Straydog, our Happy Home for Strays
(The hexagon is the "Big Play Yard," which we usually refer to as "the park")
Straydog is a "lifeboat" for rescued dogs. A vacant spot in a kennel is an empty seat in our "lifeboat," so please, if you're interested in adopting a dog, see our "Dogs for Adoption" links below, or call to inquire about dogs you may have seen recent photos of but who may not yet be included in our "Dogs for Adoption" links. And please continue to support us. We will continue to row this "lifeboat" to shore, dropping off rescued dogs into the arms of good adopters, and we will continue to fill the space left vacant by each adopted dog with another desperate homeless dog for as long as we can hold on (financially). We believe that our example (and the example of all other no-kill shelters) must be publicized in order to wake people up and make them aware of the necessity to SPAY and NEUTER their pets so that homeless dog-rescue "lifeboats" will no longer be necessary. (Ditto for cats!)
If you would like to help with our ever-growing vet bill, donations can be sent directly to:
Pat Arnold's Daily Dog Log
SUNDAY MARCH 9 2003
The rescue mission to catch/rescue the remaining two Tenison Golf Course Stray Dogs was planned late yesterday for early this morning
We don't give up easily, and the plans were made with Pam Mitchell and two Straydog employees (again volunteering their time) plus a couple of our regular volunteers, to try our luck, once again, attempting to rescue the father dog and Jesse's sibling, early this morning.
"We're going for two dogs and we're coming back with two dogs!"
These were the positive words Guy said to me as he and employee, Tina, got into the dog van to leave on their rescue mission before dawn this morning. It was 4:15 a.m., and Tina had just arrived to join Guy for the hour-and-a-quarter drive to Dallas to try to catch the two remaining dogs once again. The rescue team had to get an early start hopefully to rescue the two dogs and get out of there before the golfers began arriving.
Guy and Tina both had the day off, but these two dedicated employees willingly gave up their day to try and help rescue the father dog and Jesse's sibling, who have evaded "capture" many times already and still roamed the golf course. Two very dedicated volunteers of Straydog, Susan Devers and Billy Lawson, also volunteered to go and help Pam Mitchell, the leader of the rescue team, who would be meeting the group at 5:45 this morning. All of us were praying the two dogs would be caught as soon as possible today!
Pam calls to say she thought the father dog was at the barn at the golf course
At 4:15 a.m. Guy and Tina left Straydog. At 5:30 Pam called from the golf course saying that it looked like the father dog was lying down at the barn beside the live bait trap and that it should be very easy to catch him! She wondered how much longer it would take Guy and Tina to arrive. I called Guy on the cell phone and he said that they were pulling into the golf course at that very moment and volunteers Susan and Billy were right behind them! Yea! The entire A-Team had arrived!
One dog is caught--but it isn't the right dog!
At 6:00 a.m.Tina called to say that a dog had been caught! It just wasn't the right dog. When the group got to the barn expecting to see the father dog, they discovered that it wasn't the father dog by the barn but instead a large pup, and by the time the group got to the barn, the starving pup had gone inside the live bait trap after the food, and was caught! There was also another dog beside the caged pup, who began to bark a warning for the group to stay away from the pup. Most likely this was the mother dog. When any of the rescue group walked toward the mother to try and rescue her as well, she would back away, continuing her warning barking at them.
So now a starving pup had been rescued, but it wasn't one of the dogs we were after!
So, what do we do with this pup?
Everyone knew the answer to the question already, which was that this starving stray pup needed help too, so the pup would come to our shelter and if the father and sibling were found they also would be brought here. Most likely because of their injuries they'll need to be boarded a few days so this fella can use their kennel while we come up with another plan for the other two. (We'll figure something out.)
Guy said that the caged pup's mother, who had moved a short distance away from her pup, was howling in distress because her child had been captured. They tried to coax the mother dog to come to them, but she stayed a "safe" distance away so the rescue group decided to move on to try and find the two dogs they had originally come for, assuming this "uncatchable" dog would still be there near her caged daughter when the rescue team came back.
Guy reported they finally caught a glimpse of the father and Jesse's sibling, but as soon as the dogs spotted the rescue group again, they immediately disappeared and even though our rescue group searched for several more hours, the dogs were no where to be found.
Back to the rescue of the mother dog
When Pam, Guy, Billy, Susan and Tina went back to the caged pup, the mother was still at the pup's side and again barked at the people trying to help her. Guy said she looked terribly thin and tired and that every bone in her body could be seen. The group knew they had to rescue this dog too. Pam said that she had seen these two dogs at the golf course before and she knew that they were long-time strays, but that they came around only occasionally.
