Bill Arnold's Daily Straydog Log

SUNDAY MAY 30 2004

NOON UPDATE

Erin's Adoption Day Report ...

No Straydoggers adopted, but two of Angie's pups were adopted

      There wasn't much traffic on the Saturday of this Memorial Day Weekend in the PetsMart where we hold our Adoption Day in Plano (Texas) . We still helped place two small Lab puppies that Angie (the 63-year-old rescuer of dog fight losers among other dogs) had taken in. The families were wonderful.

      One couple, Chris and Miranda, have four Shi Tzus and were just waiting to see a Lab puppy on the Straydog website. They didn't want to go to a breeder. When they read about Angie's story, they called us wanting one of the puppies we had talked about in our Daily Straydog Updates. Chris and Miranda will take great care of the puppy. We're sure of this because they've already made a vet appointment for next Tuesday. After they got the pup home, they noticed tapeworms in the puppy's stools and called us. Angie had wormed the pups for roundworms and hookworms with Strongid-T, but had mentioned that she didn't have the money for tapeworm medicines a week ago. We didn't know that the Lab puppies had tapeworms. Just a little medicine from the vet will clear this up soon!

      Another family adopted Angie's second Lab pup. There are two children, ages 10 and 11, who are honor students. The youngest boy wants to be a doctor. He has about ten books on "Adopting a Puppy" and has been talking about this for three years, his mother said! He asked me about 75 questions over the course of the afternoon, as we were getting supplies, etc., and he also asked Trainer Wanda about 25 questions! The young boy asked things like:

(1) Would it be good to feed the puppy at the same time every day? (2) How much will I feed her? Three times a day? (3) Is it up to me to decide when her toenails should be clipped? (4) How will I know if the puppy is sick? (5) What if the puppy gets hip dysplasia? (6) Are Labs prone to eye disease? (7) Have you heard of gum-bones? (8) Should I get a toothbrush today? (9) Should I give the puppy a bath? How often? What type of shampoo? (10) When can I take her to puppy training classes? (11) How long will it take for her to be house-trained?

      The ten year-old also told his mom that he thinks he should put off his karate lessons for another month as he will need to spend time with the puppy!

      Chris and Miranda (who were adopting the first of the two pups) helped us pick out toys for the other family's Lab pup, good toys for a little puppy. They know about little dogs, and how they can tear up squeaker toys and flimsy plastic rubber toys.

      I think everyone was very happy and excited with their new pets!

Two skinny pups were found living under a bus stop bench in West Dallas

      On the way back home Tina and I stopped by a poor woman's one-room place in West Dallas. This woman had called Straydog asking if we could take in these two skinny puppies she had found by the bus stop. A neighbor had seen someone throw them out of a car, and had begun feeding the puppies. The puppies remained under the bus stop bench, and this woman gathered them up to try to keep them alive and find a home for them other. (Can you imagine the fear these two little fellas must have felt huddling under a bus stop bench with no one to care for them?)

      The woman called both Angie and us (at Straydog). Angie sent us some Strongid-T to worm the pups as the woman said that the female was just bones. We found the woman's residence and met the two pups and began pulling ticks off the puppies. We gave the woman some cans of good dog food and a couple of leashes. We also gave each of the pups two cc's of Strongid-T for worms. This woman can only keep the puppies until the middle of next week. She will have a friend take the pups to Angie's vet, City Vet Uptown on McKinney Avenue (in Dallas). If the puppies don't show signs of a virus, Angie said she would take them in. "But these are the last ones," Angie said. "No more pups after these two. But I can't be worrying about these pups! I can't ignore them."

      "Are these wolf puppies?" a neighbor asked. They look like coyote/shepherd mixes! Hopefully they will be all right!

Nico

      A black and white Australian Cattle Dog (aka Blue Heeler) will be without a home sometime in the next week. The family rescued the dumped dog less than a year ago and had him treated for heartworms. Now this young family is moving to Pennsylvania and cannot take along the rambunctious dog. Nico needs to be neutered and needs training because he has a lot of energy and is very smart! Trainer Wanda (at PetsMart) gave the couple some agility training places to contact, hoping that someone in these groups will know of a foster or permanent home for Nico. "I've called 40 or 50 rescues and none have room," the sad woman told us. "We don't have a fenced yard at the new house and don't have room in the car to take Nico. I don't know what we'll do!"

