Bill Arnold's Daily Straydog Log

FRIDAY September 2 2005

5:00 P.M. UPDATE

     I left Straydog at six o'clock this morning and arrived at Dad's room in the nursing home a little before eight, and Dad was not well. He was breathing very heavily and looked very uncomfortable. The nurse said Dad had been to physical therapy at seven, because at that time he seemed okay.

     I asked if they knew that Dad had been on Lasix for the past six months to help remove water buildup around his heart and that whenever he missed taking his pill, after a day or two his breathing would become very labored as it is right now. An hour or so later they gave Dad 40 mg of Lasix.

     My brother, Pete, is with our father now, and I'll go back right after I finish this brief update.

   Hot

     It's very hot and there's very little wind.

   Scruffy

     Scruffy has a knot on his neck (discovered this morning) that moves around. We'll watch it and probably have it looked at soon by a vet.

   Laura

     Laura was moved inside the hospital trailer yesterday evening as she was limping very badly on both her front and back legs. The vet has already said that it's arthritis in the front and hip dysplasia in the back, and she's already had one hip operation, which didn't really fix her problem. Laura also recently lost her eyesight. A positive note on Laura is that she was cured of heartworms via the herbal method. She is now 100% heartworm negative.

   Fancy & Jimmy

     These two are doing well as new kennel mates. Their only problem is that at feeding time they both want to go into the feeding gate together, which would defeat the purpose of a feeding gate. (A "feeding gate" is Pat Arnold's invention for being able to feed two dogs together in the same kennel at the same time (without an incident). A six-foot gate section is fastened across a corner of a kennel. One dog goes through the gate into the corner and the gate is closed while the dog eats his meal. The other dog is fed in the big, open area of the kennel. With this method there's not a problem knowing for sure who ate how much of their meal, and there can be no fights over the food. When the feeder comes back in five or ten minutes to pick up the empty bowls, the feeding gate is opened and the dog is let out as the feeder picks up the bowl.)

   Old Pup

     Old Pup and (Old) Angel share the big kennel in the kitchen of the hospital trailer as it was deemed at the beginning of the summer that they are getting too old to stand the hot weather, and they've thoroughly enjoyed their stay inside the air conditioning, but lately, Juana just told me, Old Pup has been looking somewhat depressed. We'll keep an eye on him.

     When I got home to Plano from Straydog yesterday, I found that Animal Services had left a note on my door again saying that Tino must be at their place or in quarantine at a vet clinic by noon today.

     I had taken Tino to see Dr. Morton yesterday when I took Patch to get his stitches out, and even though Dr. Morton had written a note to Plano Animal Services on his letterhead that Tino looked in good health and that he recommended home quarantine for the animal, they did not grant us home quarantine.

     I visited Plano Animal Services at 11:00 this morning to look at their situation, and they had a nice, but very small quarantine room for cats with one more spot for a crate. There would be a cat being released today, so Tino would have a disinfected cage to be put into later on.

     "This cat is from Louisiana," the Animal Services woman told me, showing me a sweet cat on the floor in a cage. "It bit it's owner due to stress."

     "Are you getting a lot of animals in from Louisiana?" I asked.

     "Yes, we are supposed to, as more people are brought to Dallas. The Beagle in the front area was given up to us, but hopefully he'll be adopted today. These kittens came from Louisiana," she showed me as we walked back.

     The shelter is very nice. When I brought Tino back at the deadline hour (noon), there was a new coral area set up with four cute puppies, and a lady was coming outside with her children and an empty cat crate.

     "Are you getting lots of surrendered animals this quickly this morning?" I asked, dumbfounded.

     "Yes, it's terrible. People don't realize the crisis we're in."

     I walked around the shelter looking at the beautiful animals in their clean set-ups.

     A young couple wanted to look at "Jacob," a yellow lab. The woman who was helping me earlier was now helping them. "Oh, Jacob was put to sleep this morning," she told the couple, looking at a card on his empty kennel.

     "But we called this morning!" the young woman said in a panic.

     "I'm sorry, but it was already done."

     "Why was Jacob put to sleep?" I asked the woman.

     "We have to make room for the displaced animals from Louisiana," the woman said. "Normally we don't have to do this, but at this time we had to put down the sick animals and the ones who had been here a long time."

     I left pretty sad about the situation for these homeless animals. There were a few folks walking around the shelter looking at animals to adopt, though, cats and dogs, so hopefully several animals are finding homes today.