SUNDAY APRIL 21 2002

Millie's one remaining pup moves in with Candy

      Kathy had been living with Candy in Candy's kennel, but since Kathy was adopted yesterday, Candy had had to spend the night alone. Candy obviously was missing Kathy badly as she wouldn't eat anything for breakfast this morning, so we introduced Kathy's sister, Amber, Millie's only remaining pup to Candy in the Big Play Yard, and they got along fine, so they'll be kenneling together.

Millie moves in with Dobie

      Millie has been spending her days with Dobie, but now that her pups have all been adopted (except for Kathy, who's now in with Candy), Millie will be staying with Dobie night and day.

MONDAY APRIL 22 2002

Broken bone in Pat's foot!

      Bill drove me to Athens (Texas) early this morning to see a foot specialist. This doctor did some gentle pushing and pulling on my toes, observing my reactions, took an x-ray and showed me the fracture line on one of the bones in the x-ray. Then he put me in a cast, which I'll have on for four weeks, after which he'll remove the original cast, take another x-ray and put on another cast for another four weeks, and during these eight weeks I'm to stay off my foot except for things I absolutely have to do.

      So, I've got to have over night help from 5:30 p.m. when the last of my kennel crew leaves till about four a.m. after Old Snowflake, Diabetic Julie and house dogs Toby and Blackie have had their early morning care. Kennel Team Member Tina has agreed to stay over Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights, Volunteer Shannon will stay with me Thursday and Friday nights (and will take care of Saturday Adoption Day at Canine Commissary), and Bill (who's here only on the weekends) will take the Saturday and Sunday night shifts. Wish us luck!

TUESDAY APRIL 23 2002

Everyone at Straydog is really helping out!

      For me, being unable to walk around because of the broken bone in my foot (and the cast on my foot) is terrible. But thanks to all of our wonderful employees, we're managing to get everything done.

      Tina is spending four nights on "night-shift dog duty" here, rooming with big, furry fellow, Danny Boy, the Retriever/Chow mix. Shannon will be spending two night-shift nights here too, and Bill takes the seventh night, Sunday.

      Danny Boy is letting the girls share his room with him and has offered to let them sleep in "his" big soft people bed during their different shifts. Shannon, who knows all the "ins and outs" of our shelter, volunteers her expertise all the time, and she shared the room with Danny before during a terrible thunderstorm. This afternoon as both Tina and Shannon helped out in the office, I overheard Shannon saying, "For your sake, Tina, I'm hoping it doesn't storm tonight. Danny won't let you get any sleep!" Danny is terrified of storms, which is why he's living in the front half of the trailer. (See the September 2000 editions of our Sunday Updates.)

Shannon does the Straydog shopping for me--again!

      Shannon was coming again today to help out with the mountain of office work, and she stopped first at Wal-Mart to do the weekly shopping for Straydog supplies, which included six doggie "swimming pools"--$7 each. This is the second week that Shannon has done the shopping for us, and it is such a tremendous help.

Spring cleaning begins at Straydog

      We're in the process of Spring Cleaning the dog shelters and dog houses now in preparation of the upcoming hot summer weather. The heavy protective dog doors will come off the fronts of the shelters, the hay will be removed from the dog houses, and the houses will be scrubbed all clean and shiny, and then the finishing touch will be to add a little doggie swimming pool to each kennel for doggie splashing around fun. This is a huge job, and a whole lotta work lies ahead for the kennel cleaning team members.

WEDNESDAY APRIL 24 2002

Everything went great on Tina's first night

      Employee Tina reported that she had a good night sharing a bedroom at the other end of the trailer with Retriever/Chow mix Danny. It was Tina's first night of many to come on night shift dog duty, having to get up in the middle of the night to take care of Snowflake, Julie and the others, if need be. Tina was up at 2:00 this morning, just in time to take care of Snowflake, Julie, Danny Boy, and then Toby and Blackie. (Question from Bill, the editor: How many times did Tina have to get up last night before two a.m.? I was on duty Monday night (Pat's first night in her cast), and I had to take Snowflake out twice, and had to stay awake for at least 20 minutes each time. Also let's point out that Tina will continue to work a full eight-hour day shift, but this is an emergency situation, and it was the quickest fix we could come up with.)

      I automatically woke up at 2:00 a.m. too, but when I heard the sounds of Tina taking dogs outside, bringing them back inside, and then little sounds of the dogs' breakfasts being prepared, I remembered that Tina was taking care of things, because I can't, and as I dozed back to sleep, I realized that this is the very first time I haven't had to get up early to take care of dogs for at least the last eight years. I "slept in" till six a.m.

