Straydog UPDATE posted WEDNESDAY 1/1/03 at ~8:07 p.m. CT

Pat Arnold's Daily Dog Log

WEDNESDAY JANUARY 1 2003

Happy New Year, everyone!

Friends of our Happy Home for Strays come to visit

     This was a special day, because we had long-time friends of Straydog, Norma, Barbara, Kelly and Roseadair visit our shelter again, and they brought along their friend, Marilyn, who works at a shelter similar to ours in Virginia, and Marilyn's daughter. Marilyn wanted to see how we ran our shelter. It's always interesting to "compare notes" with others who do what we do, and Bill and I enjoyed talking with her.

     Kelly adopted Princess from us nearly two years ago, and we all laughed when Kelly told us how big Princess has gotten, because I had been told by our vet that Princess wouldn't gain much more than her 25 pounds, which is what I had told Kelly before she adopted Princess, and now Princess weighs nearly 50 pounds! "She is SO Big!" Kelly laughed.

     We took the tour of our shelter, talked with all the dogs as we passed their kennels and compared notes on shelters with Marilyn and her daughter.

     Norma brought us some delicious baked goods. (I nibbled on the cake and cookies and rolls soon after they left, and couldn't wait till dinner for the casserole dishes she also brought.)

Little Chubs is doing fine

     He is such an adorable tiny puppy and still so young that he spends most of the time sleeping, waking to eat and go potty, and then he goes back to sleep again. I brought bigger puppy, Melinda, in to be with Chubby for a while again today. She washes his face and kind of paws gently on him to see if he will play, but Chubs is still too little.

     Our house dog, Blackie, always sits right beside Chubs when I put Chubs on the floor to slurp up his soupy meals (see photo page #4 of current week), and Blackie watches intently as the pup eats, and big, 85-pound Toby sleeps at night right beside the baby pup's kennel, which is in our living room/office.

     We received a cute email message from our adopted dog, Stevie, who is also sightless. Bill will include the message. Stevie and his seeing-eye buddy, Little Pete, were adopted together by Mike and Ann Nicholson. They are such a wonderful couple, and their hearts went out to Stevie when they read about him in our newsletter more than two years ago, and they wanted to adopt both dogs together! We hear from them often about all the cute things "their boys" are doing. And here's the email from Stevie:

From :
Stevie (a totally blind dog) and Little Pete (Stevie's seeing-eye buddy)

To :
STRAYDOG@straydog.org

Subject :
Happy New Year!

Date :
Wed, 1 Jan 2003 15:34:21 EST

     We just wanted to say " Hi" and wish everyone back home (at Straydog) a very happy new year! We also want to tell anyone out there thinking about the problems with adopting a blind dog that our dad says every day it becomes more and more rewarding to be able to give a handicapped puppy a chance at a happy house life. So somebody better run to Momma Pat's and grab up " Little Chubs ." If they need anymore encouragement, have them call ME !!!!!!!!!

Love,

Stevie & Little Pete