Straydog UPDATE posted WEDNESDAY 3/12/03 at ~10:17 p.m. CT

Pat Arnold's Daily Dog Log

WEDNESDAY MARCH 12 2003

No further news of rescues of Papa Dog and Jesse-Bear's sibling at this time

      Many people continue to ask how the rescue missions are going for the father dog and Jesse's sibling at Tenison Golf Course. As far as we know, neither the father nor Jesse's sibling has been rescued.

      Straydog hasn't given up; we've just been unable to plan another rescue mission for this week due to the tremendous obligations keeping us all busy at our shelter, which also include caring for the mother dog, Laura, her son, Jesse-Bear, and the two new arrivals, Allie and Sally, rescued from Tenison Golf Course this past Sunday. Allie and Sally have now been spayed and are vaccinated and are here at our Happy Home for Strays.

      Pam and others are still trying to rescue the two dogs still on the loose, and we are all very concerned about the welfare of the father and sibling because of their injuries. We hope to help out on another rescue mission very soon if the other rescue groups, including Dallas Animal Control, don't have any success.

Old Davey isn't doing very well these days

      As you know, big white German Shepherd, Old Davey, has colon cancer, and the doctors say that he cannot be cured. We always have the doctors try everything they can possibly do to save terminally ill dogs and puppies, and through special diet and medications Davey has been getting along okay for a few weeks now. His terrible bloody diarrhea problem  has cleared up, which is a big improvement in his health, and even tho  he has had a great appetite, and we feed him all that he wants of his special food three times a day, Davey has lost a tremendous amount of weight. Still, he appears most of the time to be happy and is playful at times. He barks in excitement when he knows it's his turn to go and play in the big play yard, and he gets lots of extra turns in the play yard because he is ill. Outings in the play yard bring much joy to Old Davey's life.

Living with the terminally ill dogs and pups is a very hard thing to do

      We love all the dogs at our shelter very much, and our wish for them all is that they find wonderful loving families to adopt them. Some of the dogs here, however, will never be adopted. Dogs like Davey will probably be with us for rest of their lives because of illness or injuries or advanced age. And when dogs are terminally ill, knowing they may die soon hurts us deeply, and we give them all the love and attention we can, and we give them all the medical attention they need to ease their pain. We do not let any dog suffer, and when the final time comes, we, along with our veterinarian, help them go peacefully to sleep forever. Those of you who have experienced the loss of a pet know the tremendous sadness we go through.

At 7:00 this morning I thought Davey was ready to "give up"

      At 7:00 this morning I thought Davey was ready to "give up" fighting his battle with colon cancer. He looked so sad, so tired, so thin, and he refused to eat his special diet food. I couldn't bear the thought that he had now lost his desire to eat, so I added another type of  yummy food to his meal (which is not prescribed on his cancer-fighting diet), and I took it to him. Davey ate every bite. I fed him a whole bunch more, and he ate that too. I think we both felt better.

      An hour later, when it was Davey's turn to go to the play yard with his kennel companion, Heather, Davey had perked up a lot! We watched him trot around the yard, chase a ball for a short distance and have an enjoyable time. We fed Davey the same kind of "new" food (half prescribed and half yummy) for his second meal, and then at the end of the day we fed him a third meal, as much as he wanted each time, and he eagerly ate every bite until he wanted no more.

      We all love Davey very much, and we know he feels this love. We know he is dying, we realize now that we cannot cure his disease no matter how hard we and the doctors have tried. Davey has a loving home here with us, and we'll make him as happy as we can for his remaining days. ... Maybe Davey will bounce back and enjoy life a while longer.

Snowflake (who's lived 15 months longer than her prognosis in December of 2001) had a better day today

      We're also still determined to do all that we can for Old Granny Snowflake and her appointment to see the diagnostic specialist is now scheduled for the 18th of March at 9:45 a.m. (in Dallas).

      Snow has had such a queasy tummy for days and naturally hasn't wanted to eat much at all, so it's been difficult to know how much stomach medication she is actually absorbing. Today,  in order to make sure she got enough stomach-calming medication, I gave her quite a bit extra. I'm almost afraid to say that she has kept her food down all day and it's now way past seven p.m., my bedtime.