Bill Arnold's Daily Straydog Log

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 4 2004

7:00 P.M. UPDATE

Kitty Oliver is adopted!

   Erin reports ...

     Oliver, the little kitten I rescued from the busy highway on June 30th, will have a new home this evening!

     This family had had bad luck when they went into a pet store to adopt a kitten recently. The kitten at the pet store and their Lab were brought into a family room for introductions. Immediately the poor, docile Lab was attacked by the hissing, spitting frightened kitten!

     The family heard about the picture of Toby and Oliver on our website and were very interested in a kitten who is okay with dogs!

     Oliver's roommates have been Patch on one side and Happy on the other, with Jeannie across the aisle. Ollie is quite used to doggie barks, doggie smells, and Tina said that she let Patch lick Oliver's face until it was sopping wet recently! "Don't worry, I was careful with Oliver," she told me.

     The Mitchell family will be first-time cat owners, but they are reading up on felines and are getting all ready for their new arrival.

     The 11-year-old has 'kitten-proofed' his room, which will be Oliver's first safe haven. "After reading the information you wrote for us, my son said he thought he'd better baby-proof his room," the mom told me. "He was up until 10:30 p.m. picking things up and putting lids on his bins. Then he came to me and asked me to check his room."

     "We bought the cat food that you suggested, we have his kitty condo bed and litter box all ready. We thought we'd wait a couple days before we introduce Oliver to our hyper (but docile) lab and our other 12-year-old rescue, to make sure that Oliver feels comfortable in his new surroundings first."

     Dr. Mitchell went on to say that she loves her vet on Lovers Lane. The family also promised that Ollie would be an inside cat so he wouldn't get hurt or lost, and they won't declaw him (an inhumane procedure banned in European countries but still practiced in the US).

     If anything doesn't work out they promise to return Oliver while he's still small in order to give us a better chance to adopt him out again.

     "Oh, mom! It'll work out," said the 11-year-old boy, who has been crossing the days off his calendar until this day of adoption. "It has to work out," says the boy, who is waiting with much excitement and anticipation for his kitten!

     Congratulations, little Oliver!!

Erin is delivering Oliver to his new home this evening

     There were some sad faces at Straydog as Erin drove off with Oliver in a small travel crate late this afternoon on her way to Dallas.

To try to beat the heat we've made some changes in our daily schedule

     On our new schedule, which started today, first feeding has been moved up from 6:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. with three qualified feeders arriving at that time (still dark but first light fast approaching). These three employees feed, clean all kennels, walk all the dogs to and from the Big Play Yard and do some special-attention caregiving between five a.m. and one p.m., at which time these early shift employees go home -- just as the day is really beginning to boil. A single Kennel Crew/Caregiver (who can stand the heat) arrives at noon and does special caregiving and some kennel maintenance throughout the afternoon, checking on water and shade for all the dogs and tending to any special needs any of the dogs might have. Then when the night man arrives at six p.m., he and the afternoon person do the second feeding, which will be totally finished by eight p.m., when the afternoon person goes home.

     With this new schedule we've also cut 40 man-hours per week, which will save money.