Bill Arnold's Daily Straydog Log

SATURDAY MARCH 13 2004

NOON UPDATE:

Today's Adoption Day roster includes Lisa-Lisa, Macy, Rosie, and Penny & Scooter

     If someone wants to adopt Lisa-Lisa, they have to also adopt Big Boy (per standing orders from the late Pat Arnold). Penny and Scooter must also be adopted together. Why? Why did Pat insist on some dogs being adopted with their kennel mate? It's sometimes difficult for non-shelter people to understand this, and Pat didn't know when she started rescuing dogs that there would every be the necessity to adopt certain pairs together. But from Pat's point of view and now from our point of view there's something more important than that any individual shelter dog find an individual family home. And that is that the kennel mate left behind, who was living a happy life with his or her kennel mate (at our Happy Home for Strays), will again be able to find a compatible kennel mate to go through the days of shelter life, day after day after day, enjoying as happy a life experience as possible.

     Big Boy had been living in an abandoned warehouse when he was rescued by Billy Lawson (a long-time Straydog supporter) and a friend and brought to us. Big Boy is a semi-feral dog. He's not friendly at first. He's afraid of most people until he gets to know them really well. This is why he can't make the trip to Adoption Day at PetsMart.

     For a long time after Big Boy first came to Straydog, we couldn't find a compatible kennel mate for him, and he had to live alone and was not a happy dog. Then we noticed that Big Boy and Lisa-Lisa had begun wagging their tales at each other through the park fence. They were promptly introduced on leash in the park, and they hit it off right away, and Lisa-Lisa moved in with Big Boy. To Pat it was like a miracle finding a companion for Big Boy, and once she found a successful match up between dogs who had been seemingly incompatible with everyone, Pat vowed never to split them up. I can remember many times hearing Pat say things like, "It's a tremendous task just matching up dogs who are relatively compatible with most other dogs." Pat's most important goal was that Straydog always remain a happy home for all the strays, and especially the ones who might never be adopted.

It's too early to tell if the weather will force us to cancel tomorrow's "Dog Training Event" 

     We'll post an update as early as possible tomorrow morning announcing whether the event is on or off.   

Steve Blow's column in Friday's Dallas Morning News entitled "Others keep animal lover's kindness alive" sure moved me

     I just happened to notice this headline when I was taking the Friday paper off my Dad's breakfast table and substituting this morning's newspaper for him (a couple of hours before Dad woke up).

     Twenty-five years ago a young woman in her twenties named Suzanne Darsey stopped to help a dog who'd been hit by a car. The woman herself was then struck and killed by another car. This story struck a chord that caused me to start crying, and it took me quite a little while to compose myself again. What sacrifices so many are making to try to rescue helpless animals! The SPCA gives out an annual award, this year to one of its outstanding volunteers, called the Suzanne Darsey Humanitarian Award.

FIVE P.M. UPDATE:

Adoption Day Results (phoned in by Erin on a fading-out cell phone, so I hope I got the facts right)

      Lots of action, lots of traffic in the PetsMart store, but no finalized adoptions.

   Puppy William

      A family came into PetsMart and was very interested in Puppy William, who wasn't present at our Adoption Day session because he's still in quarantine after having spent last Monday and Tuesday in with Holly and Grace before they came down with what so far have turned out to be very mild cases of parvovirus.

      If William continues to stay well, we'll be taking the growing pup to Adoption Day next Saturday so we can go on the home visit and finalize the adoption. Erin said that from talking with the family she got a very positive impression of them as being very good dog people.

      Their little boy was so enthusiastic about adopting Puppy William that he gave Erin $5.00 of his own, saved-up money to be sure we hold Puppy William for the family.

   Macy

      Another family is very interested in Macy. They'll be back next week to make a final decision.