      Here are photos of Nico the woman emailed to us:

Another email from Lana Isom concerning 73-year-old rescuer, Jesse Evans

Subject: Ideas for Jessie
Date: Sat, 29 May 2004 16:29:33 +0000
From: Lana Isom
To: straydog@straydog.org

Hi Bill/Erin,

As I lay awake last night trying to think of a way to help Jessie, I thought of possibly setting up a web page with her animals and story on it, but, alas, I am not computer literate and hoped you could give me some ideas. I am pretty much floundering in this area.

A side note from my last e-mail. Your exasperation, Bill, over the shelter not honoring Jesse's spay/neuter vouchers pretty much was my reaction. I had a long conversation with the clinic director and got her to agree to accept one of Jessie's vouchers for June. (I set up Mama cat for June 1st.) The director said she would set up another for me in July, which will exhaust Jessie's vouchers. The director explained to me that the MAC organization that puts these vouchers out will honor only 12 per month, and they stay backed up with scheduled appointments. I understand that, I argued, but what do these elderly/indigent people do in the meantime? When I volunteered at that shelter, we had several programs in place. No more, she told me. Same old song: no funds left. They are, however, running a special from June 6-11 for $10.00 off any cat spay/neuter. I called Jessie to let her know I would be by her place next Tuesday morning, and in the conversation I find out that not only does Jesse have the new weaned litter but yet another older litter around three months old that she had taken in. Yikes, Jessie, are there any more?! "No," she tells me. "After I get mama cat in next Tuesday, all adult females will be taken care of."

I immediately called the shelter back and booked a spot for two females while the special is running. Maybe if I can get in one or two every payday, all females will be taken care of before puberty hits. I had planned on helping Jesse start on her male dogs who aren't neutered. (Jesse explained that she had had to focus on the females and had no money left to get all the males fixed.) We agreed that the ladies are going to have to come first unless we can get the younger ones adopted out.

Thanks so much, Erin and Bill, for your help. I know you have more than you can take care of and little time, but I would appreciate any information or ideas you can give me on this website suggestion. If you ever meet this little lady (Jesse Evans), you will understand why my heart goes out to her. Her gratitude just puts me in tears every time I talk to her.

[Response from Bill: If you'll email me the stories and photos, Lana, I'll put a special link to a file on our website we could call something like "Jesse's Page." ... Also a note to everyone: Please don't be afraid that we at Straydog are spreading ourselves too thin by helping other rescuers. We must never forget that we are all in this together. No dog (or cat) is less important than any other dog (or cat). They and we are all One.]

It's almost noon Sunday (POST TIME), and I haven't gotten to the photos yet

      I just opened the camera case, which Erin delivered to me last night after she and Tina got back late from Adoption Day, and there are nine floppy disks full of photos waiting for me to process and post on this website. I'll be lucky if I get them all done by sundown.

      I also need to get the next newsletter composed, printed and mailed by June 1st, and I haven't even started on it yet. (Remember back in school how tremendously busy and hectic things were at final exam time with final papers due along with all the exams to study for?)

Patch and Whiskers are doing fine

      We're keeping them as quiet as possible so they won't undo the work the vets did to repair their legs.

Both Lucy and Gordo (Juana's kids) came to help their mom today

      And here they are helping Caregiver Tina with Penny and Scooter during this pair of dogs' afternoon turn in the park:

Bill Arnold's Daily Straydog Log

SATURDAY MAY 29 2004

10:30 A.M. UPDATE

Erin reports ...

Patch and Whiskers arrived at Straydog late yesterday afternoon

      Patch and Whiskers are both very sweet dogs. They rode well in the car, except when I called Angie to tell her how good Patch looked. Patch heard me talking and started whining pretty loud!

      Patch's surgery is to be thought of as if it were a "fractured leg," Dr. Arnold said. Patch has two pins holding bone and tissue together. The biggest challenge will be to keep him quiet. We have sedatives for Patch to help us with this, and we are keeping him in a quiet room in our hospital trailer except when we take him out to potty. When Patch first arrived we put him in a large hospital kennel, and he was so excited that he threw his little bed around and played with all his toys. After about fifteen minutes he calmed down though. Later Juana put him in a smaller kennel to restrict his movement even further. We can't take a chance on letting the rambunctious puppy dog undo what the surgeon has done, or we'll have to start all over again.

      Whiskers likes (and will fit right on top of) the little pillow in his kennel. Whiskers (who had been hit by a car) had a femoral head removal to repair the damage to his leg. Also, Dr. Cannon said that he had to remove some of the bone. Two weeks after the surgery we will have to begin therapy aggressively if Whiskers doesn't put weight on his leg.

