Rough week here at Straydog

It has been a rough week for us here at our Happy Home for Strays. I'm still sick and haven't been able to do much of anything, and then Shannon came down with bronchitis, and she has missed a lot of work. This has made us very short-handed which meant that Randy, Ginnie and Gary have had to cover for the two of us, and I am so thankful that they are such wonderful, dedicated employees. Ginnie came in on her two days off to help out, and Randy and Gary are putting in 12-hour days just to make sure all the dogs are being well cared for. THANK YOU , RANDY, GINNIE AND GARY!!

WEDNESDAY APRIL 4 2001 Rush newsletter asking for help is printed--but no time to prepare it to get it in the mail!

For some reason Bill and I hate to ask for financial help, but when the funds in our Straydog account dip so low that we barely have enough money in the account to cover the expenses of our shelter for the next two weeks, we panic, and we realize we must ask for help.

We finished writing our emergency newsletter last Sunday (see last week's update), and the printing company Bill works for donated the printing of the newsletter and the envelopes, which weren't finished till today. Bill brought the finished copies home late tonight for us to send out to all the wonderful people who have helped us in the past.

All we have to do now is to fold these newsletters, stuff them into envelopes, seal the envelopes, affix labels and stamps and take them to the post office. All we are lacking now is the manpower to get the mailing alone done!

THURSDAY APRIL 5 2001 Another trip to the doctor for me

It's been over five weeks that I've been feeling really lousy with this upper respiratory problem. I went to see a doctor over a month ago, took the antibiotic he prescribed and started getting better. Then, probably because I couldn't stop myself from working all day every day, I started getting worse again and had to go back to the pharmacy for a refill of the prescription. But this time I just kept getting worse.

Now I'm sicker. I've lost my voice for the second time and have had a high fever for several days. I just can not get over this "bug," so I've made an appointment for 9:00 this morning with a different doctor, with high hopes that he can figure out what the heck is wrong with me.

After four hours of tests the doctor told me to come back in a week for the results and that hopefully he would know then what my illness might be. He handed me a prescription for another antibiotic and told me to stay in bed for a week. I did a double-take at the words "stay in bed for a week." This really sounded nice, but it is definitely not something that I can do. I'm up at 3:30 every single morning to start my day of Straydog business, which includes overseeing the care of 55 dogs along with hands-on dog care, and my days of doggie duties of one type or another continue until I retire every night--and there is just no way out of that. Squeezing in a short nap here and there will be about the best I can do.

By 1:30 this afternoon I was home again and very, very tired. "The Crew" here today--Randy, Ginnie and Shannon--had made plans to cover for my outside p.m. rounds with the dogs so I could stay inside and at least take a nap.

When I went in the house, I saw that Shannon had folded lots of the newsletters while I was gone and had them stuffed into envelopes ready to mail. A friend of Shannon's who was supposed to come to help get the newsletters out didn't show up, so now we are way behind on this job, and this is an emergency "HELP!" newsletter. But, thanks to Shannon, at least we have a bunch ready to mail.

As I passed by my desk on my way to go lie down, feeling very weak from the 102-degree temperature I was running, I looked at the stacks of letters that still need my response, but they will also have to wait. I checked our Straydog voice mail and there were five messages I also needed to answer--later. The office work just suddenly seemed to come to a standstill, and I was already so far behind with everything.

Bill returns call to contributor who asked if we could help another homeless dog

Since I still have no voice, Bill returned the call to the contributor who had left a message on our voice mail. He was wondering if we could take in a stray male dog. The dog is okay, but the story was very troubling to hear.

This nice gentleman and a friend of his have been feeding stray dogs for a long time in a location near where they live. Of these many homeless dogs one pair, a male and a female, had always been together, and one day when the gentleman went to feed these two companion dogs (whom he had named Big Boy and Big Girl), the female, Big Girl, was nowhere to be found. He looked all over for her and then checked the pounds and finally found Big Girl, who had gotten picked up by animal control. The gentleman adopted Big Girl, to save her life, and took her home.

