Straydog, our Happy Home for Strays
(The hexagon is "The Big Play Yard," which we usually refer to as "the park")
(Photo taken May 2002)

Bill Arnold's Daily Straydog Log

SUNDAY OCTOBER 26 2003

Cooler weather, and the dogs love it

     I wrote a whole update including how much the dogs like the cooler weather, and my computer crashed, and the file was empty when I opened it again after bringing the computer back up. ... How sad. ... If I had any hair on my head, I'd probably pull it out. ... How sad. ... But I'm not going to rewrite it tonight. ... I did get come photos from Adoption Day processed today, and they're posted below.

Straydog UPDATE posted SATURDAY 10/25/20-03 at ~8:47 p.m. CDT

(Erin's Adoption Day report posted Sunday at 1:00 p.m. CST)

Bill Arnold's Daily Straydog Log

SATURDAY OCTOBER 25 2003

Two surrendered dogs ended up with wonderful homes today

     Erin's report of the day about Adoption Day and the adoptions will come Sunday. It's starting to get cold tonight, and right now I'm making sure everybody's got hay in their dog houses just in case the temperature dips lower than the 40s.

     And I'm on duty at six o'clock tomorrow morning, NEW time, thank God!

     And THANKS to everybody who helped out today at PetsMart! Every little bit that everybody does helps and moves us ever closer to ending this overpopulation tragedy.

Erin's Adoption Day report ...

It was an exciting day, with crisis situations fortunately being resolved happily by late afternoon

     We had seven volunteers scheduled in order to take a full vanload of dogs, which is five. Having seven "sitters" makes it possible for two or more of us to do home visits while the rest of the dogs are still being tended to at PetsMart. Two more volunteers unexpectedly showed up, so we actually had more volunteers than needed, EXCEPT that two dogs were also unexpectedly brought into PetsMart and left with us (owner surrenders). By the end of the day, however, we were lucky that these two new dogs had potential homes! So, two volunteers went to do one home visit while two others, including myself, went on another home visit. Luckily, these two surrendered dogs ended up being adopted into wonderful homes.

Doogan, surrendered to us by a homeless woman

     Doogan's original owner had to find a place for him because she had recently lost her home and was now staying with her mother, who lives in a nursing home.

A family sees Doogan and wants to foster him

     A family came up to our adoption center, saw Doogan and fell in love with him, and we made arrangements for Doogan to go to their home to be fostered till the homeless woman could find a place to live and reclaim her dog. We coordinated the exchange of numbers from the homeless lady (who couldn't keep her dog) with the new foster home. But then the foster family got into an argument outside PetsMart and decided they couldn't keep the dog after all, and they brought him back in to us and "dumped" him back on us. By this time the homeless lady had already left the store, so we couldn't give Doogan back to her. We didn't know how we would take home a new dog in the van that is only big enough for five dog crates, but we let the day play out with our fingers crossed.

We were lucky because another woman came by and liked Doogan very much too

     Our dog Benny (one of the five we'd taken to PetsMart from Straydog) went along on this home visit to Doogan's possible new home, but the family chose only Doogan, at least for today.

     I called the homeless lady on her cell phone and told her what had happened, and she was both happy and sad, and wanted to pass along info that Doogan is afraid of the words, "Come here!" So, I called Doogan's new home, and they aren't going to give Doogan up, I heard Doogan's new dad say in the background. Everyone in the family is in love with Doogan. "I just wanted to pass along the information from Doogan's previous mom," I said. We are very happy that Doogan's new family is in love with him already!

A little Lab mix puppy

     The other story is that a little lab mix puppy was given to a family as a birthday present, and the family didn't want him. One of our volunteers had agreed to try this pup at her house (with her six or so other dogs). But, this cute and frightened six-week-old puppy found a home with a young couple who, we are sure, will take very good care of him.

Thanks a lot to today's volunteers!

