Straydog UPDATE posted TUESDAY 5/6/03 at ~9:17 p.m. CT

Pat's Daily Dog Log

TUESDAY MAY 6 2003

The work at our shelter never ends

     Because of the donations of two riding lawn mowers and a high-powered weed-eater, we are now able to do all the mowing and trimming of the kennel grounds by ourselves, which saves us all the money we used to have to pay out to have someone else come in and do the mowing for us.

     Almost everyone got in on the mowing process today: Guy, our General Manager (who's on salary), started mowing as soon as the sun came up. Then he began weed-eating the insides of the kennels as soon as Caregiver/Kennel Team Member Michael arrived, who held each set of dogs (all of whom would have loved to attack the noisy weed-eater).

     Bill, who's not on salary and whose hourly rate of pay is $0, mowed the back areas of the kennels, while Guy mowed the front areas and trimmed everything.

As Bill brings one of the donated mowers around to the southern kennels, he widens the fire line outside the big wood fence.

While Guy, Michael and Bill were taking care of the lawn, the caregivers were busy too

     While all the lawn work was going on, Tina was busy doing what we call "dog walks," taking two dogs at a time to the big play yard for their sniffing around, pottying and exercise fun. (It takes six hours to get all the dogs walked to and from the play yard (which, as most of you know, we refer to as the park). We start the "walks" at 7:00 a.m. and finish at 1:00 p.m. And during dog walks, the walkers pick up poop immediately and look for any poop that may have been missed earlier, along with playing with and brushing the dogs. Then during the afternoon some sets of dogs--especially the puppies--get a second outing in the park.)

     Jack and Jill (the little blind and deaf Aussie pups) have learned to walk very well on leashes now and they love the two turns they have playing in the big play yard every day. (It's really hard to believe that Jack is getting all of his "images" of this world only thru touch and smell.)

Joel and Rhonda keep busy with the kennel work

     While everything else was going on, Joel was busy cleaning the dog kennels at one end of our shelter compound while Kennel Team Member Rhonda was doing the same thing at the other side. The Kennel Team Member's jobs include dumping, scrubbing and refilling the dogs' swimming pools and water buckets, clean kennel ground, fill doggie holes and pet dogs and puppies while they work.

Meal time for our furry friends

     Employees have their lunches, and then it's time to feed all our furry friends their second (and last) meal of the day. Today Guy and Rhonda were the feeders.

     It sometimes seems a bit like a restaurant in the office kitchen of our Happy Home for Strays because of all the different foods we prepare for all the dogs on special diets--the dogs with bad hips and legs and the ones who have severe arthritis have their special diet of home cooked vegetarian food. The dogs who don't have bone and joint problems do well on Science Diet while others eat Natures Recipe. All the medications are carefully given at mealtime too (except for the medications that may need to be given at other times during the day). The dogs all have their own bowls with their names on them, which helps to keep things less confusing.

Seems as if there is always some type of emergency popping up when you least expect it

     After second and last mealtime today the sky began to turn gray as if a storm might be coming, but we began the after-lunch schedule as usual: the two caregivers were going in to visit with each pair of dogs, to brush them, play ball with them or just sit and pet the dogs or puppies. Tina (an early morning feeder) was just about to leave for the day, when suddenly we all heard the sound of rumbling thunder in the distance. Any sound of thunder, no matter how distant or how soft, is enough to frighten Alice, as it did today, and she immediately began tugging at her fence with her teeth (as she had done a few days ago when it thundered).

Time for fence repairs!

     "Looks like it's just another regular day at Straydog," said Joel as we both rushed to Alice and Sally's kennel to stop the pooch from ripping her fence apart!

     As we neared the kennel, we saw Alice's head sticking through the big hole she'd torn in the sturdy chain-link fence! Dogs must have teeth of steel to be able to tear apart fence like this. I thought she was stuck, but she scooched herself back to her kennel yard when we approached. I checked her teeth, expecting to see several fangs chipped, but they all were okay.

     I stayed with her while Joel got some boards about two feet high by eight feet long to attach to the bottom of their kennel fence, so there would be no part of the fence that she could pull on if the thundering continued. (We've already buried cement blocks all along the fence line on the inside of the kennel.)

     There is never a dull moment around here!