Straydog UPDATE posted MONDAY 3/17/03 at ~9:14 p.m. CT

Pat Arnold's Daily Dog Log

MONDAY MARCH 17 2003

Mother dog and eight puppies are here

      The couple who had been caring for these nine dogs delivered the mom and her puppies to our clinic this afternoon at 3:30, and I was there for their examinations and then brought the family home.

      Dr. Morton thinks the mom, now named Rosie, is less than two years old. The examination shows that she appears to be in good health. The results of heartworm test will be in tomorrow. Rosie is very friendly, and she let us handle her puppies without a problem.

      The eight little puppies are four weeks old and are a grand mixture of Lab mix, maybe Boxer mix, Shepherd mix, and mix mix. "Just a little bit of everything," according to the doctor.

They had their little puppy examinations too, and home we came

      The kennel crew worked hard all morning preparing the kennel for them, and when I got home, it was all ready for the family. I was glad that Rhonda stayed over to help me get the family settled.

      According to the people who were caring for the pups they had just let the mother take care of feeding her babies and had not introduced them to solid food yet. I fed the mother right away, as we do all new arrivals, and then when we noticed the mother pick up a mouthful of food and drop in near her puppies for them to eat, I decided to prepare them a bowl of mushy puppy food. We were really surprised to see the pups gobble it up. They ate it so fast I prepared another bowl for them.

Rosie is a very good mom

      After the pups and Rosie finished eating, they investigated their new surroundings, and the puppies, as little as they are, found the new toys to play with and had fun as they clumsily tried to play with stuffy toys and little balls, and they tussled a bit with each other as Rosie watched carefully over them.

      One tiny pup went over to the fence that joins our yard, and the little tyke growled at big dog Toby who was watching the family from his adjoining kennel yard.

      Then it seemed that suddenly Rosie rounded up her little ones having them follow her into the dog-house/shelter, which had been filled with a bunch of fresh hay making a big, soft hay bed for them. Rosie stayed with her children, and all were snuggled up close to her until they were sound asleep. Then she came out of the shelter to lie in the shade and enjoy the evening breeze. She seemed very content.

We're just hoping she will not try to dig out tonight

      The couple who had been caring for the family said that Rosie had tried to dig out of their back yard several times, so we made Rosie's kennel small for right now, lining the bottom of the fence line with as many big, square concrete patio blocks as we could find. We will expand the size of Rosie's kennel tomorrow, adding more concrete blocks along the base of the extended area fence line, which new blocks are being donated to us by an acquaintance of Rhonda, one of our caregiver/kennel team members.

      For now all is quiet in the family's kennel.

Davey is doing okay today!

      He has eaten every meal today and played happily in the park, barked with excitement in anticipation of his turns to go to the park. Guy even bought the fellow a few big steaks and cooked them for Davey's p.m. snack, and Davey gobbled up every bite! ("No grains and vegetables today, thank you.," said Old Davey.)

      For now Davey is doing okay and appears to be very happy.

Snowflake is on the mend too!

      Old Granny Snowflake has not had any more tummy flare ups this week. so we've canceled the trip to the diagnostic center in Dallas and rescheduled the appointment for a whole week from now. Who knows, this sweet little dog may continue to be just fine.

Alice has her first heartworm treatment

      New arrival, Alice, went for her first heartworm treatment this morning and she will be going for the second and last treatment tomorrow. So far she is doing very well.