Now the gentleman is very concerned about Big Boy, the male dog, because Big Boy has become very withdrawn, undoubtedly because he misses his best friend so much. The couple felt they could not take Big Boy too, because they were concerned about Big Boy not getting along with their small house dog they've had for years.

Because our shelter is so full right now, Bill told the man that we would have to see what we could do to be able to fit this fellow in. We were also hoping that the nice gentleman would be able to figure out a way that he would be able to take in Big Boy, so that this pair of companion dogs, Big Boy and Big Girl, would be able to stay together.

It's so sad to think how heartbroken Big Boy must be right now because of losing his best buddy, Big Girl, and this could be a really bad situation. Big Boy might start to roam to try and find his dog companion and certainly, if he is not killed on the road, he will be picked up by the pound, where he will only have a short time before he is euthanized simply because he has no home.

Bill told the man that we would try to figure something out.

FRIDAY APRIL 6 2001 Another rescued stray needs a home!

"How are we ever going to manage this?" I wondered, after talking with a former employee who called saying she had found a small Pomeranian on the highway a few days ago with no collar or tags on. Because of my lingering laryngitis problem I was barely able to speak with her as she told me about this little dog, who had apparently been dumped along the roadside. At first she had thought she would try to care for him herself, but her apartment complex only allows her to have one dog, which she already has, so now she was turning to us for help, hoping we might be able to take him in.

After hours of figuring, we think we've got a way that we can take in both dogs

Gina, the big puppy dog who was adopted almost two months ago, is being returned to us by her owner. We've held a vacant kennel for her for two weeks, anticipating her arrival. The owner has just been too busy to bring her to our Happy Home for Strays. So right now we do have Gina's kennel available, which means that we will have room in her kennel for Gina and a companion dog, which could be the little Pomeranian. Now we have room for stray dog number one to come to our Happy Home for Strays, and the fellow will be taken to our clinic today for his "new arrival" checkup, etc.

Then, when Shannon feels better she and her husband John will take George (whom they have adopted) home. Shannon has just been so sick lately she felt it best to leave George here with his kennel companion, Cookie, until Shannon gets back on her feet again. When John and Shannon take George, his kennel companion, Cookie, will be able to have another companion, who can be the gentleman's stray male dog, Big Boy. Once this sad fellow is here (if they can catch him now), he will be safe and well cared for and we're hoping that bouncy, playful Big Puppy-Dog Cookie will take his mind off of losing his previous best friend, Big Girl. (The only problem we may run into with these new dogs is the compatibility of the prospective new pairs of kennel mates.) I'll try to get in touch with the gentleman to tell him we have found a way to take in Big Boy.

SATURDAY APRIL 7 2000 We cancel our Adoption Day in Dallas once again, due to me being sick and being too short-handed here for anyone else to make the trip

Folding newsletters, stuffing them into envelopes, sealing, affixing stamps and labeling--Bill and I are doing this all day while the crew cares for the dogs. My cough's a little better, and my voice has come back, but I'm still feeling pretty poorly.

SUNDAY APRIL 8 2000 I can't stop worrying about Big Boy

I called the nice gentleman whom Bill had talked with Thursday, and he said that Big Boy is still on the loose and that Big Girl (the female the gentleman had rescued from the pound) is doing fine in his back yard.

The man went on to say that it's been unbearable for him to see Big Boy so unhappy, so I suggested that he and his wife try to come up with some way to section off their yard so that Big Boy could become part of their family too and so that the companion pair could be together once again. The gentleman said he and his wife hadn't thought of this possibility but they will talk it over and see if they might come up with a plan to keep Big Boy. If they cannot keep him, I told the gentleman to please go rescue Big Boy ASAP and bring him to us at Straydog.

We continue 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.