Straydog UPDATE posted MONDAY 12/30/02 at ~6:47 p.m. CT

Pat and Bill Arnold's Daily Dog Log

MONDAY DECEMBER 30 2002

     Bill: We've been thru a big storm today and are still going thru a medium-light storm, and we're under a tornado watch, so we're busy doing all sorts of things. The crew is checking all the kennels for possible wash out along the bottoms of the kennel fences. Not much damage so far. Update to come as soon as possible. Maybe not till Tuesday morning.

PAT'S MONDAY UPDATE POSTED TUESDAY MORNING:

Puppy, Misty and new arrival, Doodle Bug, see the vet [Monday]

     This morning [Monday] I took our nine-year-old fellow named "Puppy" (or "Ol' Pup") back to the clinic to have his legs and hips x-rayed, Misty was due for her allergy injection, and we wanted to have Doodles (aka "Doodle Bug"), the puppy-dog stray I'd found yesterday in the Wal-Mart parking lot, have her checkup too.

     When I arrived, Pup went in to see the doctor first, and the doctor wanted me to leave Pup for several hours till he could fit Pup in for the scheduled x-rays since the clinic had suddenly become so busy.

     Dr. Morton then gave Misty her allergy injection, and then he checked the new stray, Doodles, who appears to be about six months old, and I also left Doodles for spay surgery. Dr. Morton said I could pick up Ol' Pup and Doodles later on in the day, or leave Doodles for the night if I preferred.

New little blind puppy enters the picture . . .

     It was around 1:00 when the clinic called me to say Ol' Pup was ready to come home, and they suggested I come right away because a bad storm was headed our way, so I left right then. When I got to the clinic, the receptionist was talking with other clients, so I sat and waited to see the doctor. While I waited, I noticed a young woman standing at the end of the room, crying quietly as she cuddled a tiny brown puppy up close to her, gently rocking the pup in her arms. I said nothing to the woman as I could tell she was terribly upset. Sometimes when sad things happen to their pets, people want to be left alone, and I had no idea what was wrong.

     When the other people left the waiting room, the woman with the pup walked up to the counter to tell the receptionist her problem with the puppy, and she could barely get out the words: She would have to have the puppy euthanized because he could not see. He'd been born with no eyes. Several other pups of the litter had died due to severe infection, and the mother had died giving birth to the nine pups of the litter. As much as the woman wanted to keep the blind puppy, she had too much to do caring for the rest of the litter, and she felt she just couldn't make the commitment to this little tyke to give him the special care that he needed.

     Well, that got me talking mighty quick: I interrupted and told her that everything would be fine with the puppy, that there was no need to put him to sleep, just treat him like the other remaining pups of the litter and he would be just fine! But due to other very sad happenings for the family recently with their other animals, the young woman was just too distraught and felt she could not keep the puppy. Then she asked the receptionist if the clinic knew of anyone who would take such a handicapped little fellow, and you can imagine the rest.

So here we are with the little blind puppy the woman had named Chubs

     The woman handed the tiny, sleeping Chocolate Lab puppy to me, and then she left to bring back the type of food she had been feeding him while I went and talked with the doctor about Ol' Pup and the x-rays the doctor had taken.

Ol' Pup's arthritis is getting worse

     The news was just what we really already knew, that Puppy has severe arthritis and as the arthritis is beginning to get worse with age, it is affecting his left knee and his right elbow, plus he also has severe hip dysplasia in his right hip. Nothing can be done, the doctor added, because it's Ol' Pup's right elbow that is causing most of the problems. The x-ray of the front leg also showed a tiny pellet in his elbow, which has probably been there since he was a young pup (which is when we found the little fellow as he tried to cross a busy highway bridge many years ago).

     The doctor said he would look into laser surgery as a possibility for Ol' Pup's elbow, and would get back to us about that. I guess it's supposed to do wonders for dogs with this type of problem, but the doctor added that how long the good effects of the surgery will last is another question we need to find out about.

     It was pouring down rain when I left the clinic with Ol' Pup and the tiny blind puppy wrapped in a towel cuddled on my lap plus the puppy's bag of food. Doodles was still a bit groggy from her spay surgery, so I told them I would come tomorrow to pick her up.

     So now we're home, and several hours have passed. It's been raining off and on all afternoon. Our caregivers made a final check of our shelter grounds and reported that all was secure before they left for the day. The storm continued hitting us hard for a while and then slowed to a medium storm, but all the dogs outside were safe and warm in their hay filled houses inside their shelters.

     I fed little Chubs (who weighs all of 2.9 pounds) his soupy mush, which he wasn't very interested in eating. Then I tucked the little fellow in the big crate that Michael had brought into the house and put in the living room for us, which will be this little tyke's new place of residence.

     The other three puppies, Melinda, Blake and Bonnie are asleep in their big kitchen kennel, old granny dog, Snowflake, is curled up in her doggie bed in her half of the kitchen, Frosty is sleeping at Bill's feet as he works in his office at the other end of the trailer, and Toby and Blackie are snoring away as they sleep beside my chair while I type this update, and it's well past my bedtime.