Straydog UPDATE posted FRIDAY 8/8/03 at ~7:30 p.m. CT

Bill Arnold's Daily Straydog Log

FRIDAY AUGUST 8 2003

Report from Shannon ...

Saturday Adoption Day is scheduled for two stores

     Thanks to all the volunteers who are helping us at PetsMart and at Canine Commissary tomorrow (Saturday)! We have enough volunteers to take Mandy, Rudy, Benny, Pierce, Willie, Archie, Veronica, and Jed! We will be at both the PetsMart in Plano (on Central Expressway [75] at Parker Road) and at Canine Commissary on Lower Greenville in Dallas. We try to take as many dogs as we have volunteers to sit with and handle each dog individually. If you're available at any time and want to give one of our wonderful volunteers a lunch break, please stop in and meet us!

Mandy, who's just been groomed for Adoption Day Saturday

     Thanks to Volunteer Ofelia and Volunteer Gayle, Mandy is groomed and ready to go to Petsmart in Plano tomorrow (from 11 a.m. till three p.m.)!

Anthony is recovering from surgery

     This morning I (Shannon) took Anthony to the Dallas Veterinary Surgical Center so they could remove the cancerous part of his jawbone. We talked to Dr. Zimmerman who explained that this type of cancer usually doesn't metastasize. The only problem is that if they miss even one cancerous cell, the cancer could recur in the same area. They have to cut enough of the jaw to get the cancer, but leave enough for Anthony to function as normally as possible. Anthony crawled into my lap to hide from Dr. Zimmerman (all 78 pounds of him!), but she still got a good look at Anthony's mouth. She then went over the surgery estimate with me. Wow! Even with our discount (which we greatly appreciate), Anthony's low estimate on the surgery was $1,300! Because both Pat and Bill would do as much for Anthony as they could to help him recover, to not have the surgery was not an option for us.

     After the surgery when Anthony was waking up, Dr. McDonald called to let us know that he felt really good about the surgery and thinks he got all of the cancer. He took a little bit more than he had planned, but he didn't want to put Anthony through another surgery if he missed any cells. Anthony is spending the weekend at the surgical center, and Monday he'll be coming home to a kennel inside the house for two weeks. He has to eat soft food for a few weeks. We're working on a cancer fighting diet with supplements, but he is expected to be playing ball again soon.

Anthony with his favorite ball in his mouth back in November of 2001

Anthony waits for Pat to throw the ball. (Photo taken less than a month before Pat's death)