Bill Arnold's Daily Straydog Log

SUNDAY MAY 2 2004

7:47 A.M. UPDATE

Special Sunday Edition of our "Saturday Adoption Day"

     PetsMart was very disappointed yesterday that we couldn't make it due to the stormy weather at the beginning of the day, so they asked if we could bring a van load of dogs up today. Erin got ahold of enough volunteers to dog sit/caregive, and Tina offered to spend her Sunday driving the van and assisting Erin and the crew at PetsMart. The "bus" leaves Straydog at 9:00 a.m.

     Today's roster: Macy (who's scheduled for a home visit), Baby Girl, Holly, Kerry, Little Boomer and Shawna

NOON (and 2:30 p.m.) UPDATE

Dr. Reeves called about two p.m. with an update on Rocky

     Dr. Reeves said Rocky isn't eating well again. The doctor will draw blood tomorrow morning and send it to the lab and then again early tomorrow afternoon. The results of those two blood tests and Rocky's general appearance will lead Dr. Reeves to make his decision about the surgery. He again remarked that many dogs improve greatly right away after having the spleen removed, but it's also possible Rocky won't make it through the operation.

Results of today's Special Adoption Day may not come till the Monday Update

     Although our Adoption Day session is slated to end at 3:00 this afternoon, Tina and Erin will be stopping at Canine Commissary on the way home to pick up a week's supply of dog food, and they usually don't arrive back at Straydog until 5:30 or six o'clock.

I'll be working on last week's photos all afternoon and will post some later

     I took (and am processing) a bunch of photos from last Tuesday's vet visit to Dr. Reeves, plus a bunch Friday when I took Rocky from Reeves Veterinary Clinic over to Shelley Drive Animal Clinic (also in Tyler). Then Erin took a lot of photos of the Friday adoption of Thelma & Louise and the Friday adoption of Emily, which photos I haven't gotten back from Erin yet.

Previous Daily Updates

Bill Arnold's Daily Straydog Log

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS OF PREVIOUS UPDATES

(Click on any day below to see the update of that day)

LAST WEEK

SUNDAY April 25 2004:

* Rain, rain, rain! (Sun came out at noon);

* Both Jordan and Puppy Grace were adopted Saturday;

* Rocky was glad to see his original rescuer, Joe, Pat's and my son.

MONDAY April 26 2004:

* Melissa takes Beagle Pup home--officially adopted! [PHOTO];

* Conception Control via spay and neuter is still our main goal;

* After three adoptions we do some mixing and matching to make kennel space [PHOTOS];

* Rocky visits with Ginger in the park [PHOTOS].

TUESDAY April 27 2004:

* Erin and I are taking Rocky, Katie and others to Dr. Reeves this afternoon [PHOTOS];

* More of little Scooby's hair is falling out around his eyes [PHOTO];

* Email referring to Melissa and the adoption of the Beagle pup.

WEDNESDAY April 28 2004:

* Rocky may need another blood transfusion if his platelets count is too low;

* Foxy, Laura and Jeannie are heartworm free!

* Thelma gets her eye checked, and it's okay;

* Old Sassy Katie is doing better ... again!

THURSDAY April 29 2004:

* Rocky's still holding his own;

* Erin reports ...

* Our herbal heartworm protocol for Laura, Foxy and Jeannie (click on link leading to explanation of the remedy).

FRIDAY April 30 2004:

* Rocky is scheduled to have surgery Saturday morning.

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;

* Saturday Adoption Day is canceled due to continuing storms at Straydog;

NOON UPDATE:

* Rocky is so improved that Dr. Reeves has postponed surgery for a while;

* Three adoptions Friday evening: Thelma & Louise, and then Emily [PHOTOS TO COME];

* Saturday morning update on Emily;

* A 12-year-old German Shepherd joined us Friday [PHOTOS]

 

WEEK BEFORE LAST

SUNDAY April 18 2004:

* This afternoon Juana took the call about Rocky from Dr. Reeves: Rocky's not much better;

* Erin's Saturday Adoption Day Report ...

* Jordan was adopted and will go to his new home next Saturday [PHOTO];

* Macy's got a good shot at being adopted next Saturday [PHOTO];

* Sue Knudsen's Straydog Garage Sale was a success! [PHOTOS]

* Emailed updates on Sam & Baxter (Ann's dogs) and Abby & Willow (Billy Lawson's rescues [PHOTOS]

MONDAY April 19 2004:

* Rocky's doing better again after a blood transfusion from Dr. Reeves' Pit Bull! [PHOTO]

* Diabetic Julie continues to improve;

* An email from Jana (Blind Chubs and Sister Cassie's mom) [PHOTO];

* EVENING UPDATE: Rocky walks outside Dr. Reeves' clinic to use the bathroom, and his urine looks good, but things still don't look great for the old fella.

