Straydog UPDATE posted WEDNESDAY 10/1/03 at ~8:30 p.m. CT

Bill Arnold's Daily Straydog Log

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 1 2003

Sally and Alice escape from their kennel early this morning

     The escape alarm (which is frantic barking by all the dogs) goes off within seconds after a dog (or a pair of dogs) gets out of their kennel. And Sally and Alice were running full speed when they finally came my way. Juana intercepted Alice, and Sally came right up to me and cowered down to let me put a leash on her. We put them in the temporary puppy kennel by the house and went to their kennel to find out how they'd gotten out.

Sally and Alice were able to pop the first gate open because the latch was a little crooked.
Then they dug under the outside gate as you can see.

Old Pup and Angel chew up an air-conditioner filter

     How these two veterans managed to get this filter into their kennel is still a mystery. Probably the old filter was left too close to their kennel, and somehow it either blew inside their kennel or they were able to reach it and pull it inside.

     We called Dr. Morton right away, and he said that even if they had swallowed some of the pieces (including the fiberglass), they would probably pass through them without doing any harm. He said to give them some Pepto-Bismol to help coat the gut. By late afternoon the two had still not had a bowel movement (which is highly unusual for them), so I called the doctor again, and he said not to start worrying yet. We'll know if there's blockage, because they'll start vomiting.

The remains of a used air conditioner filter after Old Pup and Angel got a hold of it.

Heather's new mom called concerned because Heather hasn't eaten very much

     I explained that this has happened many times before with newly adopted dogs. If everything else is going well (which it is), there's no need to worry. Heather will start eating soon, I assured her.

We took in two newly rescued dogs today and immediately adopted one of them out

     A dog rescue woman named Tarra from Lewisville called last week saying she had rescued a very sweet small Terrier mix male from the pound the day he was to be euthanized. I told her that we didn't have room, but if we were successful adopting out a dog within the next few days, we might be able to take him.

     Then Tarra said she had also talked a Pit breeder into letting her rescue a very small Red Pit whom the breeder was planning on using as a bait dog in dog fights, which would have meant her almost instant demise, as she herself is a very docile and timid Pit. Michael, one of our employees, has been looking for a small Pit for quite some time, and he said he'd adopt the Pit, who had already been spayed and was up to date on her shots, so I told Tarra we'd take the Pit also, and Michael took the dog home with him tonight.

The despicable breeder had clipped this poor Red Pit's ears with scissors, totally botching the operation.

Michael's very happy about his new dog.

     The small Terrier mix (whom we've named Freddy) is now at our clinic being neutered and having his new arrivals checkup. Hopefully he'll be able to go in the kennel with Amigo. We'll find out tomorrow when we bring him home from the clinic.

Freddy is about 10 months old and won't get much bigger than his 22 pounds.