     A big thank you to all our wonderful volunteers. Some of our volunteers drive quite a ways to help us on Adoption Day. Some offer to pay for unexpected costs: a new harness, Doogan's rabies vaccine, the little Lab mix pup's distemper/parvo shot, etc. Many of our volunteers donate toys and doggie biscuits to the dogs on Adoption Day. They all donate their morning or afternoon, or both. And we did spend some time talking about fund raising today, so we have a lot of good ideas to work on!

We took five dogs and almost came home with seven

     Wow! Today we took five dogs to Adoption Day and might have brought home seven!

     Even though none of our original dogs were adopted, we're glad that new homes were offered to these surrendered pups in need.

*Bill Arnold's Daily Straydog Log

CURRENT WEEK

 

LAST WEEK

SUNDAY October 19 2003:

* Erin emails to me a phone-in report from Chubs and Cassie's new dad, Charlie Harris [PHOTOS].

MONDAY October 20 2003:

* Foster home with 15 dogs in Plano must find new homes by Wednesday;

* Meanwhile our two new arrivals are on hold at the clinic [PHOTOS];

* Henry's on hold too until tomorrow;

* Tomorrow will be a big mix and match day;

* Jesse Juderman volunteers to groom our dogs [PHOTOS].

TUESDAY October 21 2003:

* The dogs from the foster home in Plano are coming Wednesday to see if any are compatible with any of our singles;

* Henry and Russell to stay another day at the clinic;

* Tomorrow's going to be some mix and match day!

WEDNESDAY October 22 2003:

* Straydog takes in six new dogs! [PHOTOS]

THURSDAY October 23 2003:

* How the new matchups are going

* Everybody barked at the new dogs today as they walked to the park;

* Henry and Russell are home [PHOTOS];

* Volunteer Jessica (and her mom, Judy) came today for a couple of hours [PHOTOS]

FRIDAY October 24 2003:

* Several people emailed offering to help out with fund raising after yesterday's bit, bold, blue headlines, which were inspired by my own panic.

 

WEEK BEFORE LAST

SUNDAY October 12 2003:

* Amigo's all alone now with Freddy gone, so we try him with diabetic Julie [PHOTOS];

MONDAY October 13 2003:

* Two tiny pups found in a garbage bag inside a dumpster join us [PHOTO];

* Three other people called today wanting us to take dogs they had rescued.

TUESDAY October 14 2003:

* More calls today from people who are trying to place dogs they've rescued;

* Why we don't take 40 or 50 dogs to adoption days.

WEDNESDAY October 15 2003:

* Flash! - Late rescue of a dog named Henry;

* Puppies Madison and Sadie come in the house for a bath in the bathroom sink [PHOTOS];

THURSDAY October 16 2003:

* The rescue of Henry [PHOTOS];

* So now we've got two new dogs coming (both males);

* The golden-tan Pit/Lab mix will be dropped off at Morton Small Animal Clinic tomorrow; the other new dog, Henry, will probably be released to come home tomorrow.

FRIDAY October 17 2003:

* Henry does not have a broken jay, but an abscess, which is draining while Henry stays at the clinic;

* A large, soft lump is discovered on Misty's belly, and Juany takes her to the vet [FILE PHOTOS].

* The new golden-tan Pit/Lab mix (we've named Russell after his rescuer) is at the clinic, and we'll pick him up Monday.

SATURDAY October 18 2003:

* No adoptions today, but Straydog receives $96 from the proceeds of a raffle [PHOTOS].

 

THREE WEEKS AGO

SUNDAY October 5 2003:

* It's been raining all day with temperatures in the low 70s [PHOTOS];

* Newsletter is almost ready to stuff into envelopes.

MONDAY October 6 2003:

* First hundred newsletters make it to the post office in time tonight [PHOTOS];

* Diabetic Julie went to the vet clinic for her blood sugar test, and Big Boy went for another blood test too [PHOTO].

