SUNDAY APRIL 28 2002

Whole lotta dog-brushing going on

      Randy is walking the dogs this morning and although his dog-walking time is limited to about 15 minutes in the park with each set of dogs, he is trying to give at least the long-haired dogs a very thorough brushing.

      So far the dog-brushing report is that Molly and Max, who both have long thick fur, have been brushed.

      Eight-year-old, Molly, has beautiful thick white fur. She may be part Great Pyrenees/Retriever mix, and she usually doesn't mind being brushed. When she begins to move her tail around in circles tho, it is time to stop!

      Randy said that it cost him three big "cookies" to be able to brush the hind-quarters of Chow mix, Max, but now his beautiful, long silky golden fur is mat free.

      Randy and Tina are "working" on Teddy Bear now. Teddy does not like to have his rump brushed and in the summer, especially, his thick fur mats really easily. To get this big fellow brushed may cost Randy a lot more than three doggie treats!

SNOWFLAKE IS DOING MUCH BETTER!!!

      This little old dog has overcome so many serious health problems it is truly amazing! Her recent sickness had us all concerned about her health, but we managed to pull her through, once again, and she is on the road to recovery and is feeling better each day. What a relief!

MONDAY APRIL 29 2002

We're already working on our next newsletter

      If you are not on our mailing list, and would like to receive our newsletters, which tell about the daily happenings with the dogs at our Happy Home for Strays, please email us your address and we will be happy to add your name to our mailing list.

      THANK YOU to those who have sent in donations to help us through this financially difficult time for our shelter, we thank you very, very much. Trying to raise funds to keep our shelter going is a never ending campaign.

TUESDAY APRIL 30 2002

Pat's response to an email to Straydog asking why Snowflake's picture and bio aren't on Shannon's "Dog's for Adoption" page:

Hi,

Snowflake is available for adoption, and I guess we could put her on our adoption page too. However, Snowflake is an extremely "special needs" dog. If we could find the loving person or family to give Snow the special care that she needs, to do exactly as we do, which is what is essential to keep her healthy, we would be happy to have Snow be adopted by a wonderful family. Unfortunately most people would never go through the "work" involved in caring for Snowflake:

When our vet sent Snowflake home to die last December (after she had been at our clinic on IV feedings for 7 days), our vet giving Snow two to three weeks to live due to chronic kidney failure, we immediately got in touch with a veterinarian in New York, who practices alternative medicine. Snow is alive and well now (4 months later) because of the special care suggested by this wonderful vet. We felt this little old dog still had some more years left to live a good, happy life.

Snowflake, you probably know, is about 14 years old and is mostly deaf and blind and has severe arthritis. She has been treated for heartworm disease, then developed chronic kidney problems, which is what our vet predicted she'd die from. Her severe arthritis causes her a few problems occasionally but no more than someone's nice little old grandma or grandpa.

Snowflake is healthy and happy now, and she requires a tremendous amount of care, 24 hours a day, to keep her healthy and happy. She is on a home-cooked diet and is given many nutritious supplements several times a day, which we have to order. I cook special foods for Snowflake every day, she has had expensive blood tests to get to the root of her problems, and she continues to need blood tests periodically, so her vet bill both at our vet and the doctor in New York, have been high, and they will occasionally continue to be will be high.

She needs to be taken outside about every two hours throughout the day to go potty, and often during the night, so someone needs to be patient and understanding enough to be willing to take her out and care for her.

Snow stays in the house most of the time, because she is fearful of being outside alone, most likely because she cannot hear or see well. When Snow goes outside (which she loves), someone has to stay with her the entire time, and then she enjoys walking around and sitting in the shade enjoying herself--as long as someone is with her.

Our seven full time employees, on their different shifts, help out all the time with "Little Miss Snow," as they call her, and Brooke was hired just to tend to Snowflake during the long afternoon hours because Snowflake needs so much care.

We'd love more than anything to have Snowflake be adopted by a wonderful person (or family) who would be willing to take care of Snow exactly as we do. They'd just have to be willing to cook for her, put up with her expensive medical bills when they pop up, continue with the special supplements and get no sleep at night due to having to take her outside so often.

I hope I didn't bore you with the details of caring for Little Miss Snow, but this is exactly what it takes to keep this little old dog healthy and happy. We'd love more than anything for a wonderful, caring person or family to adopt her.

I guess I should put this note on our website to let everyone know she is available for adoption, and that this is the kind of care she needs. Who Knows? ... There may be a very special person willing to do this. ... We never thought Blind Dog Stevie and his seeing-eye buddy, Little Pete, would ever be adopted, but they were, and they're living happily ever after.

