Straydog UPDATE posted WEDNESDAY 8/27/03 at ~7:30 p.m. CT

Bill Arnold's Daily Straydog Log

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 27 2003

An email to us about Wade & Willie and Lauren & Jack

Dear Erin and Bill,

I found myself smiling as I read about your uniting of Wade and Puppy Willie and reuniting Lauren and Jack. You see, you all are about so much more than being a dog shelter. The way you go "above and beyond" and are willing to give of your time to help people like Wade and Lauren is just wonderful!! And in helping the people, you help the dogs. Just like the other way around: when you help the dogs find homes, you help the people who adopt them. The pictures do speak volumes!!!! As always, you are all in my prayers (doggies, too) every day.

Regards,
Cher

P.S. How very sweet and considerate of the nice ranger to help the baby raccoons out of the dumpsters!!

Another email about aggressive dogs

I'm so happy that Lauren and Jack have reunited. I, too, had an aggressive dog (female, part-setter). We got her when she was about one year old and didn't know much about her past. We found she disliked all dogs except her "sister" (a Lab) and most strange men. While I have never had a muzzle on her, I spent a lot of time socializing her. We did obedience (over and over) and doggie agility(which did wonders for her attitude, even though we were almost kicked out of class once because she went after a little dog).
Socializing a dog is so important, especially when you don't know it's history. Once they realize that the world is not such a scary place and that everyone is not out to get them, they are so much happier ... and calmer. Of course, once a dog has been aggressive, you have to ALWAYS watch them. My doggie agility instructor told me I could never trust her, and I don't. I watch her constantly whenever we are out of the yard. But we haven't had an "incident" in over a year.

Pat Pape, Dallas

Rosie and her son, Rudy, dig into two neighboring kennels!

     This dig-out/dig-in event happened early this morning, and luckily there were no fights. Not only did they get from their kennel into their next-door neighbors' kennel (that of Mommy Dog and Briar), but they then dug from Mommy Dog's kennel into the next kennel, which is inhabited by April and Johnny. Tina got the dogs separated before anything could happen.

     When Michael arrived at 7:30 a.m., we sent him up to the local lumber company to get 50 of the 16'' x 16" x 2" cement blocks, and we're going to put an end to this digging ... we hope!

Rosie's other son, Benny, moves in with Foxy Yatzee

     Although Foxy Yatzee is tolerating Benny, she doesn't much like his attempts to play with her, but for now they're rooming together. Benny is already tentatively adopted and hopefully will be picked up soon.

Foxy Yatzee has heartworms

   A vet report from Erin ...

     Foxy's heartworm test came out positive. When I asked Dr. M. how big of an infestation she had, he said that we don't know for sure but he can do a smear, and we might be able to tell a little bit more about the number of babies, which might give us an idea of the number of adults. Also her protein levels are high, which might be from the heartworms being present or might be from tick fever. So, we'll do these two more tests tomorrow. Dr. Morton thinks Foxy will make it through the heartworm treatment fine since she seems so strong. We'll set that up for sometime soon. The shots of immiticide will kill off all the heartworms within a five- to six-day period.

     Since we know she is good with kids, we may have a potential home already for this red beauty! A lady named Lisa is coming out next week to visit with Foxy Yatzee!

Lots of vet visits tomorrow morning

     (1) Angel's going in to have a hard lump removed from her chest; (2) Big Boy's going for a blood test to check his liver as he's been on anti-seizure drugs for a long time; (3) Foxy Yatzee's going for the blood smear as reported above; and (4) Max is going to be groomed, thanks once again to Ofelia.