Straydog UPDATE posted SUNDAY 4/6/03 at ~9:00 p.m. CDT

Pat Arnold's Daily Dog Log

SUNDAY APRIL 6 2003

"Spring Cleaning" of kennels is just getting started

      The weather has been so beautiful and warm recently that we began the "Spring Cleaning" of the dog kennels a little early this year, putting some of the doggie swimming pools in the kennels for the fellas who love to play in the water on hot, sunny days.

      Next will be the major cleaning job of all the dogs' shelters, taking off the big front panels of the shelters (with little doggie doors in them), which we put on every fall to enclose the entire shelter in preparation for winter weather. In the spring after taking the front panels off the shelters we pull out the hay-filled dog houses, remove the hay and scrub the dog houses all nice and clean. Usually during "spring cleaning," the last thing we do is to put the doggie swimming pools in the kennels, but we're doing that project first this year since we have so many water-loving dogs and pups here now.

Lab Puppies Cassie and her brother, Blind Chubs, love to play in their newly installed swimming pool! What a mess Bill the camera man got himself into!

      Blind Puppy Chubs and his little sister, Cassie, love to play in the water. During their playtime in the big play yard they play in the play yard pool so much that we decided they needed a pool in their kennel now. What a fun time they had!

Chubs prepares for an "attack" coming imminently from his sister, Cassie, which photo we missed because we snapped this one just a split second before the "attack" came.

      Bill and I were watching the pups splashing around in their new pool, and they were so cute as they jumped in and out of the water, then ran around their kennel (picking up sandy dirt) and jumped back in the pool again. The original sparkling clean water quickly turned almost as "chocolate" as Blind Chocolate Lab Chubs.

Bill, the cameraman, gets "mauled" by Chubs and Cassie

      Bill, the camera man, quickly got the camera and went outside to take pictures of the siblings splashing around, and Bill ended up a goopy mess with wet sandy paw prints all over him! [During his "mauling" Bill handed me the camera.]

During this photo shoot of Chubs and Cassie in their new pool Bill, the camera man, got "mauled" and muddy.

 

Nikki (still very fearful of everything) goes to the big play yard on leash

      Three of us try to quell Nikki's fears during her outing in the park. Every day she seems a little less anxious, but it's going to take a long time to get this beautiful young dog back to normal after God only knows what horrific experiences she must have gone through.