We believe that all dogs (and cats) deserve to live out a full, healthy, happy life.

Thanks for your interest in Snow.

Pat

WEDNESDAY MAY 1 2002

Misty and Ginger go to the vets

      Since I'm unable to drive for the next seven weeks (due to the cast on my foot), Guy is the designated driver to take the dogs to and from the vet clinic for vaccinations, etc. This morning Misty needed to go again for her allergy injection and Ginger for her teeth cleaning, and Guy left with the two dogs a little after 7:30 to be at the clinic by 8:00 a.m.

ATTENTION EVERYONE: Rodesian Ridgeback dog desperately needs a home

      I received a phone call from a technician at a vet clinic in Denton, Texas who had heard about our no-kill shelter, and she was hoping we could take in this dog who desperately needs a home.

The story:

      The vet tech said a couple had brought in a big, male, year-old Rodesian Ridgeback named Bear, who weighs about 100 pounds to have the dog put down. They did not want to do this, tho, and they told the vet tech the dog's history: The couple, who have several young children, had rescued the dog from their neighbor, a man who had severely abused the dog for the entire first year of this poor fellow's life. The family has had the dog for a while now, and the dog attached himself immediately to the family and gets along beautifully with the children, and the parents--especially the mother. The dog is quite leery of men because of the man who had previously owned.

      The reason the couple feel they can no longer keep Bear is that he has become extremely protective of the family and of his territory, and he growls aggressively now when anyone approaches the family's fenced yard. The parents are very concerned about how Bear would react if someone should walk into their yard, unannounced, or if another child should come over to play with their kids and should walk into the house unexpectedly.

      [This situation sounds like what we've encountered with Trixie, one of the rescued dogs here, a German Rottweiler. She is also extremely protective of her territory--her
kennel--, and she acts as if she will viciously attack anyone who gets near her
kennel. BUT when we take new folks into her kennel to see her, she is a LAP DOG! When we take her outside of her kennel, such as to the vets, she is as sweet as a puppy. We do agree, however, that caution should be taken with dogs with this type of disposition.]

      The vet tech asked the couple if they thought they might be able to take care of Bear just a little longer while she tries to find the dog a good home, which the couple reluctantly agreed to do, but only for a few days. The tech told me she has tried every rescue group she knows and no one will take the dog in. They all suggest the dog be put down because of his past history of abuse and now extreme protectiveness of the family. The family sees this as a very volatile situation.

      [We have had several men-aggressive dogs at our Happy Home (Abby, Bishop, Angie and Trixie) and we have won everyone of them over, all of them soon loved men as well as women. Abby, Bishop and Angie have been adopted by wonderful families.]

      IF WE HAD ENOUGH MONEY, we could take this dog, but we simply don't.

      We struggle constantly to raise the funds to keep our shelter going, and because it is so difficult to raise the money needed we sadly find that we just cannot take in the many, abused dogs and pups that we hear about almost daily.

BEAR'S time on this earth appears very short. Can you please help him?

      Bear was born a happy little puppy. He did not asked to be abused and now wind up in this predicament.

THURSDAY MAY 2 2002

Donations come in to help the Rhodesian Ridgeback!

      "Bear" is the large, male Rhodesian Ridgeback dog in desperate need of a home, whom we wrote about last night. He is the fellow who was scheduled to be euthanized this morning. (See my Wednesday entry above.)

      Early this morning we received phone calls from two people who contribute to our shelter. They'd read Bear's story (in yesterday's update on our website), and now they both wanted to make donations dedicated to enable us to take in, or to help care for this dog. The thought of him being put to sleep was horrifying to them, just as it is to us. I thought that if the clinic in Denton knew we'd be sending them these donations for Bear, they might board him for a period of time.

      I hurriedly called the vet tech in Denton to talk with the technician who had called our shelter to see if we could take Bear when the couple brought him in to be euthanized: [repeated stuff follows] The vet tech is the one who had told me that all the shelters she had contacted about the dog said that they would immediately put him down because of his past history of being abused for the entire first year of his young life, and also because of his extreme protectiveness of his temporary family. They All said Bear is a liability. So, the vet tech had talked the family into keeping Bear just a few days more so we could all try and find him a home. ]

      This was to be Bear's last morning on this earth, and had a temporary new solution to care for Bear not come about, Straydog would have stepped in to save his life. Randy had already begun working on an old unused kennel to secure it for him.

Yea! The clinic in Denton will board Bear!

