Straydog UPDATE posted SATURDAY 12/28/02 at ~6:47 p.m. CT

Pat Arnold's Daily Dog Log

SATURDAY DECEMBER 28 2002

No Adoption Day today

     We're not having our regular Adoption Day today in Dallas, but if anyone would like to come to our shelter anytime to look for a special pet, please call for an appointment 903/479-3497.

Visitors come to adopt a dog!

     Pam and Gary Bollinger are a wonderful couple who adopted Black Lab Maggie from our shelter last January to become a companion to them and their dog, Pepper. Pepper recently passed away after a lengthy illness, and the Bollingers wanted to adopt another dog to become a companion to Maggie. The Bollingers came to Straydog this morning to see all our furry residents.

     What makes Pam and Gary such special people is that they consider a dog with special needs to be just as important as the dogs with no health problems, so they wanted to see all the dogs, and we went to each and every kennel.

     They loved Billy the Boarder Collie, and the fact that he is undergoing treatment for heartworm disease made no difference to them. They wanted to get better acquainted with Billy so I took him into the Big Play Yard where Billy showed Pam and Gary all of his Boarder Collie tricks. Billy is a very smart fellow.

     And they also liked Sir Anthony and his companion, Little Susie. When it was Anthony and Susie's turn to play in the park, Pam and Gary joined these two fellas to get to know them better too. Knowing that Sir Anthony has had surgery on his hips for hip dysplasia and that Little Susie has had knee surgery to repair a cruciate ligament tear did not phase the couple. It simply did not matter.

     The Bollingers' hearts went out to older fellow, Dallas, and he did a very good job of doing all the cute things he could think of to win them over, along with lots of affectionate rubbing against them as they sat on the sandy ground in his kennel petting him. I told them about Dallas having had two tumors removed from his leg several months ago, and that one of the tumors was cancerous but that the doctors felt confident that they had removed all the cancer. Again, this past health problem did not matter to the Bollingers. They thought Dallas was just a wonderful little dog.

     And of course they loved the three little motherless puppies, Melinda, Blake and Bonnie.

     Now they will take some time to make the tough decision as to which dog or dogs to adopt, and they will let us know soon.

     They would have liked to adopt them all, they said as I walked them to their car.

Melissa's new family is definitely keeping Melissa

     I was concerned about Melissa since her new family appeared to have mixed feelings about whether to keep her since the illness and then death of their 20-year-old cat, which happened soon after Melissa's arrival at their home, so I called the family this morning to see how everything was going and how Melissa was settling in. The dad said the family had been very distraught over the loss of their cat, whom the sons had known all of their lives, but they do indeed love Melissa very much, and they all consider her very much a part of their family. This is great news! (See photos of Melissa at her new home via the link under "Photo Pages" below.)