Thank all of you who continue to give your moral and financial support to our Happy Home for Strays. Your contributions enable us to continue to care for many abandoned, homeless dogs and puppies. Without your help this just wouldn't be possible. The dogs and pups thank you too!
SCOTTY is a beautiful, six-year-old, Pointer/Setter mix, with soft fluffy white fur and a few red freckles on his nose.
Scotty can't tell us how he suddenly found himself in the middle of the street with cars honking at him as he dodged the oncoming traffic, trying to miss being hit frantically trying to cross the road that day in January, 1998. He can't tell us if his owners dedcided they didn't want him anymore so "dumped" him, of if he had somehow gotten out of his yard, and wandered away and couldn't find his way back home. All we know about this wonderful dog is that someone found him in the middle of the street near our vet clinic, and they rescued him and took him to the clinic, just so he would be safe.
The clinic called us to see if we could take him in, and this is how Scotty joined our Happy Home for Strays on January 7, 1998. We had to board Scotty for several days while we tried in vain to locate his owner. Then, with no owner coming forth to claim Scotty, these extra days with him at the clinic gave us the time to build a kennel for him, and we brought the fellow to our shelter.
Scotty is a wonderful, friendly, happy dog. He likes to please and loves to show us how well he can "sit" and "shake" for a treat.
Special Notes about Scotty
Because of Scottie's few peculiarities, Scotty needs to be placed with a couple, or family with no young children. The flighty actions of little kids make him very nervous.
Scotty sometimes is startled very easily.
He doesn't like to have his ears rubbed very much, preferring instead to have a little bit of petting on his back and some chest-scratching.
He does not liked to be brushed and does not like to have his toe nails trimmed, by us. We take him to the vet when he needs to have this grooming done.
Scotty wants to show his new mom or dad just what a truly wonderful fellow he is and he longs to become a pampered housepet, to be adopted by someone who will love him forever.
If you are interested in knowing more about Scotty, please call me, Pat, 903/479-3497
MONDAY JUNE 25 2001 Fritz needs a little bit of vet-care grooming
Fritz has very thick, long hair, and when he occasionally gets a "hot spot," it is very hard to treat, mainly because he does not want us to touch it, and also because his long fur usually hides the sore area. Fritz is one of the few dogs here who can be very ornery when it comes time for us to give him any type of medical treatment. (It's really a toss-up between Fritz and Sassy Katie Dog as to who can be the most ornery!) So, early this morning Fritz and I went to the clinic to have the doctor give him a bit of a "hair-cut" around the sore area.
Once the hair trim began, we noticed several hard to reach mats in places I knew he'd never allow me to touch, so it seemed that a complete new "summer-do" was in order, and I gave the okay to have Fritz trimmed all over. How much different he looks now! And he has to feel much better too.
A dog family (mommy dog, eight pups and the daddy dog) may need a good home
I talked with Susan, one of our volunteers, again today about the dog family she had heard of who had suddenly shown up in someone's yard. No one knew where the dogs had come from. The story is that when the homeowner arrived home from work a few days ago, she discovered the entire family of dogs in her yard. The mother dog had just given birth to eight puppies and the daddy dog was sitting nearby, keeping close watch over his family. This person did not want the dogs, or could not keep the dog family, so a neighbor was trying to help her find them a home.
Susan said she hoped to find out more about the dog situation today, and I said that if a home was still needed for the dogs, we would make room for the family.
TUESDAY JUNE 26 2001 Two more little puppies will be arriving soon
These two little puppies were found along the roadside in Wills Point about a month ago. Their story is practically identical to the story of puppy Princess, who was found in Dallas.
The woman who found these starving 10-week-old puppies along the roadside rescued them and took them right to her vet. The poor litle puppies had hardly any hair on their bodies due to the severity of sarcoptic and demodectic mange. The puppies were boarded at the vet clinic while they underwent treatment for mange, and then due to having no room for them to stay with her, because of her many other pets (all of whom she had rescued too), she continued to board the puppies, Hope and Hannah, while she tried to find them good homes.
We had heard several times from this person over these five weeks, and she was hoping we'd soon have room for the puppies since she has found it impossible to place the pups anywhere else. Now that we have an available kennel (due to recent adoptions), Hope and Hannah will be joining us within the next few days.
This very kind-hearted person has spent nearly $1,000 on the starving, mangy puppies for the medical treatment they needed and for the days she had them boarded at her vets to keep them safe and well cared for until she could find a place for them. She wanted to do everything possible to help the puppies. This is exactly what the other person had done, too, when she rescued puppy,Princess, from the roadside. She took Princess to her vet for healthcare and boarding until she could find a home for the pup.
(Per our Form 990 Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax for the year 2000, Straydog Inc. spent $13,958 on Vet Services and another $7,168 on medicine and other supplies. [As always a copy of our Form 990 is available on request.])
FRIDAY JUNE 29 2001 Katie has an eye infection and goes to see the doctor
Ten-year-old, mixed-breed Katie, "Sassie Katie Dog," as she is also affectionately called by us, and I were at the vet clinic by 8:00 this morning so the doctor could check out the problem that had recently developed with her right eye. A cloudy grey film is covering the entire pupil, and even tho she has cateracts, this is obviously a different problem.
After the thorough eye examination Dr. Stephen said she has Uveitis and gave me several prescriptions for Katie.
Before we leave the clinic, Katie gets a "summer do" too
Since Katie does not like to be brushed, she also had mats on areas that she would never let us touch with scissors (which is how she acquired the name "Sassie Katie") she was given the new summer-do hair style--i.e., shaved. (Recently Fritz had to be vet-trimmed too.)
Katie and Fritz are a few of the "Untouchables" when it comes to us brushing them or clipping mats as they develop, so these "problem kids" need to have our vets and vet techs take care of this type of grooming for us.
SATURDAY JUNE 30 2001We cancel Adoption Day to work on our next mailer; also two little pups, Hope and Hannah, arrive
In order for Bill and me to get our newsletter ready to send out, we had to cancel our adoption day in Dallas this week so we could stay home to work on the newsletter.
Puppies Hope and Hannah arrive this afternoon
We had the puppies kennel all ready for their arrival, and at 1:00 this afternoon, Hope and Hannah were brought to us. These puppies are adorable, like all puppies, and their hair is growing back nicely. They each weigh approximatly 20 pounds and during their five-week stay at the other vet clinic they had received their examinations and first two puppy vaccinations. They appear to be very healthy, happy pups.
Hope is brown with a grayish brown face, which looks very unusual, and Hannah is black with a white stripe on her chest. Tomorrow we'll try putting the pups with "Foster dad dog, Bishop." He is a very gentle, calm, quiet fellow and makes a wonderful foster daddy to the new pups who come to our Happy Home. And, he needs companions to keep him company too, so there's no doubt about it, Hope and Hannah will keep him busy!