Straydog UPDATE posted FRIDAY 3/21/03 at ~10:14 p.m. CT

Pat Arnold's Daily Dog Log

FRIDAY MARCH 21 2003

Recent arrivals, Sally and Alice, are adopted!

      These are two of the dogs rescued at Tenison Golf Course in Dallas, and they've been with us for almost three weeks (since March 2nd), and today they went to their wonderful new home!

      Guy and I took them early this morning for the home visit to see how the young dogs would be with the six-year-old child, and everything went just beautifully. The parents and their adorable little girl, Pamela, were waiting for us outside, and as soon as Guy and I took the dogs from the van, Pamela's face lit up and she let out quiet expressions like "Oh, aren't you pretty?! Oh, what pretty dogs!" as she pet them. We took Sally and Alice to their new big back yard for the introduction to their new family, and when Pamela knelt down and called the dogs to her, Alice and Sally came running over and gave Pam slurpy doggie kisses, which delighted the young girl!

      The family had read the story of the dogs on our website, and they thought (as we did) that it would be best for the two dog friends, who had developed a very strong bond between the two of them, to be adopted together. And for the family to adopt Alice, who they know is recovering from her treatment for heartworms, shows what a compassionate couple they are.

      We're all thrilled that Sally and Alice have been adopted by such a loving family who will take care of them forever!

A very unexpected event occurred on the way home from the home visit

      Guy and I were about 10 miles from home when Guy decided to take the shortcut, which is a one-mile stretch of quiet country road, which shortcut would save us about five minutes). We hadn't driven far when suddenly, it seemed like out of nowhere, we saw a little pup trotting alongside the narrow road ahead of us. Both of us pointed to the puppy at the same time, and Guy immediately stopped the van. The puppy ran right beneath the van, and we both got out to rescue the poor little thing. She put up no resistance when Guy reached out for her and scooped her up. There were no houses anywhere near this location, so we couldn't go knocking on doors to see if the pup belonged to someone.

      We were so close to home, but this puppy needed to see our doctor before bringing her to our shelter, and this being Friday the clinic would be closed all weekend, so we turned around and drove another 25 minutes to our clinic with "Kimberly."

      The receptionist, Vicki, and vet tech, Donna, smiled when they saw us come in with the little brown pup in my arms, and Vicki said "Where did you find this one?!"

      Kimberly is about 10 weeks old and weighs 16 pounds. She was covered with fleas, and by now I felt as if the fleas were all over me too! The sweet little puppy had scars on her face and back, obviously caused from dog fights, and a scar around her neck from a collar that had been much too tight, which the uncaring owner must have cut loose when he or she "dumped" the pup along the country road.

      She also has sarcoptic and demodectic mange, Dr. Morton said, and the usual worms that all stray dogs seem to have. Her temperature was normal. Because Kimberly seemed quite lethargic the doctor offered her food to see if this would perk her up, and it did, so this was a good sign. She was probably worn out from traveling the roads and countryside trying to find her home.

      Dr. Morton wanted us to leave Kimberly at the clinic for a dip bath, which is the beginning treatment for mange, and he said we would probably be able to pick her up this afternoon.

Before we left the clinic we went to see Nikki (the other new arrival)

      Nikki is the Pit Bull who has been at our clinic since yesterday. She was diagnosed with an advanced case of heartworm disease, which we won't begin treating until she regains her health, which could delay the treatment for several months. Dr. Morton wanted to show us the x-rays of her hips, which show severe hip dysplasia. This is the reason for the limpy walk and the swelling especially in her left hip area. Nikki has to be in a lot of pain, he added as he pointed out how badly her hip bones looked.

      After looking at the x-rays I went to visit with Nikki. She had had a bath yesterday, and now she looked so much better! She was so clean and pretty. I went in her kennel and petted her for a while before we had to leave.

More trouble hits us as soon as we arrive back at Straydog!

      We no sooner drove in the driveway than one of our caregivers reported that something was wrong with Leo, Freckles' six-month-old son. He hadn't eaten either of his meals today and had vomited many times during the day. I called our vet, and he suggested we bring Leo in right away.

      Since I was still trying to do the payroll for our seven full-time employees, which I had started working on at 5:00 this morning, Guy took Leo to see the doctor so I could finish figuring up hours worked and writing out checks for our hard working employees, some of whom were almost ready to go home.

A couple of hours later Guy returned

      When Guy arrived back at the shelter, he had with him new little Puppy Kimberly, who had had her first dipping bath treatment for mange. There was no reason to keep her at the clinic, the doctor told Guy, so she was ready to come to our Happy Home for Strays.

      The doctor wanted to keep Leo over the weekend, however, to keep a close watch on him. Dr. Morton had taken x-rays of the big pup after giving Leo a barium enema, and now wanted to keep him for observation for the next few days.

      What else could happen today? . . .