The mother of the pup is rescued next
Tina, Susan and Billy slowly walked up to the mother dog offering her food, which the famished dog could no longer resist. When the dog reached for the food that was held out to her, Tina slipped the cloth leash around the mother's neck, and and she was caught/rescued.
In one sense the rescue mission is a success: Two dogs are rescued--just not the ones the rescue team went for
Tina said that neither the mother nor the pup resisted being carried to the van. It was almost as if they were so grateful to be helped that they willingly let their saviors carry them. Tina said the big skinny pup she was carrying snuggled up in her arms and nestled her head on Tina's shoulder.
The pups are safe at our clinic now
Guy and Tina drove the dogs from Dallas right to our clinic in Athens--an 85-mile trip, and I called Dr. Morton at his home to tell him the two dogs (even though not the ones we expected) were on their way. Dr. Morton said he or his wife would go right down to the clinic and open it up to receive the two new arrivals and that he would either examine them later this afternoon or tomorrow morning. The mother and daughter are safe now, and I'll be at the clinic tomorrow morning to check on them and get some photos.
These are two more dogs who have been rescued (and who will be immediately spayed) out of the thousands and thousands of homeless dogs and puppies still struggling to survive. How simple it would be to avoid the tragedy of homeless animals by somehow educating people to spay and neuter their pets.
A Note from Bill ...
And just think of the added expenses we're incurring by taking in these two unexpected new arrivals we just couldn't turn our backs on! (Also spaying these two females will quite literally stop thousands more of their possible descendants from ever being conceived and born.) But we've already got so many rescued dogs crammed into this "lifeboat" that the "water is up to the gunwales"! We've got to get more funding somehow. We're already working on our next newsletter, and we're using our personal credit cards to bridge the shortfall. It's too bad the Internet is still inaccessible to more than 85% of the contributors on our mailing list of 1700. As you can see from the "HIT COUNTER" below, only about 200 people hit this site every day, leaving 1500 contributors knowing nothing about what's going on here since our last mailing in early January. (If it weren't for the postage expense, we'd mail out an update at least once a month.) We're sure there are many, many more people out there who would feel the same way our regular contributors feel about Straydog and our methods of rescuing, rehabilitating and adopting out formerly homeless dogs, but how do we reach them?
*Pat Arnold's Daily Dog Log
LAST WEEK:
*Photo Pages and Videos
LAST WEEK:
(1) Jesse continues to keep his distance from Pat
(3) Sick Mama Dog Laura is examined Monday.
(4) Steve and Carol Reeder bring us two homeless pups they found in the road
(5) Mama Dog Laura comes from the clinic to our shelter
(6) Mama Dog Laura inspects her new kennel and lets Pat pet her
(7) Mama Dog Laura continues to let Pat pet her as she looks around
(8) Mama Dog Laura finally reunites with her son, Jesse-Bear
MPEG Video: Jesse-Bear reunites with his mother, Mama Dog Laura
(9) Terry, Tina and Corky arrive and meet each other in the puppy kennel
(10) The three new pups arrive and meet each other, continued
WEEK BEFORE LAST:
(1) Blind Puppy Chubs and Sister Cassie play in the snow and ice
(2) Blind Puppy Chubs and Sister Cassie play in the snow, continued
(3) Betsy goes to the vet for a check up of her broken leg
(4) Ice and Snow Photos from Tuesday, February 25th
(5) More Ice and Snow Photos from 2-25-03
(6) More Ice and Snow Photos from 2-25-03
(7) More Ice and Snow Photos from 2-25-03
(8) Ice and Snow hangs on thru Wednesday 2-26-03
*MPEG Video: Mandy and Bear run in the iced-over park
*MPEG Video: Rhonda drains water hoses before freezing nights
(9) We look at Jesse-Bear's x-rays and go to his clinic kennel
(10) Pat picks up Jesse-Bear's in his clinic kennel
(11) Jesse-Bear receives tick killing medicine from Dr. Morton
(12) Jesse-Bear comes "home" to Straydog
(13) Rhonda drains hoses + Misty & Fritz in the park
(14) Justin is adopted by Chaz and Shari Miller (2/26/03)
(15) On Jesse's 2nd day at Straydog he lets Pat pet him in his kennel (2/27/03)
*Adoption Day Saturday, March 15 - Canine Commissary on Lower Greenville Avenue in Dallas
*Our Dogs for Adoption - Volunteer Shannon's page
*Our Mission & How We Got Started
*"Goodbye, Danny Boy." - An example of the only acceptable use of euthanasia
*Click here for continuation of our homepage