but he is back here at Straydog now because of getting out of her yard too and almost getting hit by a car. (See the March 11 update of or website.) What could be a better match than to put these two, hard-to-place fellas together.

"No Way !" says Mandy

This "good idea" did not work out as I had hoped it would. We took George and Mandy to the big play yard on their leashes to introduce them to each other. As usual, George was happy to meet a new friend and wanted to play, but Mandy did not take to George at all. She glared at him, and her quiet, low growls sounded very serious, and the slight crinkle of her muzzle showing a touch of her teeth made us all feel very uneasy about this introduction. We walked the two fellas around for a little while on their leashes, but Mandy kept up with the growling and snarling and glaring at George, so we figured this match up was not going to work, and we took them back to their separate kennels.

Now we still have the problem of Mandy needing a companion dog with no "single" fellows available here at Straydog.

Friend , Susan Southerland, calls with a brilliant idea!

It was about 6:00 tonight when Susan, a good friend who volunteers her doggie-sitting expertise on our Saturday Adoption Days in Dallas, called with a brilliant idea to help with Mandy. Susan knew how concerned we've been about Mandy and how much we felt that if Mandy had a dog friend or a puppy-dog friend as a playmate and companion, she would be so happy she wouldn't even want to get out of her kennel.

Susan has several house dogs of her own, and she and her sister, Allie, also have a big, gentle, playful, 10-month-old puppy-dog named Bear (who prefers to be an outside fellow) and another year-old playful fellow named Luke. Susan was wondering if it would be of any help to have either one of these playful fellows come to visit Mandy for a few weeks or so, to give Mandy a playful companion, until another homeless puppy-dog comes along to share the kennel with Mandy. What a brilliant idea! Tomorrow morning Susan will bring Bear and Luke for a visit.

Mandy spends the night inside the house

Tonight, still feeling lousy from the bad cold I've had for quite a while now, I decided I needed a break from worrying about Mandy, and even though we all were confident that there was no way in the world she could get out of her kennel now, I still was really concerned that she might try. From the window I could see Mandy pacing back and forth restlessly in her kennel--not a good sign. The only way for me to get a good night's sleep and not worry about her all night would be to bring Mandy in the house and put her in our big kennel in the kitchen. If she gets out of this kennel, at least she will be inside the house! (We keep this huge kennel in the kitchen for various doggie emergencies, and this, I felt, was a potential emergency.)

At 6:30 p.m. I went outside to get Mandy. I slipped the cloth leash around her neck, and she happily walked to the house with me. When we got inside, she hesitated at the open door of the kennel in the kitchen. But with a gentle push from me, in she went. I was really surprised when she turned around and curled up on the blankets inside the kennel. I gave her lots of petting and a treat and told her this was where she'd be spending the night and to "please be a good girl." Then, just to make sure there would be no hassle from our house dogs, Toby and Blackie, I kept them in the bedroom all night.

WEDNESDAY MARCH 21 2001 Exciting day: Mandy meets Big Puppy-Dog Bear

At 3:00 a.m. I was up and ready to start the day and immediately escorted Mandy back to her outside kennel in the early morning darkness. There hadn't been a sound from her all night and I had slept really well for the first time since her arrival here 11 days ago on March 10th. I suppose keeping her inside at night would be one solution to not having to worry about her getting out at night, but because she needed a dog companion so much, I was really hoping that Mandy and one of Allie and Susan's dogs would get along.

Mandy and Bear are a perfect match!

Susan arrived with Bear and Luke about 8:00 this morning. We decided to introduce Bear, the big 10-month-old puppy-dog, to Mandy first because he was the youngest dog, and there was just something about his gentle, lovable personality that I thought might make him the perfect match for Mandy.

Bear is absolutely precious! He weights about 90 pounds, has fluffy soft black fur and is a huge gentle giant! We introduced Mandy and Bear, on their leashes, in our big play yard, and after just a few minutes of their sniffy greeting we could see that they really liked each other a lot. We removed their leashes, and the two dogs were instantly off and running around playing with each other. How beautiful to see Mandy so happy! She and Bear were having a great time together. We all agreed that Bear would be the perfect playmate for Mandy!

Mandy shows Bear around her kennel

We were elated that the dogs got along so beautifully in the play yard, and now the next step was to take Bear and Mandy to Mandy's kennel, to make sure all would go as well with them there.

All went beautifully. Mandy followed Bear around as he checked out her shelter and dog house (we'll have to get another big dog house for Bear today), and Bear sniffed at all of Mandy's toys lying around the kennel yard. The two dogs did a bit of nose nuzzling, and we knew everything was just fine! Now Mandy has a fun playmate to keep her happy, and her little furry face was all smiles! Bear loved his new companion too! Susan could see how happy Bear was with his new friend, and she feels very comfortable about letting Bear stay here with Mandy. Susan was also very impressed with our Happy Home for Strays (this being her first visit), and she now knows first hand of the tremendous amount of care that all the dogs are given here. (I'm sure we'll be emailing each other often about the progress in the Bear and Mandy kennel!)

