Straydog UPDATE posted THURSDAY 7/10/03 at ~9:00 p.m. CT

(With six new photo pages added Friday at 3:15 p.m. - LINK BELOW)

Bill Arnold's Daily Straydog Log

THURSDAY JULY 10 2003

They're going to keep Bobby one or two more days at the Dallas Veterinary Surgical Center

     We talked with Dr. McDonald this morning, and he said Bobby's leg is getting better but they want to keep him another day or two at their clinic. We will call them again tomorrow.

Another call from a rescuer of seven pups today

     The woman who called said someone had dumped a female dog near her house a little over a month ago, and the woman took in the female, adding her to her family of five previously rescued stray dogs. Soon the female gave birth to seven pups, who are now five weeks old, and the woman is trying to place them. I told the woman that we are now 17 dogs over our self-imposed limit of 65 dogs, and that we simply cannot take in any more till we get back down to 65. (Because of my rescue of a pup yesterday Shannon says that I'm not allowed to leave Straydog again unless I wear a blindfold.)

     I told the woman that I would keep her name on our waiting list, and she said that she would keep the pups a few more weeks while trying to find them homes.

Tinkerbell and Willie get a new (temporary) kennel so the five pups can move into their kennel

     With Pierce coming home later today we had to prepare a bigger kennel so that Tinkerbell, Willie and Pierce could "room" together. Guy put together a temporary medium-size kennel with some extra fence sections we had, and we moved Tinkerbell and Willie into that kennel. Then moved the five newest pups into Tinkerbell and Willie's small kennel by the trailer.

Frosty catches her dewclaw on something while jumping off the bed, causing the dewclaw to bleed and causing her enough pain to hold her paw up

     Thinking she might have torn the dewclaw loose from the bone, we took Frosty in to see Dr. Morton when we went to pick up new Puppy Pierce to bring him home from the clinic. Dr. Morton felt Frosty's dewclaw all over and said it was okay, still well attached to the bone. But since we were there, I asked if he could have one of his vet techs trim Frosty's toenails. This turned out to be quite an ordeal for two reasons: Siberian Huskies don't want their nails trimmed, and their nails are hard as diamonds. I had to hold Frosty in a head lock while she whined loudly in my ear, Erin held her body against the lift table near the end of the procedure, and the vet tech courageously held on to Frosty's paws one at a time and finally got the job done. We were all exhausted, and Frosty wouldn't speak to us or look at us all the way home.

Puppy Pierce is given a clean bill of health and is sent home with us

     While Frosty sat looking out the back window of the station wagon, Puppy Pierce rode in a crate with the door facing me in the front seat, barking his piercing, high-pitched yelp most of the way home while Erin drove.

     When we arrived at Straydog, we immediately tried Pierce in a bigger kennel that Tinkerbell and Willie had just moved into earlier. After the introduction period the three pups got along fine, and they're having a grand time playing together.