Straydog UPDATE posted FRIDAY 1/3/03 at ~8:47 p.m. CT

Pat Arnold's Daily Dog Log

FRIDAY JANUARY 3 2003

Visitors come bringing us dog gifts

     This has been a very busy day, first with our visitors, Rob and Sarah Forsythe, who came to see our shelter and bring many wonderful items for the dogs, including a beautiful, new Big Dog Igloo dog house, pet gates, wire fencing and a new big dog traveling crate, which was full of toys and dog treats!

     We took the Forsythes on a tour of our shelter, and they stopped and talked to all the dogs as we passed their kennels. They saw the dog walks going on (in progress), the kennel team members cleaning kennels, the caregivers giving attention to the dogs. It was so nice to meet this wonderful couple, and we thank them again for all of the doggie stuff they brought!

Chubs is doing great!

     Little tiny, blind Puppy Chubs is doing fine. This fellow has a big appetite now and keeps me hopping with puppy feedings quite often throughout the day.

The three new guys arrive and are looking much better!

It's hard to believe that these three puppies looked a whole lot worse when we rescued them a week ago.

     The three new arrivals, Gidget, Bridget and Justin (who was formerly "Lilly" till we discovered she was a he) come home from the clinic. I went to get the three very mangy puppies who had nearly starved to death after being abandoned and left to fend for themselves for a month until they were noticed hiding beneath the vacant rental trailer across and up the road from us.

     They look so beautiful, I thought, as the vet tech brought them to me one by one. It was beautiful to me to see how FAT their little tummies are now, and even tho they have hardly any fur due to the sarcoptic and demodectic mange that ravaged their entire bodies, they all had had baths and treatments for mange, and what little hair they do have, is now clean and mat free. All of the thick scabs are gone now from their eyes and faces, but we can still see every skin wrinkle in their faces since their fur hasn't grown back yet, which gives them the appearance of little monkeys.

     When the vet tech handed me "Lilly" the little brown pup, she said that we'd have to change Lilly's name. "Lillie is a he, not a she," which they had forgotten to mention to me the many times I called to check on the pups.

     As soon as I arrived home, Guy helped me get the pups settled in their big quarantine kennel. I sat on the ground so they could get used to me, and I was really surprised that all three pups came right over and began climbing up on my lap to give me lots of doggie kisses! If I moved too fast tho, they would cower down afraid, so we'll all have to remember to take it slow and easy when we go into see them.

     Guy thought the name Justin would be a good replacement for "Lilly" (after finding out the little pup was a male) because Guy said, "We rescued him just in time." So the name Justin is very fitting.

     I fed the pups a big dinner, and they gobbled up every bite of food. During their stay at the vet clinic the pups had a never-ending supply of kibbles in their kennel, so they never were hungry there either.