Straydog UPDATE posted THURSDAY 12/26/02 at ~7:47 p.m. CT

Pat Arnold's Daily Dog Log

THURSDAY DECEMBER 26 2002

Melissa is being returned to our shelter

     The call from the new dad of Melissa surprised me this evening, and at first I thought it was going to be a happy update of Melissa's second day with their family, but the news wasn't so good.

     Melissa is getting along okay, the dad said, but the two family cats weren't taking things so well, he explained, and the one 20-year-old cat, who had recently begun to show signs of her old age, had had a stroke this morning. He didn't think it was necessarily because Melissa was there, but the fact that the cat has been having health problems since Melissa's arrival was quite enough for the family to deal with, he said, and the family (the parents) didn't want to compromise the cat's failing condition anymore than they had to right now, so the tough decision was made to return Melissa to our shelter.

We're going to talk by phone in the morning to firm up return schedule

     We hate to have the dogs go through a stressful time like this, but
sometimes it happens, and part of the adoption commitment is that if things don't work out, the dog must be returned to Straydog. We know Melissa is extremely happy here at our Happy Home for Strays, so she will be happy when she is returned and joins her kennel mate, Candy once again. And we will then gladly again be in charge of finding Melissa a new home.