www.Straydog.org UPDATE posted THURSDAY 11/20/03 at ~8:30 p.m. CT

Bill Arnold's Daily Straydog Log

THURSDAY NOVEMBER 20 2003

Sasha proves to be quite a challenge!

     This three-year-old "baby" wants attention--ALL THE TIME! When I took over as hospital attendant at six o'clock this morning from our over-night man, Randy Hopkins, he told me he'd had to stay most of the night in the same room with Sasha. When she would doze off to sleep, he'd have a very short period of time to do all his other work, which consists of making frequent rounds outside checking on all the dogs in all the kennels, cooking special dog foods for the special-needs dogs and working on a mound of office work, which includes addressing thank-you envelopes.

     At six a.m. after Randy left, I started working on the computer in the main office/hospital kennel room, when all of a sudden there was Sasha wandering around the kitchen. I grabbed her before she started the other hospital dogs barking (which dogs include Henry, Foxy and Julie), and I got Sasha back to her bedroom kennel, the side of which had been pulled open, leaving Sasha enough room to escape.

     I next moved my computer into the bedroom and sat next to Sasha's kennel to keep her calm while I waited for relief to arrive--first the eight a.m. dog walker, who gave me a short break while Sasha was in the park (during which park walk I went out and took photos--see below), and then Juany arrived at nine and took over the whole operation (including taking care of Sasha) for the rest of the day.

     After Juany arrived, we tried Sasha in the outside kennel that Henry uses for his outings (as he's still spending a lot of time in the house while his jaw slowly heals). Sasha' stay in Henry's outside kennel lasted about 10 seconds after Juany and Tamara started walking back to the house. Sasha simply began tearing at the fence with her teeth, lifting it up with ease. (It's amazing that 99% of the dogs do not realize they have the power to get out of their kennels if they really wanted to.)

     What has Erin gotten us into with this rescue? We'll be taking Sasha to Adoption Day Saturday, and hopefully someone will come along who will be willing to work with this beautiful, sweet Golden Retriever, who with the right training will become a wonderful pet. (We will, of course, disclose to any would-be adopters just what they're going to be in for.)

Sasha does not like to hold still.

Sasha jumps up on Dog Walker Shelly.

More photos taken today of Sasha

 

Ofelia comes again to volunteer for the day and works on the computer

     Ofelia's made great strides forward with our data entry project. (And we thank her very much!) She's going to come to Straydog to volunteer again next Monday, and hopefully when she finishes, we'll have all our contributors in the system, and our mailing list will contain no dupes.

Ofelia working (volunteering) at the computer in the main hospital trailer office.

     Our goal is to get another mailing out before Thanksgiving, as funds are running only about two weeks ahead, a very precarious position but one we've been in for most of the past 10 years.