      I told the vet tech about the $400.00 in donations that would be sent to them to help with the boarding costs if they could just please board Bear for a while. The vet tech put me on hold for a few minutes while she talked with the doctor, then came back on the line to tell me that yes, they would help us and that the donations would enable them to board Bear for quite a while, and they would also go ahead and neuter the fellow, give all necessary vaccinations and the heartworm test, etc., for a very low fee. They were absolutely amazed that Straydog would go to all this trouble to try and save Bear's life.

      Another contributor emailed later in the day giving us the number of a Rhodesian Ridgeback Independent Rescue that may be able to help us with Bear too. I've already contacted them, leaving a message, and I hope they will get back to me soon.

We will continue working on the kennel here for Bear

      In case all else fails, we will bring Bear (really Bear II as we've already got one "Bear") to our Happy Home for Strays. We won't let this precious dog be put to death because he suffered a life of abuse at the hands of a man.

      This dog deserves the right to a happy life just as much as every other dog.

Prince and Bailey dig out!

      Just as I heard the outbreak of barking from all of the dogs, Bobby announced over the walkie-talkie; "Hey Pat, Prince and Bailey dug out and are running around outside of their Kennel!" I grabbed my crutches, and as I hurriedly hobbled to the door, to try and get outside to help catch these fellows, I radioed back for everyone to get a leash, someone open the play yard gate and hopefully the dogs will run into the play yard, and what ever you do, do not run after the dogs! Running will just cause much more of a commotion.

Bobby catches the dogs, then fills the huge hole

      Prince and Bailey are notorious for digging out. They have done it many times before. If they smell a gopher anywhere near the outside of their kennel, they will dig with gusto trying to get to the critter, and we have put huge concrete blocks all along the inside of the kennel to keep them from digging out. We thought we had the problem solved, but obviously we missed this one spot.

      When Bobby called to Prince and Bailey, who were happily running all around the outside of their kennel trying to track down the gopher, the dogs ran to him and he caught them and slipped the leashes around their necks. Shannon took the dogs to the play yard while Bobby filled the huge hole, then back in the fellows went. Prince went right over to the freshly filled area, which was now covered by two big concrete blocks, and he lay down on them to guard his covered hole. Hopefully this will solve the problem for good!

EVENING UPDATE:

      A person from Texas Independent Rhodesian Ridgeback returns my call about Bear (#2) needing a home. (We already have one dog named Bear staying here at Straydog.)

      I was really surprised tonight when the gentleman from this rescue group returned my call about Bear, the big male Rhodesian Ridgeback who is in desperate need of a safe haven. I had called him yesterday to see if he could possibly help us find Bear a wonderful home.

      The person from this rescue group sounded very nice and was interested in helping Bear. The man has rescued many Rhodesian Ridgebacks over the years and has found good homes for the dogs he has given foster care to. He also has quite a large family of Rhodesian Ridgeback fellas that are very pampered house pets. He will go tomorrow to see Bear at the clinic in Denton and will be back in touch with us.

      If, for some reason, this person from the rescue group cannot find a good secure home for Bear, we will make room for him here, at our Happy
Home for Strays. We will not let this dog be euthanized.

FRIDAY MAY 3 2002

Angry Neighbor strikes again!

      In the early morning darkness (about five a.m.) we heard two horrendously loud booms--one right after the other--, and I knew it was Angry Neighbor shooting at dogs, so I radioed to Randy to hurry and go look to see if he could find any wounded dogs, but Randy was already headed toward Angry Neighbor's house.

      A few minutes later Angry Neighbor called to say "Did we want to come get this chicken-killing dog or did we want him to shoot it?!" I told him Randy would be right there. To our amazement it wasn't a dog had captured; it was a small, very frightened, ten-week-old puppy! Angry Neighbor said he had shot at two adult dogs who had been with the pup, but the two adult dogs had run off, and Angry Neighbor didn't know if he'd hit them or not (the creep), so after bringing the pup here in a crate in the van, everyone went out looking for the two big dogs. The crew spent about 45 minutes searching the woods but couldn't find any dogs. Shannon drove up and down our road too, searching for any signs of the dogs, but they were nowhere in sight. Hopefully the sounds of the gunfire scared the dogs away, unharmed.

      More later. We're in the middle of a bad thunder storm, and lightning has already knocked down the computer once causing me to loose a big update.

New Little Puppy Sabrina "Little One" has her little puppy check up

      By 7:30 a.m. Guy and Shannon were ready for the trip to the vet clinic with the new little puppy and the other fellas who were scheduled to go for their vaccinations--Penny, Puppy Dog Amber--, and Dobie was going for a checkup.