      Patch is probably already putting too much weight on his repaired leg. We will be doing warm compresses on Patch's leg four or five times a day, but we don't need to do this for Whiskers.

      Both dogs have worms and have medicines for this along with their antibiotics and pain/inflammatory medicines. Thank goodness both dogs are heartworm-free. These two sweeties will make wonderful pets!

Adoption Day goes till three this afternoon at PetsMart in Plano

      Come on by and see the dogs making today's trip and visit with our crew of volunteers. ... And adopt a dog if you can make room for one.

      Adoption Day results to come in tomorrow's update.

Might any of our Straydog supporters be looking for a summer job?

      We need a couple of part-time dog walker/caregivers for the summer. You have to love dogs and be big enough and strong enough to handle dogs (as our volunteers do at Adoption Day). Straydog is about one hour and 15 minutes southeast of Dallas. The jobs will pay $6 per hour and may require five or six hours of work every day out in the hot sun. Call Juana at 903-479-3497 if interested.

So far one high school student has answered our "help wanted" ad first posted in the Wednesday 5/27/04 update

      We'll be having Whitney Heart out for the "audition" (which includes going into each kennel and meeting with each and every dog for their approval) as soon as school's out.

      Any others out there who may be interested in working for Straydog this summer?

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)

CURRENT WEEK

SUNDAY May 23 2004:

* Erin's Adoption Day Report: 5 dogs adopted!

* First Baby Girl was adopted;

* Second adoption of the day: Puppy Thelma;

* Puppy Holly was adopted by one of our volunteers;

* Two of Angie's pups were also adopted;

* Tiger, Angie's rescue from within her neighborhood, is now kenneling at Straydog [PHOTOS TO COME];

* Email from a woman whose son will build some dog houses for Angie;

* Email from Renate containing the "Rescuer's Creed" by Susan M. Pearson.

MONDAY May 24 2004:

* Patch to have his first surgery today on one hind leg [PHOTO OF PATCH];

* Rocky's slowly gaining more and more strength every day [NEW PHOTOS TO COME];

* With all of the adoptions Saturday (three from Straydog) we're mixing and matching kennel mates;

* Keeping up with which dogs are in what kennel must be difficult for you readers;

* Correction about Holly's adoption;

LATE BREAKING NEWS:

* Baby Girl's being returned this afternoon.

TUESDAY May 25 2004:

* Patch's first surgery went well;

* Puppy Thelma is now Puppy Coco [PHOTO];

* Operation Kindness's 10th Annual "Dog Day Afternoon";

* Baby Girl's back in with Sandy, and Jeannie's back in her hospital kennel;

* Thanks to Pam and Gary Bollinger, who visited last Friday looking for another older dog [PHOTOS].

WEDNESDAY May 26 2004:

* Patch is progressing well and is ready to come home;

* An injured dog named Whiskers;

* Yesterday's vet visit to Dr. Reeves' clinic in Tyler;

* Because Rocky's improving so well, he didn't make the trip to Tyler;

* Might any of our Straydog supporters be looking for a summer job?

THURSDAY May 27 2004:

* Patch and Whiskers won't join us till Friday;

Erin reports ...

* Update on Patch and Whiskers;

* Two people need some fencing for their dogs;

* Rocky's doing better, though he stays inside sleeping most of the time;

* Old, Sassy Katie's still hanging in there

* So far one high school student has answered our "help wanted" ad posted in yesterday's update.

FRIDAY May 28 2004:

* Patch and Whiskers will arrive this afternoon about three p.m.;

* Rocky continues to do better [PHOTOS];

* Email from a Straydog supporter who helped out Jesse, the 73-year-old rescuer of dogs and cats whom we talked about recently;

* Response from Bill about the SPCA suggesting postponing spay surgery because of coupons!

* An email concerning a tent being donated to Straydog for the Operation Kindness "10th Annual Dog Day Afternoon" event to be held Saturday, June 5, 2004 (Go to OperationKindness.org for details).

 

LAST WEEK

SUNDAY May 16 2004:

* No new updates on Rocky yet;

* Erin hasn't been able to get Straydog emails for three days;

* Update on Angie (the 63-year-old rescuer of dog fight losers) and Jessie (the 73-year-old rescuer) and friends who are helping them;

* Update on Puppy Grace;

* One potential adoption yesterday at Adoption Day;

* EVENING UPDATE: Rocky should be ready to come home tomorrow or the next day.