TUESDAY April 20 2004:

* Sally attacks lawn mower in the park [PHOTOS];

* Update on Rocky, who's doing a little better;

* Email from Blind Stevie and Little Pete Nicholson concerning Rocky;

* Thanks so much, Stevie and Pete;

* Emailed report from Sue Knudsen on Saturday's garage sale [PHOTOS];

* Emails from Billy Lawson and Claudia Sprowso updating us on Abby and Willow.

WEDNESDAY April 21 2004:

* Erin's report on Tuesday afternoon's vet visit to Dr. Reeves' clinic in Tyler:

* Rocky is doing better [PHOTOS];

* Nick, Rocky's blood donor [PHOTO with Mrs. Reeves];

* Katie (insect bites to face) [PHOTO];

* Toby, Rudy and Julie get 2nd hormone shots [PHOTOS];

* Beagle Pup (new guy Melissa's going to make a home for) [PHOTOS];

* Late evening update on Beagle Pup [PHOTO];

* Emailed report on Puppy William, adopted a month ago.

THURSDAY April 22 2004:

* Morning report on Rocky: Doing better but may not be ready to come home yet;

* Thanks so much to everyone who has contributed and who continues to contribute to Straydog;

* This solid base of regular contributors can't be all the people in the world who would feel toward Straydog the way you and I do. If we could just grow our list of regular contributors, it would increase our funding enough so that we wouldn't constantly be sliding into the panic zone;

* A few of the letters accompanying donations;

* We appreciate all the fund-raising ideas and projects many of you propose and undertake on our behalf--PLEASE KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK!

* Expanding (or growing) our list of contributors will be our salvation.

FRIDAY April 23 2004:

* Rocky's coming home this afternoon;

* Old Katie keeps hanging on--but how much longer?

* Dad and Katie are at similar points in their lives [PHOTOS].

SATURDAY April 24 2004:

* Rocky's back at Straydog in one of our hospital kennels [PHOTO];

* Caregiver Michael almost runs over a mangy pup in the middle of the road [PHOTOS of Scooby at Straydog];

* Jordan is scheduled to go to his forever home today.

* A complete Adoption Day report will come in the Sunday Noon Posting.

 

PREVIOUS WEEKS (TABLE OF CONTENTS of Previous Updates)

     Thanks very much to those who have printed out even just one copy of the above three pieces of our newsletter and have passed the newsletter on to (or mailed it to) a potential Straydog supporter. If you can, please print out two or three copies (or five or 10 copies) and distribute them to potential supporters. If all 300 of our daily readers printed out and distributed just one copy, Straydog would be exposed to 300 new people. If all 300 of you printed out and distributed 10 copies, we would reach 3,000 new people!

First email from a reader who printed out and mailed out copies of our newsletter

     Thanks a lot to longtime supporters Deana and Jim Hanson, who followed my suggestion to make copies of and mail out to friends the PDF files of our newsletter--with color photos too!

     It probably won't happen anytime soon, but the technology is here to do away with mass printing and mass mailing altogether. It's already possible to read and print out entire books on the Internet.

     We encourage others to do what Deana and Jim have done:

Bill,

We printed newsletters, and Jim put them in the mail today. Good luck! Please let us hear from you if your shelter runs short on anything. We'll try and help.

Happy Easter,

Deana and Jim

     If you have a big enough list of people to pass out (or mail out) our newsletter to, you can simply call your local copy center (a Kinko's, for example) and tell them to go to this website (www.Straydog.org) and print out as many copies as you want of the three PDF files via the above three links. Then you can have the copy shop deliver the copies to you or you can go pick them up and do your own mailing of our three-piece newsletter. (And please never worry about the copyrights to our website materials. We want as many people as possible to make copies and distribute them!)

Expanding (or growing) our list of contributors will be our salvation

     If a mailing list of 2,500 people can sustain our operation as it has, just think what a mailing list of 3,000 or 3,500 contributors could do.

     Before the first article about Straydog was published in The Dallas Morning News (on March 13, 1997) we didn't know there was anyone else in the world who felt the way Pat and I felt about homeless dogs, and we had never asked anyone to help us. We believed that most people thought we were crazy. (And indeed many humans did and still do.) During 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996 and the first quarter of 1997, we (with no donations from anyone) paid all the expenses of taking care of all our rescues--a total population of eight rescued dogs in 1992 which had increased to 24 dogs at the time of the publication of The Dallas Morning News article in 1997. Pat and I always felt tremendous appreciation for the financial and moral support we began receiving from our supporters after that first article appeared in the newspaper. Six hundred people contributed more than $40,000 to Straydog (or the original "Arnold Stray Dog Fund") in March 1997, and from that point we continued to grow and grow and grow until we finally (two years ago) put a limit on ourselves of 65 dogs, which population has since swelled to 80+ dogs.

     Thanks so much to all of our contributors! We couldn't keep this operation going without you. Pat always said you all would continue to support us, and you have. And we at Straydog continue to rescue, care for and adopt out homeless dogs exactly the way Pat would have wanted. Thank you so much for your continuing support! ... Bill Arnold