SUNDAY MAY 19 2002

A Friend of Straydog comes for a visit bearing gifts!

      SPECIAL THANKS to Ms. Gardner and Ms. Anderson and their kindergarten classes from Mitchell Elementary School for the many gifts given by the children to all the dogs and puppies here at our Happy Home for Strays.

      The idea of teaching these young children the importance of taking good care of all animals came from Nancy, who has been long-time contributor (along with her husband Steve) to our Happy Home for Strays.

      I'd never met them, but from our short notes to each other they've seemed like good friends. It was about a month ago when Nancy called asking if we could send her information about our shelter, and pictures of the dogs, and any other information for a school project to help their child (and other children in his kindergarten class) learn the importance of taking good care of animals and to learn about how our Happy Home for Strays takes care of many dogs and little puppies who do not have any other home.

      We thought this was a neat idea too, and we sent information, written so the young children could understand it. Volunteer Shannon put together a cute little story booklet with pictures of many of the dog here to show the children how the dogs are fed and played with and cared for and how we take them to the doctor when they are sick.

      Nancy called several weeks ago saying that she and her son had given the presentation to the two kindergarten classes, which was a big success. The kids loved hearing all about the puppies and dogs, and they wanted to help all the little animals too!

      Today Nancy came to visit our Happy Home for Strays, and she brought a car full of gifts (given by the little children) for all our furry friends--doggie toys, towels, blankets, treats, dog food and too much else to mention.

      Also, along with the many presents for the pups and dogs, was a computer, which was donated by Steve and Nancy. Wow, will this ever come in handy and so will the filing cabinet!

      Thanks to all of you little children for caring about the puppies and dogs at our Happy Home for Strays. All of your new furry friends thank you too!

      And thank you Ms. Gardner and Ms. Anderson, and Nancy and Steve!

MONDAY MAY 20 2002

4-week checkup of my broken foot

Time for the scheduled four-week checkup for the broken bone in my foot

      Employee Bobby had to drive me this morning to my appointment with the foot doctor in Athens, Texas, who was scheduled to remove the cast that has been on my foot for this whole month, take x-rays to see how the broken bone is healing and then put another cast on for possibly another four weeks.

Yikes! They're going to remove this cast with a SAW???!!!

      Geesh! When these doctors take a cast off a person's leg, they really should WARN the patient, preferably ahead of time, that the fast spinning "saw-type blade" is actually not a sharp blade at all, before they start "sawing!" But the nurse said nothing about it when she came in the room. I was reading an article in Woman's Day magazine (which I have time for only at the doctor's office) when she came in and walked over to an electrical socket and plugged in the little handheld saw. The loud buzzing and whirling of the small circular blade immediately caught my attention, and I became a little unnerved when the nurse headed straight toward my casted leg with the loud buzzing saw, and began "sawing!"

      "Hey, Wait a Minute!" I heard myself saying when she touched the speeding blade to the cast. "What's gonna happen if the blade touches my skin?!"

      She laughed and said that it really is not a sharp blade, but a rotating blade and added that nothing will happen if it should touch my leg when she "saws" through the cast. Well, she may not be worried, but it was my leg, and that blade looked mighty "real" to me, and even tho I tried to remain calm, every time she pushed the blade into the cast I about fainted, expecting to see my leg, from the knee down, drop to the floor any minute!

      About 10 minutes later the cast was sawed through on each side of my leg, and she pulled it off. Geesh! To go through any type of major surgery doesn't phase me one bit, but this removal of a cast about finished me off!

Good news and iffy news

      After the cast was removed, I had to walk (lopsided I felt like) to the x-ray room, and the doctor took x-rays of my foot. (It seemed to me that my right leg had shrunk about 2 inches shorter than it had been, and I was tilting to the right as I walked down the hallway).

      The doctor came back to the room a little while later and said that the good news is that the bone is beginning to heal--a little bit--, but then he added the iffy news: If the bone doesn't heal better by the time another four weeks goes by, I may have to wear a cast for eight or nine months!

      He added that had I been able to stay totally off my foot for these four to eight weeks, there most likely would have been no problem with the bone healing in that amount of time. (How does anyone stay totally off a broken foot, I felt like asking, especially when they have several "special needs" dogs who must receive almost constant attention, not to mention the other 60 plus dogs who need watching over too).

Perspective employee comes for interview

      Later this afternoon we had a person come for an interview to take the place of one of our employees who is on maternity leave. I shortened the interview somewhat (because of my foot), taking the person into just a few of the dogs' kennels (the "test" dogs) so she (the perspective employee) could meet them. These "test" dogs are the ones with the unusual personalities, and if a new employee can relate well with these dogs, and the dogs respond well to them, the
person is usually hired.

      Take Rottweiler, Trixie, for example. She acts so viciously aggressive when new people approach her kennel that most people don't even want to go near her, let alone to go in to see her. The people who aren't afraid of Trixie (and her wild behavior) and who do go in to visit with Trixie and her buddy, Champ, quickly see how sweet a dog Trixie really is. Her aggressive behavior turns immediately into the behavior of an affectionate, sweet, big "lap dog," who will sit with her paw on your shoulder and who likes to have her back scratched. We can't have people work here who are afraid of any of the dogs.

      And we have several skittish dogs: If these dogs go up to a new person, then we know the dogs like them. Next are the fearful fellas: We need to see how these dogs react to new people. Will the dogs back away, barking, or will they at least slowly come up and take a dog treat out of the interviewee's hand. The reaction of the fearful dogs is really important for possibly having that person work here.

