Bill Arnold's Daily Straydog Log
MONDAY August 22 2005
5:00 P.M. UPDATE
When I walked into Dad's hospital room at 6:50 this morning, Dad was looking toward the door with a scared look on his face. He reached out his hand as I came up to the bed and said, "Thank God you're here!" I was amazed at how clearly he was speaking, and I squeezed his hand and said everything's okay, Dad. Then he said as clearly as he used to speak, "It's too hot in here!" And I said, "Do you want me to take the cover off?" And he said, "Yes."
He also spoke some long unintelligible sentences and would look disappointed and frustrated when I couldn't understand him, but I cheered him up with a lot of words of encouragement like, "You're looking better and you're speaking a whole lot better." Then he asked another question that I could understand: "Doctor say I'm going to be all right?" And I said, "Yes, you're getting better every day, Dad. Don't worry about it."
When his overnight nurse came in to let me know how he'd been from the time my brothers had left (about 10 p.m.) till I arrived a little before seven, she said he had slept well all night without having to be sedated. And when the nurse pointed at me and asked Dad, "Who's that?" Dad said, "That's my boy, Bill."
We'll probably be moving Dad into a skilled nursing facility tomorrow or the next day.
Thanks to everyone for your prayers and wonderful emails concerning Dad.
Juana reports ...
After seeing Jasmine on our website a lady named Mary Ann and her friend came to our shelter to see Jasmine and to see how Jasmine would get along with her dog, Gigi, whom she brought with her. Mary Ann said that she had been emailing Erin and that she was very interested in Jasmine. As we all know Jazzy is kind of hard to get along with among most of her shelter mates here at Straydog. You may remember that we tried her with big baby Colby, and that didn't last long. Then Jasmine used to go the park with Albert (who's since been adopted) and he is so good that he really never got in Jasmine's way, but after a while she stopped liking Albert.
But anyway we welcomed Mary Ann here and I was really surprised when I saw her female dog, Gigi, a Shar-Pei, who at first didn't look very friendly to me. And I really thought that no way would this work out, but your never know until your try (very carefully, of course). We had the introduction in the park (as usual), and both girls sniffed and sniffed each other. Jasmine growled a little at first, but Gigi didn't show any aggression back. They both walked around on leash for a long time and still neither showed any aggression, so we decided to turn them loose. They both ignored each other and everything seemed fine. I got some photos that I processed and uploaded into a holding tank on our website for Bill to pull down and use while he's at his Dad's house in Dallas.
Mary Ann has another male dog (I think she said a Chow), and she wants to introduce him to Jasmine also during another visit. I think Jasmine has a very possible good home, very soon. Mary Ann rescued Gigi from a kill shelter and is an animal lover as also is her friend, and he is very interested on Melly. We will see how everything works out. Our first step went well, but we still we need a home visit, etc. Mary Ann will call during the week to make an appointment to come and bring her other dog. One thing that was very interesting is that Jasmine thought that she was going to a new home right then, because when Mary Ann said let's go to her dog, Gigi, Jasmine got up as quickly as Gigi and started walking with them toward the gate. "No, no, Jasmine," I said. "You'll have to wait a little longer." Jasmine just looked at me as if she were wondering what the problem was.
