Our no-kill shelter is funded solely by our and your contributions to
Straydog Inc., a 1997 Texas Nonprofit Corporation with 501(c)(3) Tax-Exempt Status
(from the Internal Revenue Service - TAX ID #: 75-2756374)
via the ARNOLD STRAY DOG FUND, P.O. Box 1465, Gun Barrel City, Texas 75147

S t r a y d o g . J o u r n a l
. A NEWSLETTER FROM THE ARNOLD FAMILY'S HAPPY HOME FOR STRAYS Published as often as we can find the time, materials and postage money to get it out
INTERNET ADDRESS: www.straydog.orgE-MAIL: straydog@straydog.org
ADOPTION LINE: (903) 479-3497

March 16 - May 31, 1999

Rescued for 77 days, but slipping again Current balance $1,341.97 and we owe the vet more than $2,500
DAILY BALANCE IN ARNOLD STRAY DOG FUND
March 16 - May 31, 1999 The balance in the Arnold Stray Dog Fund is a true and accurate indicator of our financial status, as all donations are immediately deposited into this account, and all expenses (including improvements like kennel fencing) are immediately paid for out of this account as they are incurred, except for the vet bill, which now stands at more than $2,000. (Complete financial records are available upon request, including photocopies of our monthly bank statements, showing each and every check written on the Arnold Stray Dog Fund account, thus explicitly showing exactly where your donated dollars go. We will also be glad to furnish photo copies of each receipt matched with the corresponding check.)

Too much to do! - Pat is up at 3:30 A.M. every morning (365 days a year) working for and with the dogs until she retires for the day at eight P.M. Her two full-time kennel helpers arrive at 4:30 A.M. and work till 2:30 or 3:00 P.M. (One works weekends and takes off two days during the week.) I (Bill) work from midnight till 8:00, 9:00 or sometimes 10:00 A.M. five days a week at my regular job in Dallas, the income from which pays our (the humans') living expenses. (Please remember that neither Pat nor I receive or have ever received any remuneration whatsoever from Straydog Inc.) After working all night in Dallas, I spend my mornings doing chores for Straydog Inc., like mailing out newsletters, picking up mail, purchasing and delivering dog food and other supplies, picking up medicines at the vets or at the pharmacy, going to the bank or stopping by the accountant's office among many other things. Both weekend days are filled with Straydog Inc. projects.

I've taken the time and space above to briefly summarize our busy schedules ONLY as a hopefully acceptable answer to the many and frequent suggestions that we ought to be doing a whole lot more, such as going around to all the other area shelters to begin working with them to come up with and put into effect a plan to make the entire area a no-kill zone, or scheduling evening (and/or weekend) trips to pet adoption centers in Dallas to take a pair or more of our dogs to try to adopt them out, or attending fund-raising seminars around the country to find out the most expeditious ways to apply for grants, or lobbying our state legislature and local government to get them to enact laws forbidding humans from allowing their pets to procreate without a permit that would be issued ONLY after all the homeless dogs and cats in the area had been adopted, all of which suggestions are valid and much appreciated by us. And we agree these things all need to be acted upon as soon as possible. If only there were about 100 hours in each day!

Our (Pat and Bill Arnold's) schedules are jam-packed just honoring our pledge to maintain (with your much needed and appreciated moral and financial support) indefinitely (which means until adopted) 44 dogs (and one feral cat) (currently), most of whom would no longer be alive today if we had not made this commitment. We are also committed to telling you about it all in this newsletter on a regular basis--like at least once a month.

Pat's Plan for a No-Kill World - Pat's method of running our Happy Home for Strays is working. So far it's a success story! Many more than our current forty-four once homeless animals are now living healthy, happy lives. They've indeed become lucky dogs! While we animal-loving humans relentlessly continue to wage war on unplanned dog and cat pregnancies, let us clone the Arnold Family's Happy Home for Strays as many times as necessary throughout the country (and eventually throughout the world) in order to rescue ALL of the rest of the homeless who for whatever reason are NOT being adopted by individual homes. (Pat's Plan is very similar to the method we humans are using at this moment to care for human refugees of war.)

Web site: www.straydog.org- We have a Web site, but I don't know how to make changes to it. Our son, Joe, a computer technician at SMU, got us "on line" when he had some spare time a couple of months ago, but he's swamped now at work and hasn't had time to teach me how to make changes to our Home page myself. Another time-consuming endeavor that has to be done. Our e-mail address is straydog@straydog.org.

War Dogs - AMERICA'S FORGOTTEN HEROES - Nature's Recipe, a dog food company whose products we happen to have been feeding our dogs for years, has produced and recently broadcast on the Discovery Channel a 70-minute documentary (now available on video in pet food stores) showing (without any unpleasant graphic details) what a tremendous sacrifice these loyal, dedicated dogs made protecting "out troops while preventing over 10,000 casualties" during the Vietnam War. Anyone who has even the slightest reservations about whether we humans owe a decent life to all dogs needs only to view even just a few minutes of this documentary to become convinced that our obligation to dogs is inescapable. The video box notes go on to say, "After viewing War Dogs with your family, we are quite sure you will never again view your pet in the same way." The day after I viewed this video, I went around giving every dog in our shelter a big hug, promising each one that I would do everything in my power to provide them with a long, healthy, happy life.

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Straydog Inc. - Arnold Stray Dog Fund
P.O. Box 1465, Gun Barrel City, Texas 75147
.
Our Motto: "STRAY DOGS TO LUCKY DOGS!"
Until the war on unplanned dog and cat pregnancies has been won and there are no more homeless,
lost and abandoned strays, we humans must care for the lucky ones we are lucky enough to rescue. Our (Pat and Bill Arnold's) schedules are jam-packed just honoring our pledge to maintain (with your much needed and appreciated moral and financial support) indefinitely (which means until adopted out) 44 dogs (and one feral cat) (currently), most of whom would no longer be alive today if we had not made this commitment. We are also committed to telling you about it all in this newsletter on a regular basis--like at least once a month. Please send what you can, and we'll continue the work and the reporting back to you.
"Friends of Straydog" to the Rescue! - On Sunday (April 25, 1999) one of our regular contributors, Shelley Woodburn, who had first read the article about us in The Dallas Morning News two years ago, came to visit with her husband, Joel, a dentist from Plano, along with a physician friend of theirs, John Pippin, M.D., and another friend, Susan Devers, to take a good look at our facility and to see if they might be able to help us. After touring our Happy Home for Strays, which included, of course, an introduction to all the dogs, we sat down to brainstorm together in order to come up with at least the beginnings of a "rescue plan" for Straydog Inc. to secure our shelter's existence for the future. Pat and I gave these wonderful people permission to organize a group to be called "Friends of Straydog," who will begin to systematically take the responsibilities of certain projects that will benefit our cause, which projects we (Pat and I alone) simply do NOT have the time to even begin to think about with our current workload. We just heard (at the end of May) from Shelley Woodburn that "Friends of Straydog" has nine members and will hold their first meeting on June 9, 1999. More on "Friends of Straydog" as things develop.