Cookie goes for her "operation"

While I was here meeting with Susan with her two dogs, Shannon took Cookie to our vets for her scheduled spay surgery early this morning. We'll pick Cookie up tomorrow.

George goes home with Shannon

Shannon, our new employee (who has been here for three weeks) has fallen in love with George, and she wanted to take him home to meet their year-old, happy-go-lucky dog, Trixie, who needs a doggie friend. Shannon and her husband John wanted George to become part of their doggie family, and this would really be perfect home for the fellow because Shannon knows George so well, and he loves her too. We knew he would be a very happy house pet with them. So this afternoon at the end of Shannon's work day here we leashed George up and walked him to Shannon's car. Both of us felt the dogs would get along with no problem.

George comes right back! He likes their dog but not their Cat!

That was a quick trip! George and their dog, Trixie, got along beautifully, Shannon and John said when they brought George back, but when they introduced George to their cat, things did not go so well. George let them know right away, that he does not like cats.

So, sweet doggie George is back with us and will spend a quiet time in his kennel by himself tonight, since his kennel companion, Cookie is still at the clinic resting up from her spay surgery. But Cookie will be home early tomorrow morning to keep him company again. They are best buddies.

THURSDAY MARCH 22 2001 Cookie comes "home" and George is thrilled!

Cookie is fine, the doctor said, so I brought her home early this morning, and George was thrilled to have his best friend back to play with him again.

FRIDAY MARCH 23 2001 Mandy and Bear love each other, and they are having a great time together!

I have emailed Susan a bunch of messages about how much fun Bear and Mandy are having together! In one of her replies Susan said that Bear loves to play in water so we put a little "kiddy swimming pool" in their kennel, and Bear has had a great time splashing around in the pool. Mandy hasn't ventured in the water yet. She just sits close by and watches him.

Bear and Mandy share their toys with each other, and they play together constantly, running around and around their shelter, playfully chasing each other and tussling with each other. Bear especially loves the soft, pink and white, stuffy teddy bear toy that we just gave them, and when he isn't playing with Mandy, it is so cute to see this huge, giant puppy-dog gently carry the teddy bear toy around their yard. Occasionally he will walk over to Mandy and flop the toy in her face to try and get her to engage in a "tug the teddy bear" game, and they are off playing together again. I'm surprised the stuffy toy is still in one piece!

We just can't thank Susan and Allie enough for "sharing" Bear with us. It is so wonderful to see how happy Mandy is now and Bear is just as happy. He loves his new playful friend.

SATURDAY MARCH 24 2000 We cancel our Adoption Day due to thunderstorms

The final decision not to go to Dallas was postponed till we were almost ready to leave our shelter. We had been hoping the storm would let up, but it hadn't, and calls to Dallas indicated it was still raining hard there, and we're sure glad that we made the decision not to go, because as we found out later, it continued to rain all day long in Dallas. (The problem that would be presented by rain is that the dogs would continually be getting wet--every time we would take them outside the pet supply store for a potty break on the thin strips of grass between the sections of their parking lot, which would be getting muddy. That's why we don't go to Adoption Day in the rain.)

A nice couple drives all the way from Dallas in the rainy weather to bring us two dog houses and extra towels and blankets for the dogs

We thank the Hardins again for the donation of two dog houses and lots of doggie towels and blankets. How nice of them to drive all the way from Dallas in the rainy weather to bring these items to our Happy Home for Strays. Because it was raining so hard when they arrived, they decided to postpone a tour of our kennels and come back another day when the weather is better to visit with all the dogs. Thank you Gayle and Gene!

SUNDAY MARCH 25 2000 Shannon bangs her head on Katie's shelter porch roof, which knocks her unconscious for a few moments

When she came to, Shannon told us not to call 911, which I had already done and then canceled. Shannon said she thought she was okay. Gary, one of other kennel team members, is a paramedic, and he checked her pulse and said her eyes were clear, but we insisted Ginnie take Shannon to the emergency room of our local hospital to be checked out.

An hour later Ginnie called from the hospital telling us that Shannon felt fine now. She'd filled out the paper work and was waiting in a room for a doctor.

Two hours more passed, and finally Ginnie and Shannon were back. No doctor ever came to see Shannon, and because she was feeling fine, she and Ginnie got up and left the hospital. No one said anything to them as they walked out.

Shannon drove home from here and called me from her house to tell me she was still feeling fine. I'll let you know if anything further develops.

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