Bill Arnold's Daily Straydog Log
SUNDAY FEBRUARY 8 2004
Erin's Adoption Day Report ...
No adoptions today but lots of interest in some of the dogs
The pugs
A young married couple, who are in college, and one set of the couple's parents all came into Petsmart together with the parents' three pugs. The young couple wanted our pugs very much! They've been looking for a year for such dogs!
Since the pugs, Sassy and her son Jimbo, have not been separated in five years, we thought that definitely Pat Arnold (my mom) would say they should be adopted together, and this couple seems to be up for the challenge!
They will be able to be home often during the day, except for one day a week, and they said they would be able to get someone to come over to walk the dogs on that day.
Sassy and Jimbo are not housebroken and just recently they had licked and 'mauled' the cat of Straydog employee Susan, who's been caring for the pugs since we took them in a couple of months ago, hoping to permanently adopt them. The pugs did not attack the cat aggressively, but the "attack" scared the cat and left it all slobbery and dizzy, and Susan felt the next incident might be more serious, so she's giving up the pugs. Petsmart trainer Wanda said that the dogs need to know basic commands to make this situation work with the cat. She also gave us ideas for slow introductions: having a towel with the other animal's scent on it for the other animals to smell, then being able to sniff each other through the door, and after more time you allow only monitored time together, etc.
We will let the couple pay out the adoption fee over time if they can begin the training now. There is Potty Training 101, an hour session that comes with a book/brochure. The tuition for this course is $15. The class is held on Saturdays at this PetsMart store (on Central at Parker in Plano). Basic Training begins at different times during the month and includes eight sessions for $89. This is an investment that is well worth the time and money. We think the pug lovers will opt for this in order to show the commitment they will hopefully have for the dogs.
Speaking of training, Petsmart trainer Kristi (who worked with Sasha and came to our shelter once before) said that she'd come out to Straydog again on a weekend to help us with basic training ideas like walking the dogs on leash. There are some dogs who do just fine, but others pull and pull and pull, and we'd like to see if we can help these dogs learn "good manners" now in order to make them be more adoptable later!
Kerry
Another family is interested in Kerry and will be bringing other family members to PetsMart next week to meet her. This family has a small dog already, and we saw today that Kerry was very gentle with two other small dogs. (One was a baby pug.)
Foxy Yatzee
Foxy also has an admiring couple who thinks Foxy is the sweetest girl! (They have her personality pegged!) They will be contacting us when they make a decision about a possible adoption.
Penny and Scooter
Penny and Scooter didn't have any possible adopters this time, but they did get a lot of pets!
Boomer II
Little Boomer (Boomer II) also enjoyed the day, but received little attention from passers by. We found out that Boomer and Foxy get along great! (But we also found out that Foxy and Scooter want to snap at each other, not liking each other at all.)
Fund raising via Kroger and Tom Thumb
Today our volunteers handed out our Kroger and Tom Thumb cards. We have 'share cards' now, which volunteer Claire organized for us. When you use a share card at Kroger or Tom Thumb in Texas and Louisiana, 1% of the purchase amount is donated to Straydog Inc. With Tom Thumb all you need is to tell them the share card number and they'll add it to your 'reward card'. The number is TT#10698. With Kroger, you'll need a card, and we will send you one if you'd like!