Bill Arnold's Daily Straydog Log

SATURDAY MAY 1 2004

7:41 A.M. UPDATE

Update on the results of Rocky's surgery will come when we hear from Dr. Reeves

     Please continue to pray for the old fellow, who's scheduled for surgery at 10 o'clock this morning.

Saturday Adoption Day is canceled due to continuing storms at Straydog

     It stormed hard most of the night. Our hospital trailer was full of our regular patients (Julie, Foxy, Katie and Jeannie) plus the several dogs who are terrified of thunder and lightning. As of this early morning posting it's still pouring down rain with no letup in sight.

NOON UPDATE

Rocky's surgery postponed for a while (2 p.m. update)

     When Dr. Reeves arrived at his clinic this morning, Rocky had improved greatly since last night. Rocky jumped up onto his feet, his tail wagging, and he eagerly went outside to go potty. He sniffed bushes and was very interested in all that was going on outside, Dr. Reeves said, and Rocky's bowel movement was good.

     Yesterday the doctor had started Rocky on some anti-cancer meds and was very pleased with Rocky's sudden improvement. Dr. Reeves decided that with this apparent comeback we ought to wait until Rocky regains more strength before the doctor does any surgery. He will keep Rocky at his clinic and will update us again tomorrow on Rocky's condition.

Erin reports ...

Three adoptions Friday evening: Thelma & Louise, and then Emily!

     Tina and I met yesterday at Straydog a little before noon to begin our long drive to Ft. Worth to give longtime Straydog resident, Emily, and Puppies Thelma and Louise an opportunity for new homes.

   Thelma and Louise

     Our first visit was with a wonderful couple who were going to choose which of the two puppies they wanted. They have had Akitas and Chows before and were looking specifically for this mix. "I've never had one this young," the mom said, looking lovingly and in awe of Thelma and Louise. "We can't separate them."

     Tina and I told the couple how the pups fight over their food sometimes, and how they could fight over toys or chew bones in the future. We told the 13-year old daughter that if the dogs ever were to fight, never to try to break them up with her hands.

     The couple's parents came over, and everyone agreed they would get the pups into a training program as soon as they were old enough.

     The mom didn't want to separate Thelma and Louise, not at this point anyway. She didn't want to take only one (which had been her original plan). So, the family was all set to go get a crate large enough for both of the puppies, and baby gates, and bowls, and other supplies at PetsMart after we finally completed our home visit/interview with them.

     Yea for the two cute sister puppies!

   Emily

     Emily was very nervous at her potential new home. But, one of the first things she did was to lick the 11-month old child's face! She was too distracted to eat cookies (dog biscuits), or to explore much.  She wanted mostly just to stay close to Tina. We visited with this lovely family (a young husband and wife and two young, sweet children) for over an hour, and Emily finally seemed to be a little more relaxed. She did explore the back yard, and finally began to eat some treats.

     This family had had a Beagle who had recently died of congestive heart failure. Their Beagle had experienced separation anxiety, so Emily's anxious behavior seemed familiar. The couple thought that with patience and kindness they could win Emily over, and they wanted to have her spend the night. We are all hoping this can be Emily's forever home! (At least two times before, several years ago, Emily was adopted but grew very homesick and had to be returned to Straydog.)

     It's okay Emily, we kept telling her. We still love you, but we want you to be even happier than you are at Straydog! We should all send Emily some comforting wishes. The parents get to work from their home, and the two beautiful children will be nice companions for Emily. We're all hoping this time Emily has found her forever home.

Bill continues the report ...

Saturday morning update on Emily

     Erin just called me and said that she had just heard from Emily's new family. GREAT NEWS! Emily is settling in nicely. She's wagging her tail a lot, and she goes to the door to ask to go out when she needs to, and last night she slept on the big bed with the parents and the three-year-old!

A 12-year-old German Shepherd joined us yesterday

     I didn't have time to report this yesterday, but when I arrived at Dr. Reeves' clinic to pick up Rocky to take him to Shelley Drive Animal Clinic for his sonogram and x-rays, Dr. Reeves showed me an elderly German Shepherd female named Gretchen, whose owner/guardian had surrendered to the clinic to be euthanized because the "guardian" was going to be evicted if he didn't "get rid of" his dog. Dr. Reeves said he had no choice but to put her down if we couldn't take her. I took one look at this sweet, gentle, BIG old dog, and called Juana back at Straydog to see if we could somehow squeeze Gretchen in. Juana said we could put Gretchen in a hospital kennel until a kennel outside opens up. This now leaves us with no available emergency space, but this we consider an emergency. I brought Gretchen home to Straydog yesterday after getting Rocky back to Dr. Reeves' clinic.