Bill Arnold's Daily Straydog Log

THURSDAY MAY 13 2004

NOON UPDATE

Erin rescues stray from highway

      Erin was on her way to Straydog Tuesday when she came upon a stray dog walking slowly along the side of the road, cars whizzing by in both directions, no one paying any attention to the poor, helpless animal. Erin stopped and got out of her car calling in a gentle voice for the dog to come to her. At first the dog was afraid and began moving away. Then the dog realized that Erin (who's since named the dog Skipper) was going to help him, and he came to Erin.

      "I had some puppy food in the car," Erin said, "and I laid some out for him on the ground, and he gobbled it up. I tried to touch him and got a nasty growl, which surprised and scared me. I kept putting the food out for him and tried to see if he would eat out of my hand. He did, but every time I tried to touch him or even when I laid the leash on his back, he growled and snapped.

      "I talked to him, and said that if he'd get in the car, I would promise to take care of him, or he could be free and alone there in the country, whatever he wanted.

      "The dog was beginning to walk away, when I remembered the food I had cooked for Rocky. Some Fargo (frozen dog food) buffalo meat that I had heated up with water on the stove earlier. The cooked meat and gravy was in a plastic bowl, which I brought out of the car. The black dog with brown eyes could smell the food, and he came back to me. I gave some of the food to him from my hand, and finally put the whole bowl down for him. He was so focused on the food that I was able to slip the leash over his head and around his neck with no growls. When he finished the food, I asked him if he'd like to get into the car, and he did.

      "I was about 10 minutes from Dr. Morton's clinic so we went straight there."

      Erin dropped Skipper off for his new arrivals check up at Morton Small Animal Clinic, where he received his new arrivals examination, the results of which showed that the former stray does have heartworms but no other worms. Skipper was also neutered yesterday and will undergo conventional treatment for the heartworms as soon as he fully recovers from his neuter surgery.

      Erin picked up Skipper from Dr. Morton's clinic late yesterday afternoon, and now our one briefly vacant kennel (where Jordan and Baby Girl had been living before Jordan was adopted and before Baby Girl moved in with Sandy) is once again occupied.

      There are unfortunately so many homeless dogs (and cats) out there that lately it seems we ourselves come across strays faster than we can open up spots for them.

Here are Pat Arnold's notes on Angel (which Erin referred to yesterday), written and left in Angel's medical file starting on March 2, 1994, six months before we moved to our current location

March 2, 1994 - I found Angel about 6:00 p.m. this rainy evening. Our daughter Stacey was here visiting for a while and left at 5:30. I had mentioned to Stace the conversation I had had this morning with my angels, telling them we have to work together on saving these stray animals and for them (my angels) to guide the strays to me (or to some other caring person). I asked that the angels watch over and protect the strays until I (or other caring people) can care for them.

Anyway, Stace left at 5:30 and at 6:00 all our dogs were barking like crazy. I went out in the rain to check on the problem, and I saw a stray dog (who appeared to be a nursing mother) wondering down our street. I kept calling to her, and finally she stopped in front of a house about a block away, then turned and came running to me. She jumped up and clung to me, standing on her hind legs, her front legs wrapped tightly around my waist, and we walked together this way all the way back home.

Next I got her into the car, ran in and called Dr. S., and luckily the clinic was open till 7:00 tonight. So off we went. Dr. S. said the dog was half starved, had had pups, and that she'd be okay with lots of tender loving care, which we will certainly give her. She's at the clinic now, and I'll get her tomorrow. The angels did send her to me, and I THANK my angels!

May 13, 1994 - I had to take Angel to the Henderson County Humane Society today. She's dug out at least five times since she's been here, and I haven't been able to stop her. The Humane Society seems very nice. A sad thing to do, tho.

May 17, 1994 - I missed Angel very much, and we figured there had to be a way to keep her in the yard, so I secured the entire bottom of the fence in six-inch-high by six-inch-wide cement (thirteen 80-pound bags), and then I put fifty 16" by 16" by 4" concrete blocks at the bottom of the fence line. This secured Angel's area. Then I went to the Humane Society and got Angel back. She's home!

Pat continued doing the kind of things she did above with ever greater and greater intensity for the next nine years

      Angel, a beautiful Black Lab, is getting old now and is beginning to have more and more health problems--chronic ear infections and really bad arthritis, plus she had a malignant tumor removed from her chest about six months ago. No one's ever wanted to adopt Angel, but she's living a happy life here at Pat's Happy Home for Strays.

      Angel was pictured with Pat in the first article written about Straydog in The Dallas Morning News on March 13, 1997:

An email regarding spay/neuter help for the 73-year-old rescuer we've been writing about

      Susan Southerland, a member of our board of directors, who also updates our Petfinder.org pages everytime there's a change, sent Erin the following email yesterday:

Dear Erin,

I read your update on the elderly lady with the several dogs & cats that need to be spayed/neutered. The SPCA has "mobile clinics" which travel around in certain areas in Dallas. I think the contact info is in the SPCA newsletter I forwarded to you a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, I accidently deleted the email with my copy of the newsletter.

If you don't have access to the newsletter or it does not have the right info, then let me know. I can then try to contact the Dallas SPCA to find out more about routes and areas covered. The spay/neuter is done "low-cost" or sometimes even free depending on income. Maybe this can help solve the transportation problem for this lady.

Thanks!

Susan

      Thanks a lot, Susan. [And Erin, please follow up on this and get back with Susan if you can't find Susan's email.]