THURSDAY JULY 22 2004

7:00 P.M. UPDATE

The Share Cards from Kroger and Tom Thumb are starting to pay off!

     We received checks from Kroger and Tom Thumb amounting to $121.80 and $68.62 respectively, which equal 1% of what our contributors spent at both of these super market chains, which means that Straydog supporters rang up $19,042.00 worth of groceries on the Share Cards since we began offering them just a few months ago. If you don't have a Share Card, email us and we'll see that you get one for each store.

Ticks are overrunning us!

     I've already mentioned this before, but it's hard to believe that we went more than eight years without a tick here at Straydog, and now they're literally eating us alive! We were told by the locals when we first moved here that as long as the fire ant population stayed high, there would be no ticks because the ants consider ticks a delicacy and gobble them up as fast as they can find them. For some reason the ants have all but disappeared this year, and the ticks are flourishing.

     As you saw yesterday, we spent over $600 (with a discount) on 48 new tick collars Tuesday, and we had already spent $300 on the first 24 tick collars just a week before. Of our 80 dogs 72 of them are now wearing tick collars. The eight dogs who are not wearing tick collars either have skin problems or other illnesses that make it advisable not to put tick collars on them.

     We are systematically spraying each and every kennel with tick spray, moving each set of dogs to a temporary portable kennel while their kennel dries, which takes a few hours for each kennel.

     At the same time caregivers are spending extra time with each dog pulling off ticks and giving each one a bath. We shall overcome this menace.

The excessive heat is calling for more shade areas in some kennels

     We've built and installed a few more of what Pat called "shade boards" in the kennels that had very little shaded area. The dogs appreciate this very much!