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Juana reports ...      Edited and posted by Bill 

Bill reports ...

      Tuesday we made an emergency trip to the Dallas Veterinary Surgical Center on Trinity Mills Road at the Dallas North Tollway to see if Sandy's spine could be repaired. In Saturday's full report, which is yet to be written and posted, we will be telling about Sandy's hind legs becoming paralyzed as he suddenly fell on his way to the park for a potty break Friday night/early Saturday morning.

      We took Sandy to see Dr. Morton after the clinic opened Saturday (right in the midst of our continuing preparation for the coming storm that Hurricane Ike was bringing us), and Dr. Morton took x-rays and pointed out a disk that was squeezed together with the disk beside it, which Dr. Morton suspected was the cause of the problem, and he told us to get Sandy to the Dallas Veterinary Surgical Center first thing this week to see what they could do.

      Juana will write a full report on this vet visit. The vet who examined Sandy, Dr. Greg Arnold (no relation to us), said an $800 CAT scan would (or should) tell them exactly what was wrong, and if it was a disk, the surgery would cost $3,500. The DVSC proceeded with the CAT scan, and an hour later Dr. Arnold told us that there was a tumor growing on Sandy's spine and there was nothing more we could do for Sandy but let him go. After shedding some very painful tears, we agreed with the doctor. The DVSC will cremate Sandy's body and send us the ashes. ... Another of Pat's mid 1990s rescues is gone.

      If you search for "Sandy" in our search engine at the top of our homepage, you'll find in the first entry Pat's 1999 account of how she rescued Sandy a few years before that.

Juana's Tuesday Report (Sandy-man's vet visit report begins on page 2)

Thank goodness we weren't hit by Ike very seriously

      Thank goodness nothing serious happened this weekend. There was some heavy rain and some wind, but it wasn't nearly as bad as we had thought it was going be it. We thought we were going to be hit hard by the remainder of Hurricane Ike, but we're still all alive and well. Thank you, God! My three children and I were also very fortunate that on our trip to San Antonio to attend a memorial service for my father we encountered no bad weather as San Antonio was out of the path of the hurricane. Again thank God!

Everyone is happy to be back after being boarded at the clinic

      Sunday, as Tina reported, Bill and David went to pick up our doggies that we had boarded at the clinic. They were so, so happy to see David and Bill arrive at Morton Clinic to "spring" them. Everybody was very happy to come back home.

The Chihuahuas were happy to see Bill at the clinic, but now they continue to bark at him whenever he comes in the hospital trailer

      The Chihuahua gang always barks at anybody who walks into our Hospital I building.  For some reason they especially like to bark at Bill. Bill told me a funny thing: He told me that as soon as the Chihuahua gang saw him at the clinic Sunday morning, they all started to whine and cry, begging Bill to bring them back home. Bill and David carried all the little doggies back to the vans, and they all gave them kisses. They were very happy to see someone they knew. But, as soon as they all came back to their own space in Hospital I, Bill walked in and everybody barked at him like they didn't remember who had "sprung" them from their weekend "jail." It was as if they were saying, "Okay, we don't need you anymore." It was so funny. They were all acting like their old selves. These Chihuahuas are something else!

All hurricane supplies and crates are put back in place

      Over the weekend, we had to put everything back in place, in case something like another hurricane hits again. We are becoming specialists in swift evacuation and protection of our doggies. That's pretty good, in case someday something bad does happen, we will really know what to do and we will do it quickly.

All medicines & food are back in place; dogs back in their larger areas in H2

      Our Hospital II was completely back to normal today. Lacie cleaned it even more yesterday, and the day before David and George took care of the most important things, putting up our medicine, food and so forth. I do want to give a very, very, big thank you to our wonderful crew for helping us during this big storm and for hanging out here, as they were hoping and praying that nothing would happen. And, once again, I want to thank God and Pat Arnold (whom we employees always called "Miss Pat"), who, I'm sure, reached her hand out to protect us all. Inside our Hospital II the dogs were happy to have their bigger kennel areas back. We were very happy to have our doggies back to their normal routine too.

We thank you, Linda!

      Volunteer Mrs. Linda P. came to help and did more filing for us. We really appreciate everything she does for Straydog. Thank you, Linda!

Puppy Skylar has two sores and needs to see the vet; Monica has a knot drained; Hannah is spayed and has eye surgery

      We noticed that puppy Skylar had two sores, one on the outside of his ear and the other on his side. I called the doctor to see if she remembered where she had done the skin scraping the last time he was in. I do remember the doctor telling me that she did a skin test because she was concerned about Skylar's skin. His skin was okay, but now it seems to us that the sores are getting worse. The doctor said to bring him in when we come to the clinic to get Monica and Hannah. By the way, Monica and Hannah are still at the clinic. Monica stayed on Sunday because she had a huge knot (or bump or sack) in the area behind the incision where she'd had her spay surgery. They drained the huge bump, and Monica should be okay now. Hannah just got spayed yesterday, and she also had surgery on her entropion eye. So, later today, we will have somebody pick them up, at which time we'll take Pup Skylar to see the doctor about his sores.