Snowflake seems to be hurting in her back, and will go to see the doctor tomorrow

      Little old dog, Snowflake, as most all of you know, is about 14 years old, mostly deaf and blind, and has overcome many illnesses since she came to us in November of last year. One of her health problems is severe arthritis. She moves slowly but gets around just fine. Lately tho, she seems to be in pain when we try to pick her up to take her outside. We can tell she is hurting because she has begun to "snap" at us to tell us that she hurts when being lifted. This is something we need to have checked out as soon as possible, and I called our clinic today about it, and we'll be taking Snowflake early tomorrow morning to see the doctor.

      Guy will drive the van, and I'll go along too, crutches and all, because I want to be there for her examination.

      The update on Granny Snow will come tomorrow.

THURSDAY APRIL 25 2002

E-mail from Pat to Bill:

      Hi, Hope you're having a good day, on your 62nd birthday!

      First of all can you please put just a few pics of dogs on and please take ME (and my broken foot) off!

      2nd, Shannon is wondering if you could put near the top of our homepage (so folks see it first), "We will be able to take credit cards on our site in about a week; until then, please use PayPal.com, and thanks a lot for your help!"

The Update:

Snowflake saw the doctor today

      Guy drove the dog van and I held Snowflake in my lap on our way to the clinic. The vet saw us right away, and after carefully examining Snowflake he said the reason she is hurting is because of her severe arthritis. Home we came again with anti-inflammatory medicine for this little old pooch. The doctor also gave Snowflake an injection of anti-inflammatory medicine at the clinic and said she'd be feeling better very soon.

Spring Cleaning of the dog shelters continues. Doggies are having fun splashing around in their little pink "swimming pools." [I hope someone is taking photos. Ed.]

FRIDAY APRIL 26 2002

A cool, rainy day

      Because of the steady rain during the night, which continued on into this morning, Mike, The Mower Man, canceled mowing the kennel grounds today. It's much too wet, he said, so he'll plan on coming next Friday. The grass is growing fast, and we need to keep it mowed to keep the grass burrs under control--and short grass makes it much easier to find the dogs' poopers! We're hoping we have a nice sunny day tomorrow, for our Adoption Day.

SATURDAY APRIL 27 2002

Getting ready for Adoption Day

      The rain that was predicted for today hasn't shown up yet, and we're getting ready for Adoption Day at Canine Commissary.

      Since we are short on dog-sitting volunteers, we can take just three dogs today, Doberman, Dobie, Black Lab mix, Millie and Millie's remaining pup, fluffy, cute Black Lab Mix, Amber. It would be so wonderful if Millie and Dobie could find a family that would take them both because they have become such good buddies.

Update on recently adopted Kathy and Andy

      Their new mom called to say that even though she has gone through some "trying times" with these adorable pups during the past week (her first with them at her home), she loves them so much, and she is very happy she adopted them both!

SATURDAY EVENING UPDATE

No adoptions today

      And Millie got nervous every time someone started petting or handling her one remaining puppy, Amber.

      Next Saturday is National Pet Adoption Day, and we'll be taking two groups of dogs and will be both at Canine Commissary on Lower Greenville in Dallas and at PetCo in Mesquete, Texas.

2nd EDITION OF SATURDAY EVENING UPDATE

Andy and Kathy's new mom called

      It was sometime around 7:00 p.m. when Andy and Kathy's new mommy, Lauren, called to tell us that all was going along beautifully with her new little pups. Her update is that Andy is the mommy's boy and constantly wants Lauren to hold him and pet him (which she admitted she does), and Andy is completely housetrained now. When he wakes up in the morning he runs to the door to go outside to take care of business, and he can wait till his mom lets him out.

      Kathy is the inquisitive one and keeps herself busy investigating everything! She is doing really well with learning to wait till she is outside to go potty, but for Kathy, when she wakes up anytime, she has to go immediately and sometimes Lauren just can't get to the door fast enough. Kathy is learning tho, Lauren said, and along with a lot of love and patience it won't be long before she is housetrained too.

      Both pups are going through the puppy chewing-up-everything stage and Lauren is patiently dealing with this too, and told some really funny stories about the pups.

      She also mentioned that she changed Andy and Kathy's names to Jack and Maddie, and that both the pups were cuddled up right then, one on each side of her, as she sat on the couch talking with me. They love to be held and petted.

      What a wonderful mommy they have!