TUESDAY October 7 2003:

* Blind Chocolate Lab Chubs and his Black Lab sister, Cassie, are officially adopted and go to their new home today! [PHOTOS WITH MORE PHOTOS TO COME]

WEDNESDAY October 8 2003:

* An email to Erin from Jana (Chubs and Cassie's new mom);

* An email to Bill from Heather's new mom (from last week) [PHOTOS];

* Several hundred mailers go to the post office every day before the 4:30 p.m. pickup;

* Thanks to Ofelia for helping out for several hours on the mailer today;

* We got diabetic Julie one of those blood sugar reading machines.

THURSDAY October 9 2003:

* The newsletters are not all in the mail yet;

*Overcast, gray day with intermittent rain;

*Julie's new glucose level machine is working great.

FRIDAY October 10 2003:

* The balance of the newsletters are in the mail;

* Late yesterday evening we decided to bring Alice in for the night. Then today we had to bring Sally over to be with Alice in Chubs and Cassie's former kennel [PHOTOS].

SATURDAY October 11 2003:

* Daisy and Freddy are adopted together at Adoption Day at PetsMart [PHOTOS];

 

 

FOUR WEEKS AGO

SUNDAY September 28 2003:

* I spent the day working on the abbreviated newsletter;

* Sassy Old Katie has a very good day [PHOTOS].

MONDAY September 29 2003:

* Heather was adopted today!

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

TUESDAY September 30 2003:

* Blind Chocolate Lab Chubs and his sister, Cassie, go on a special home visit [PHOTOS];

* Julie went for another blood test this morning: normal range!

WEDNESDAY October 1 2003:

* Sally and Alice escape from their kennel this morning [PHOTO];

* Old Pup and Angel chew up an air-conditioner filter [PHOTO];

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

* We took in two newly rescued dogs today and immediately adopted one of them out [PHOTOS].

THURSDAY October 2 2003:

* I drove to Dallas this morning and picked up the printed and folded newsletter [PHOTO];

* Freddy comes home from the clinic after his new arrivals checkup and neuter surgery [PHOTOS];

* Old Pup and Angel resumed bowel movements;

* Employee Michael reports that his new Red Pit is doing fine at his house.

FRIDAY October 3 2003:

* After a long, barky night Freddy meets Amigo in the park and moves in with him early this morning [PHOTOS];

* Julie's blood sugar is high again;

SATURDAY October 4 2003:

* Chubs and Cassie go for their second home visit;

* Adoption Day in downtown Dallas.

 

 

PREVIOUS WEEKS (TABLE OF CONTENTS of Previous Updates, Continued)

*SUNDAY UPDATES: Headlines Linking to the Last 216 Consecutive Sunday Updates of our Straydog website, which is also updated nightly before ~9:00 Central Time U.S.A.

*Adoption Day Saturday, November 1st at PetsMart in Plano [Texas] on Central [75] at Parker.

*Our Dogs for Adoption listed on Petfinder.org, kept up to date by volunteer and member of our Board of Directors, Susan Southerland, Esq.

*Our Mission & How We Got Started

*"Goodbye, Danny Boy." - An example of the only acceptable use of euthanasia

*When a dog rescuer approaches Rainbow Bridge

  If you would like to help with our ever-growing vet bill, donations can be sent directly to:

*Email from Neal Fort's wife, Darla, received Thursday, September 18th and published here Friday, September 19th.

*Article in newspapers across Canada on September 20, 2003 about the Montreal Alouettes' Neal Fort and his Great Dane, Helen, whom the Forts adopted from Straydog. (Links to the articles are working again.)

* The Neal Fort articles upped our readership! Every bit of media exposure gives us a boost!

     We really want to thank Neal a lot for getting Straydog and our website address mentioned. Every mention on broadcast TV and radio and every mention in print is a potentially big step and always increases audience.

*Click here for continuation of our homepage with no changes to the continuation in several weeks