Straydog UPDATE posted SUNDAY 2/23/03 at ~9:47 p.m. CT
Pat Arnold's Daily Dog Log
SUNDAY FEBRUARY 23 2003
Final plans have been made to take Justin for his home visit this Wednesday
Justin's new mom and dad are so excited about having seven-month-old Puppy Justin join their family that they were hoping we could make the home visit this Wednesday with Justin (since we were too short-handed to make the home visit Saturday as originally planned along with Adoption Day).
So, the plans are that we will be taking Justin to his tentative new home this Wednesday morning, and if all goes well with their five-year-old dog (and their cat), Justin will be officially adopted by his new mom and dad! We're just as excited about this adoption as Justin's new parents are, because we know what a wonderful life Justin will have with Shari and her husband, Chaz. Shari has helped us on several of our Adoption Days, and it was during a recent Adoption Day that she and Chaz fell in love with this adorable little fellow.
Traffic Jam at the big play yard!
Sometimes it just simply happens that one or another of us gets a little bit behind in our dog care duties, and even being just five minutes behind can cause little bits of problems further on down the line during the day. Such was the case this afternoon, when there was a "Traffic Jam" going to the big play yard. (It was more like airplanes being stacked up waiting to land at an airport rather than an automobile traffic jam.)
I had been working on the computer when I heard a "scuffle" sound coming from Betsy's kennel just several feet away from me in the kitchen, and I looked over and saw her standing, which meant she wanted to go outside to go potty. (Betsy is in one of our kitchen recovery kennels recovering from a broken leg.) It's been difficult for her to go outside because it hurts her when she initially stands up, and she doesn't like walking down the ramp, so to have her stand in her kennel ready "to go" meant I needed to take her right away.
I made sure Toby and Blackie were both in the bedroom, out of way of getting Betsy from her kennel to the kitchen door, and out she and I went on our way to the play yard and into the "Traffic Jam!" As soon I neared the park with Betsy, heading toward the side play yard gate, I saw Caregiver Danielle rounding the other corner of our trailer house walking Frosty to the front entrance gate of the park, and then we both suddenly saw that Caregiver Joel was already in the park with Snowflake. At the same moment Caregiver Michael was entering Davey and Heather's kennel across the park at the west kennels to leash them up to take them for their afternoon turn in the park too. Whoa!
Betsy has the "right of way"
Since Betsy has the most difficulty getting around and is taken outside only when she lets us know she has to go, she has priority over all other special-needs dogs. This was the first time we ever had five of us with dogs attempting to use the park all at the very same time (due to some of us getting behind in our schedule, which sometimes happens around here, usually for good reasons). But these problems are pretty easily solved: I had Danielle walk Frosty back to her kennel to give her some quality fur-brushing time while waiting for her turn; Michael moved on to visit with another pair of dogs until the park was freed up for him to take Davey and Heather; Joel picked up granny Snowflake and carried her outside the park to walk around just outside the park while waiting to take Snow back in again, and Betsy and I went to the park so she could take care of business.
Then all the caregivers juggled their doggie duties around and finally things were running on time again, and all the dogs who had had to wait for Betsy got their turn to play in the park too.
Old Sassy Katie has a grand time running and playing with Caregiver Joel
Katie must be 12+ years old now, and she is a "single" dog in her kennel by her choice (just one of the reasons she got the nickname "sassy"), so she gets many outings to the play yard to make up for not having a kennel companion to play with. Katie has arthritis, minor heart problems, a few other health problems, and is totally deaf, but this precious dog absolutely loves going to the park to run, sniff and play, and this keeps her very active, healthy and extremely happy!
Today when Joel took her to the park for her forth visit of the day, Katie was in a very playful mood, and she had a great time running all over the big play yard chasing Joel, and the next thing you'd see would be Joel running after Katie. She had a great time!