Straydog UPDATE posted MONDAY 9/29/03 at ~9:00 p.m. CT

Bill Arnold's Daily Straydog Log

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 29 2003

Heather was adopted today!

     The Ewings came down all the way from Denton, Texas today, a two-hour drive, just to take a look at several of the dogs they'd seen on out website, with hopes of picking one out for adoption. First they visited with Krissy, then Emily, then Mandy and finally Heather. They liked all the dogs, but Heather, who's been going to PetsMart in Plano the last three Adoption Days and who has been getting a lot of attention there from passersby, turned out the be their choice for adoption. Heather seemed more interested in the Ewings than the other dogs had been. As soon as the other dogs had been let off leash, they ran off to explore the big play yard by themselves rather than trying to impress these potential adopters. Heather stayed close to us and the visitors, and when she would move away to explore a little, we'd call her back, and she'd come immediately.

     The Ewings had just recently lost their 12-year-old Retriever to a sudden illness, and they wanted to get another dog to give their love and attention to rather than grieving with no pets in the house.

     We forwent the customary home visit today (we can always visit later if we want) because in our conversation with the Ewings we could tell that they were going to take very good care of Heather. They had no other pets, and they assured us their back yard was securely fenced in, and they said the dog would never be out in the yard without supervision. At night, they went on to assure us, Heather would be sleeping in their bed with them as their former dog had done.

     Congratulations to Heather and the Ewings!

Julie is rushed to the vet clinic at a little after one p.m.

     One o'clock in the afternoon is the time for Julie's scheduled meal and insulin injection, but just as Juana was preparing her medicine, we noticed that Julie seemed to be shivering. Then she'd stop, and then she'd start to shiver again. We held up on the insulin and the food and immediately called Dr. Morton, who had just gone to lunch, but they somehow patched us through to the doctor, and he said to go ahead and feed Julie but not to give her her insulin and to bring her right in for a glucose test.

     Juana called from the vet office about 45 minutes later saying that Julie's blood sugar was very, very low and that the doctor wanted us to skip her insulin till tonight at nine p.m., her next regularly scheduled meal and insulin injection and to reduce the insulin to 17 units. Then the doctor wants us to bring Julie back in first thing tomorrow morning for another blood sugar test. The doctor said if we had gone ahead and given Julie this afternoon's dosage of insulin, it might have killed her. How easily we might have overlooked Julie's shivering. How fragile life is.