MONDAY May 17 2004:

* We talked with Dr. Reeves about Rocky at a little before 11:00 this morning: Rocky can come home Tuesday!

* Skipper, Erin's latest rescue, has developed a big swelling after his neuter surgery [PHOTOS];

* Angie, the 63-year-old woman who rescues dying dogfight losers (among other helpless dogs), is planning to rescue and bring the Pit Bull named Tiger to Straydog; also Patch is going to get his necessary surgery [PHOTOS];

* Jessie, the 73-year-old dog (and cat) rescuer, is overwhelmed with the generosity of some of our Straydog supporters.

TUESDAY May 18 2004:

* Rocky will come back home to Straydog with the other dogs who are going to Dr. Reeves' clinic today for a visit;

* Jason, on overnight duty last evening, rescues a stray on the way to work [PHOTOS];

* Emails from Straydog supporters who are trying to help Angie and Jessie;

* Katie's still doing okay and will go to Dr. Reeves for acupuncture today [PHOTO];

* Erin's report on her trip to Dr. Morton's clinic late yesterday afternoon with Skipper and Blackie.

WEDNESDAY May 19 2004:

* Rocky's home and doing fine after waiting at Dr. Reeves' clinic for four of our other dogs to see the doctor before we could all drive back home together yesterday evening;

* Bill Wheeless memorial note;

* Erin's report on our vet visit to Dr. Reeves' clinic (with lots of PHOTOS to come);

* Update on Blackie and Skipper, who went to see Dr. Morton Monday evening;

* Angie, the 63-year-old rescuer of dogfight losers and other dogs, will make the appointment for the surgery for Patch at Sherrill Veterinary Hospital, 1709 E. Beltline Road, Coppell, Texas 75019 [PHOTO OF PATCH];

THURSDAY May 20 2004:

* Rocky's eating well, but he tires so quickly;

* Update on Angie and Patch;

* An email to (and response from) Erin regarding contributions toward Patch's surgery;

* Another email regarding donations to Angie;

* Wishing for a foster home for Lydia;

* Summertime blues: too much heat and too much hair;

* Please consider adopting Mandy [PHOTOS].

FRIDAY May 21 2004:

* Rocky continues to do well [PHOTO];

* Patch's first surgeries are scheduled for Monday [PHOTO];

* Original proposed foster home for Patch is not going to work;

* Angie needs metal buckets, bungee cords, 12- and 15-foot cables and wooden dog houses;

* We received an email from Henry's family: Henry's doing fine!

SATURDAY May 22 2004:

* Adoption Day today, where Tiger will join us;

* Adoption Day home visit for both Baby Girl and Kerry;

* Update on Lydia, Angie's rescue who is picked on by Angie's other dogs;

* An email to Erin about carts for dogs with hind leg disabilities [SEVERAL LINKS].

 

PREVIOUS WEEKS (TABLE OF CONTENTS of Previous Updates)

      Mandy is one of our long-haired dogs who would rather be in Canada or Alaska than here in Texas! She would love a home where she could be inside the air-conditioning and on a loving guardian's bed! Mandy is very sweet and playful. She's is approximately seven years old and gets stressed out going to Adoption Days, so we don't take her often. Occasionally (but not often enough) we feature Mandy here on our update to give her another chance at someone seeing her who might want to adopt her. Some folks have written in about her, and contacted us, but no potential adoptions have worked out so far. Sometimes Mandy is picky about being friends with other dogs! Right now Mandy has a loving kennel-mate named Bear, so she isn't too lonely here at Straydog. But it's just not the same as being an inside member of a family that would be able to spend a lot of quality time with Mandy. Does anyone know of a nice home for Mandy? You can read more about Mandy via "Our Dogs for Adoption" link above, which takes you to our Straydog pages on Petfinder.org.

Spanna, Degenerative Myelopathy help and information: Spanna  (has good cart links)
 
Doggon' Wheels - Wheelchairs for pets, dog carts: Doggon' Wheels
 
Dog Mobility - boots, harnesses, equiwrap: Dog Mobility
 
WHEELCHAIRS FOR DOGS: providing mobility for dogs with hind leg disabilities: Wheelchairs for Dogs
 
Ty-Lift Enterprises® - Specializing in Patented Animal Transport Units On Wheels: Ty-Lift
 
Dog Cat and Handicapped Pet Care Products Services Support and Classifieds: Handicapped Pet Care

     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