Bill Arnold's Daily Straydog Log
SUNDAY FEBRUARY 22 2004
Puppy William shows up out of nowhere!
I'm living in a small RV trailer parked on the property next door to Straydog, and as I was getting ready to go to bed last night, I heard barking just outside. Rocky and Ginger have been spending the nights with me for a while, and when I opened the door to my RV to go out and investigate the barking, Rocky and Ginger ran out to find out for themselves what the barking was all about.
The barking was coming from beneath my trailer. How this little fella got there we'll never know. I'm assuming someone dumped the puppy along the side road. It's a long way from the road to my RV, but somehow the pup got there and hid under my trailer. I finally coaxed him out and took him over to Jason, Straydog's overnight man, who put the puppy in one of the hospital kennels for the night.
We're so over-crowded we didn't have an outside kennel for the little tyke, and we can't take him to the park to potty, since he hasn't yet had his new arrivals checkup and might have something contagious, so Jason had to walk him several times during the night in the field outside the Straydog fence.
When the main crew arrived at eight o'clock (two early morning feeders come at six every morning), I had Michael build a small temporary kennel just outside Toby's small kennel that encloses the area right next to the hospital trailer's sliding glass door, and we transferred Puppy William (as the crew had already named the pup since I found him) into this new outside kennel.
William looks to be a very healthy pup--a bit plump and not at all malnourished. We'll take him to the clinic first thing Monday morning for his new arrivals checkup and go from there.
Update on Dewey, the paraplegic dog SJ's caring for
SJ Greenwood, the woman who rescued old Katie (and brought her to us) several years ago, called me yesterday with an update on Dewey: This poor dog who was hit by a car and paralyzed from the hips down, is getting the best care possible. SJ got him a baby crib with the high sides and a wagon to carry him around in. She comes home from work several times a day to check on Dewey and change his diapers, and she says he just loves her and begins crying for joy whenever he hears her come in the house.
SJ says that Dallas Morning News columnist, Larry Powel, is going to do a story on Dewey on the 28th of this month, so please look for Larry's column.
Remember the two-hour video Pat made several years ago?
Our daughter, Erin, remembered the video recently and asked that I dig it out so we could view it again.
On February 28, 1998 I filmed Pat going through her daily routine from early in the morning till the sun went down, filling a 120-minute tape. We had between 25 and 30 dogs at the time, and it was our one employee's day off, so Pat did all the work herself: She prepared the dogs' breakfasts, fed the dogs, cleaned the kennels, filled in holes, walked each set of dogs to our big play yard (which had just recently been constructed), did final caregiving rounds, and put all the dogs "to bed" soon after the sun went down.
We happened to make the tape on Pat's 58th birthday. She was still a young, strong, very energetic woman back five years before her death at age 63. Straydog (and Pat) sure looked different back then before we almost tripled in population.
Erin's husband has the equipment to make DVD's of this tape, and as soon as we get some made, we're going to offer copies for free to anyone interested in seeing the video. We'll keep you posted on the progress of this project.
Only the two pugs were adopted Saturday
Adoption Day was slow, and Colby misbehaved so badly our group had to put him in a crate, where he spent a good part of Adoption Day. We should be receiving a complete emailed report from my daughter, Erin, sometime today.
