w w w . S t r a y d o g. o r g U p d a t e
POSTED EVERY DAY AT NOON CENTRAL TIME U.S.A.
Straydog Inc., The Late Pat Arnold's Happy Home for Strays, a No-Kill Dog Shelter
P.O. Box 1465, Gun Barrel City, Texas 75147 * (903) 479-3497 * EMAIL: straydog@straydog.org

Bill Arnold's Daily Straydog Log

FRIDAY JULY 2 2004

NOON UPDATE

We're canceling Adoption Day this weekend

     Many of our regular volunteers have plans for the July 4th weekend, and we'll be a little short-handed here at Straydog, so we're giving everyone involved with Adoption Day the day off (including the dogs, for some of whom Adoption Day is a very stressful occasion).

     We'll be at the Plano PetsMart on 75 at Parker Road next Saturday, July 10, 2004 from 11:00 a.m. till 3:00 p.m. as usual.

The horrible battle sounds of the detonation of fireworks make the 4th of July weekend the worst time of the year at Straydog (and probably at many other shelters)

     Some of the dogs just barely tolerate the screaming of the rockets and the tremendous blasts of explosives as the poor, scared dogs hunker down shaking in their dog houses. Others go frantic and try ripping their kennel fences apart and have to be brought inside and kept in the hospital kennels, most of which kennels are already full of ailing dogs. We'll be arranging more indoor kennel space before Saturday night, which won't be as bad as Sunday night, but there will no doubt be enough explosions near our shelter Saturday night to cause quite a bit of unrest among the dogs. Sunday night will be an ordeal!

     The first few years we were at our current location (1994 through 1997), our area was still so sparsely populated that we heard no explosions and saw only a few distant silent bursts many miles away. Those were the most beautiful and peaceful July 4ths Pat and I and the many dogs in our care ever experienced.

     With each passing year more and more of our neighbors (in all directions) have taken up the "ritual," causing all of us at Straydog to go through the period from dark till about midnight as if we were under siege, which the poor dogs think is a reality.

Balance of newsletters will go out tonight or Saturday morning

     There are still about 400 newsletters to be stuffed, sealed, labeled and stamped. If we don't get them finished and to the post office by the five p.m. cutoff time this afternoon, our overnight man, Randy Hopkins, will finish them up tonight and drop them at the post office Saturday morning before the noon cutoff.

Louise and Jackson came through their spay and neuter surgeries just fine

     We'll be picking these two doggies up from the clinic today.

Tons of recent photos to come as soon as I can get to them

     Roberto, my new photo processing guy (who is Juana's 16-year-old son), is spending a couple of weeks visiting his grandparents and other relatives in Mexico, so I'm back on my own for a while, which is causing me to get behind.