      The doctor gave Sabrina a fairly good report, except for being infested with hookworms and huge fleas, for which she was treated, and she received her first puppy vaccinations. Good nourishing food will help this bedraggled little pup, along with lots of tender loving care.

      Sabrina is about 10 weeks old and may be part Retriever/Lab mix. Once she has a nice bath, her buff colored fluffy fur will look much better.

      By the time they arrived at the clinic Shannon had named the puppy, Sabrina and by the time she arrived home, her name was officially Sabrina "Little One" (the name "Little One" was the suggestion of Randy). Her rough appearance leads us to believe that the pup had not been well cared for and most likely the so called "owners" dumped the pup at the bottom of our hill, assuming we'd find the frightened abandoned puppy and take her in. (As we've said before, dropping dogs off in our area is not a good idea since Angry Neighbor is poised like a sniper just waiting to pick off anything the he perceives to be a threat to his chickens. Sabrina, on the other hand, is so small that a chicken would probably be able to ward off any attacks from this tiny pooch.)

      Luckily our little puppy kennel was vacant and ready for any new little puppy arrival, so Sabrina was able to move right in. Randy put fresh hay in the dog house and a bunch of puppy toys were in the kennel waiting for her. What a cutie she is.

Now to back to the Escape of 1:00 this morning: Prince and Bailey dug out again!

      At 1:00 a.m. Volunteer Shannon (who helps out with the "special care" dogs, diabetic Julie and little old granny dog Snowflake, staying over on Thursday and Friday nights) rushed into the kitchen asking in a hurried voice, "Pat, where's the spot light? There is a dog loose!"

      What had happened is that when Shannon took Snowflake outside to the park to go potty when Snowflake started fussing in the middle of the night, just as Shannon leaned over to set Snow down she felt a big dog "pounce" on her back, which scared Shannon half to death, she said! It was Bailey (and Prince was with Bailey--they had dug out of their kennel again and were coming to the park to play with Shannon. Geesh.

      Shannon quickly brought Snow back to the house, secured playful Bailey and Prince in the park and then went to fill the big escape hole they had dug.

      It's Always Something!

SATURDAY MAY 4 2002

Getting ready for National Pet Adoption Day!

      We'll be at two pet supply stores today, for our adoption day, at our usual Canine Commissary location on Lower Greenville in Dallas and at PetCo in Mesquite.

      At Canine Commissary we'll be taking Malamute Mandy, Newfoundland mix Bear (not the Rhodesian Ridgeback whose name is also Bear) and Black Lab Puppy Amber.

      At PetCo we'll have Dobie and Millie.

The update on Rhodesian Ridgeback, Bear (#2)

      All is looking very promising for this fellow now! The man from the rescue group went to visit with Bear at the clinic and said that he is just about positive that he will be able to find Bear a great home. This man is as thorough when placing dogs as we are when we place dogs. He also makes background checks and home checks before adopting out his dogs.

      Also the vet tech at the clinic in Denton has fallen in love with Bear too. She is thinking she may want to adopt the fellow.

We've had many inquiries about Bear since we told his story

      So to put all of your minds at ease, please, don't worry. Straydog will not let Bear be euthanized. We will take him in if he should not find a home with either of these two wonderful people, and right now he is receiving the very best of care.

New arrival, Little Pup Sabrina, nicknamed "Little One," is doing well

      It's too bad we can't take this "Little One" to our adoption day. She is so adorable she would be instantly adopted, but we don't want any of the dogs or pups at our shelter to go for adoption until we know they are healthy. All new arrivals go through a two-week quarantine period when they arrive here so that we can watch them closely for any health problems that might arise, especially the puppies.

      We'll put Sabrina's picture on this website and if folks want to come here to see her, this would be fine.

Straydog's National Pet Adoption Day Results:

We took five dogs to hopefully be adopted and came home with six!! No dogs or pups were adopted today! Is this unbelievable or what?! And Puppy Kathy is returned to Straydog!

      Cute, fluffy, Black Lab mix Puppy Kathy, who was adopted with her little brother, Andy, two weeks ago was returned to us today. The woman is keeping Andy. We are sorry it didn't work out for the two pups to remain together, and we are hoping that sweet little Kathy will soon find a wonderful family to adopt her.

      Tomorrow, Sunday, will be another Adoption Day for us at Canine Commissary, and if we have enough volunteers, we may go to PetCo again too. Little pups Kathy and Amber (the two sisters who don't get along at all together) will be going as well as some of the bigger fellas.

      Little new arrival, Sabrina, will be able to go in a few weeks.