Straydog UPDATE posted MONDAY 9/1/03 at ~7:14 p.m. CT
Bill Arnold's Daily Straydog Log
MONDAY SEPTEMBER 1 2003
Labor Day, and we labored as usual
One of the things that make me realize that it must be a holiday is that there's no mail. I open the empty mail box, wonder for a moment what happened, and then I remember. Luckily this saves me a trip to the post office or the bank or the accountant's office or the vet clinic, and I can get back to work on the newsletter, which is long overdue.
The crew worked much of the day today again in the rain, but again, as yesterday, there was no thunder (or lightning), and the rain was slow for the most part and came straight down. The dogs loved the rainy weather again, and it was warm enough so that most of the kennel team members and caregivers didn't even wear their rain slickers--they just got soaked and looked like they enjoyed it along with the dogs.
Progress report on the newsletter
It's been three months since Pat died, and this is the hardest writing and composition assignment I've ever had. The original plan was to pull off highlights from Pat's Daily Dog Log from the beginning of the year to the last update Pat wrote on May 30. The problem is that as I re-read Pat's last words, I find myself re-living those last events of Pat's life, and I have to stop quite often to compose myself. Also I can't seem to edit anything out. It all seems way too important to leave anything out.
In order to save on postage I'm trying to limit the newsletter to 32 pages, so I'm including only some of Pat's last updates in this newsletter, and then I'll continue to include more of her last updates in subsequent newsletters. I am also including highlights of what has happened here at Straydog since Pat's death.
Those of you who read this update daily on the Internet already know, of course, about all that's happened since the first of the year and all that's happened since Pat died, but again, only about 10% of all of the Straydog supporters on our mailing list seem to have access to the Internet. (We've been getting about 250 to 300 hits per day, and the mailing list is approaching 3,000 names.)
In any case putting the newsletter together is slow-going. I am also in the middle of composing a cover letter telling more about Pat's life before Straydog and during the early years of Straydog. People have emailed saying they've enjoyed the little personal information Pat and I have included from time to time, so you'll get plenty of that in this upcoming newsletter.
Here's an old email from Pat to me with a suggestion for the newsletter we published in April that I just found as I was deleting old emails to make more room in my inbox at BillArnold147@hotmail.com:
Maybe in the next newsletter we could fit in (in small print if necessary) the number of dogs we adopted out the last 30 days, because it was a lot: Doodles, Candy, Bonnie, Blake, Melinda, Jeff, Zack, Bridget and Pixie. ... Adopted Out: Nine
Then say the number of dogs taken IN this month (several who needed much medical attention): Momma-Laura, Jesse-Bear, Sally, Alice, Tina, Terry, Corky, Mother Rosie and her eight puppies and Nikki, who has injuries to hip area. ( A total of 17 if you count puppies, and we have to count puppies because we have to PAY for puppies' vet visits, including vaccinations, examinations, etc.) ... Taken in: 17.
Just an idea. Seems like at least these figures will show people who DON'T read our website what we do as far as adoptions and rescues brought in to us go.
This newsletter is also taking longer than usual because I am constantly busy running our shelter. Trying to replace one person (Pat) who worked 24/7/365 for almost nine years (without pay) is an incredibly daunting task, even with lots of volunteer (as well as paid) help all around me.
The Spanish course I was teaching at Trinity Valley Community College ended last Monday, and I've told the administration I won't be available to teach another course anytime in the near future. (And I won't be attending any more class reunions for at least another five years!)
The neatest thing about working all the time is that you never get bored and you never have to wonder (or worry) about what you have to do next. It's always right there in front of you.
Update of 8:00 a.m. Tuesday:
I want you all to realize that I'm not planning on continuing this (almost) non-stop working forever. And I think I've figured out what we should do and what we should have done long, long ago (long before Pat died): Pat worked (or was on call [or "on bark"] 21 eight-hour shifts per week. A normal work schedule is five eight-hour shifts per week. So it will take four full-time people (plus a total of eight hours overtime) to cover Pat's duties. Except for the part I (Bill Arnold) continue to cover filling in gaps on the daily operations schedule (plus continuing to oversee the whole operation in order to continue to make our shelter succeed the way Pat made it succeed), we must hire people to cover all (or parts of all) those shifts. And this is what we're starting to do, and to do this we have to raise a lot more money than we did before. What Pat contributed by covering so many hours on the on-duty/on-call schedule, we are realizing more and more as time goes on, was a tremendous financial savings for Straydog Inc.