      And, weird as it may sound, we need to see people's reaction to the jumpy dogs too. Some people do not take well to dogs jumping up on them, and our jumpy dogs do that because they are happy and excited to see their caregivers and especially new people. If a person shows that he "does not like" a dog because the dog jumps, then the person is not right for this job.

      There is a lot involved in finding the right people to work here at Straydog, and that's why we do the doggie interview.

TUESDAY MAY 21 2002

Another beautiful spring day at Straydog

      Dogs love this not-too-hot weather, and we are still in the process of spring cleaning all the kennels, which the dogs love to watch us do while they lie in the shade.

WEDNESDAY MAY 22 2002

EARLY MORNING UPDATE:

Julie (our diabetic dog) goes for monthly her eye checkup

      Guy is taking Julie to Arlington for her monthly eye checkup this morning. They'll be leaving at 6:30. I'll pack Julie's meal and insulin and send it along with Guy in an ice chest just in case they are still on the road (coming home) at 11:00 a.m., the scheduled time for Julie's meal and insulin injection. Whenever this happens (when we are not back at the shelter by 11:00, which occasional does occur on these trips to Julie's doctor), we pull into a gas station and feed Julie in the van and give her her insulin shot. This keeps Julie on schedule.

LATE MORNING UPDATE:

Julie's eye checkup okay

      By 10:30 a.m. Guy and Julie were back "home" again. The report from the doctor is that Julie's eyes are fine, everything is perfect, and she doesn't need to go back for another eye checkup for another four months. This is great news! We are to continue the daily eye drops (four times a day) until the doctor sees Julie again.

Employee goes home sick

      Brooke came in this morning but left right away sick. The flu that her mom had has Brooke sick now, so we are again shorthanded, which means I'll be hobbling around on my crutches even more than usual.

AFTERNOON UPDATE:

Another interview to fill employee Shannon's position

      I just interviewed another young woman, Beth, to fill the position of the Shannon, who's on maternity leave, and Beth seems like she will be a big asset to our Happy Home for Strays. All of the "test" dogs liked Beth a lot: The fearful dogs took a cookie from her hand; the jumpy dogs Beth handled beautifully; the skittish fellas were calmer than normal; and Rottweiler, Trixie, who acts like she would chomp on strangers when they pass by her kennel, didn't scare Beth one bit. All the aggressive barking from Trixie as we approached her kennel turned into slurpy doggie kisses and lap sitting as soon as we went in to visit with Trixie and her companion, Champ. Trixie acts like a big, lovable, puppy-dog when nice people go in to see her.

      Beth passed the doggie interview with flying colors, and she wanted to stay the rest of the afternoon to make the rounds with caregiver, Tina, to see what all is involved with the caregiving in the afternoon.

Recently adopted puppies are fine!

      We've heard from the mom and dad of the recently adopted puppies, tiny Buttons and little Sabrina (who were adopted together on May 12). Buttons had a tummy upset a few days ago, the dad said, but she is fine now, and the proud "parents" are very happy with their little pups.

      All is well.

THURSDAY MAY 23 2002

Shorthanded once again!

      Last night at 10 p.m. (Kennel Manager) Randy's wife called saying Randy was sick with flu and wouldn't be in today. I immediately paged Tina, who said she couldn't make it in early to cover for Randy due to her car being in the shop, so I paged (Assistant Kennel Manager) Guy, and when he didn't call back within 20 minutes, there was no one else to call but Volunteer Shannon. (Bill is working his third week in a row in Houston on his regular job, which pays all our personal expenses.) Luckily Shannon answered the phone and pleasantly said she would be here at 3:00 a.m. to cover for Randy as early morning feeder, which job includes preparing 65 breakfast bowls and feeding 65 dogs. Then Guy called me a few minutes later and said he would be here at three to cover for Randy, so I called Shannon back and told her Guy would be here and that she could stay home, and I thanked her very much for offering to come in.

      Snowflake slept through the night (for the first time in a long time), which was nice, except that I was up from 10 p.m. until past midnight worrying about how I'd feed all the dogs if no one showed up! Geesh!!!!

      Then at 3:00 this morning the phone rang, and it was Volunteer Shannon. She said she was here, calling me from her car parked out front, advising me that she had come in just in case Guy did not make it. How nice is this, getting up really early and driving 45 minutes to be here by three a.m., just in case the covering person couldn't make it either. This was really, really nice and considerate of Shannon! Then Shannon said that Guy and Duane had just arrived, so she was going to go back home and back to bed.

      All is okay now. The above report shows why we must continue to raise enough money to continue to pay enough employees to maintain coverage when one or more of them can't make it to work. There is no way I can go out to feed 65 dogs with this broken foot--tho I would have done it somehow. At meal time these wonderful animals, who love and trust us humans unconditionally, don't understand why some us us have broken bones and why some of us can't make it in to work.

FRIDAY MAY 24 2002

      Mowing day lived up to its reputation as a BIG hassle.

SATURDAY MAY 25 2002

No puppies adopted

      Today we were short several doggie sitting volunteers so we were able to
take only Black Lab pups, Amber and Kathy to our adoption day, and
eventho many people stopped to look at these cute, four-month-old pups,
there were no adoptions.

      Maybe next week . . .