Blog Archives

Monday, September 14, 2015

9/14/2015

BILL ANNOUNCES: Straydog Radio Show covering the events of Monday, September 14, 2015. This is Bill and Juana here early Tuesday morning with yesterday’s report. Go ahead, Juana.

JUANA: We took the camera, so they didn’t get a lot of pictures at the shelter. The first pictures at the shelter were George and the crew. We didn’t have a full crew, but I asked Wayne to come in and help us. We only had Ronnie and Stephanie scheduled for Monday. Our new guy Jacob goes to college on Mondays and Wednesdays. He can work other days, but on those two days he can’t. If we find another employee, we will be able to schedule days off and redo the schedule. But for now, we all have to pick up the slack and work more hours.

BILL: Now is the time to work at Straydog. From now until Christmas the weather is usually very nice and the winter isn’t that bad either.

JUANA: Tyler, Wayne’s Dad, is helping us and working on the gates for park two. He finished the last gate and he put it up for us on Saturday, before he left. His next project is to remove the gates on the small park in H2, the back one, not the one that James built. The H2 dogs now have the whole big park to run and play in. Tyler removed all the fencing panels and Lena and Little Bear were the first dogs to enjoy the big park. They didn’t know what to do. Bear can barely walk, bless his heart, and he had a big area to explore. Lena is a senior dog. She’s a Weimaraner and she’s such a beautiful, beautiful girl. I hope that she will find a good forever home. She’s such a good girl.

Bear is sniffing around the new park. There are not a lot of smells on the ground yet.

Lena is looking around the new park wondering which part to check out first. She is just not sure yet but it did not take her long at all to start exploring.

Stephanie worked in kennels and Ronnie was the walker of the day. Ronnie really enjoys walking the dogs. Stephanie does a good job of walks and she’s very tough, but she’s very thin and the dogs pull her. Ronnie is sturdy. Bless his heart, when Wayne tries to walk the dogs, he’s just like me. He has knee problems and back problems. He barely makes it through the day, if he spends the day walking the dogs. But Ronnie does anything we ask him to do. He took over walks on Monday and he always does such a great job.

There’s Wayne filling up the swimming pools.

There's Stephanie watering down Cesar's kennel.

There’s Ronnie bringing Ethel to the park. Bless his heart, her kennelmate Fred won’t go to the park. He wants to go, but he just won’t let himself go. You can see him jumping and barking.

Ethel loves going to the park. If her kennel mate Fred would go just one time he would find out it was fun.

We had an appointment to take big dog James back to Dr. Lay on Monday. He had his breakfast and his medicine on Monday morning and they wanted to see him at the clinic by noon on Monday. They were going to do at least one more procedure. They might do a few procedures, we don’t know. Then he will come home on Wednesday. It’s amazing. James never wants to go anywhere. We have trouble getting him out of the clinic to bring him home to Straydog. Then we have trouble getting him out of Straydog to go to the clinic. He doesn’t like change. But as soon as he saw the car, he was happy to jump in the car. We didn’t have to pick him up and put him in the car.

Juana gets James for his trip to see the doctor.

Things are ok, James thinks he's going to the park for a potty break.

Once he figured out what was really happening he puts on the breaks and stops.

George had to step in and help Juana get him to the car.

Safe and sound in the car, James looks to make sure Juana is not going anywhere.

We got there just in time. He was ready to go right inside. I had to tell him to wait a minute. He wanted to go right to the kennel that they have for him. The vet tech came and spoke to us. I make notes of everything that he does and I give them to the vet tech. He didn’t vomit at all and that was a good thing. We haven’t talked to Dr. Lay, because he’s been so busy. We talk to a vet tech, who is a very nice lady, and she tells us what Dr. Lay said. He will be ready for pick up on Wednesday at 4:00, but Bill and I won’t be there. George will have to get him.

Inside the office James does not want to wait in the front lobby.

He knows the direction he wants to go.

So off to his kennel Juana and the nurse take him.

We will be in Oklahoma on Wednesday. My girl Lucy left for the Army on July 8th and we haven’t seen her since. That seems like forever to me. She was in boot camp in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and she’s graduating. Hallelujah! She made it through. She’s graduating on Friday and we will get to see her on Thursday. We are going up theretomorrow, so we won’t be late. I can’t wait to see my Lucy, even though I will have to leave her again and I don’t know for how long.

BILL: Hopefully, we’ll see her at Christmas or Thanksgiving.

JUANA: We don’t know.

BILL: We’ll be back again tomorrow with another report from Straydog.

You can listen to today's Radio Show below.

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Sunday, September 13, 2015

9/13/2015

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BILL: Straydog Radio Show covering the events of Sunday, September 13, 2015. Bill and Juana here, it is a couple of days later, and we are getting caught up. Juana, what happened on Sunday? We were both there. We had to work.

JUANA: You were there?

BILL: Yes, on Sunday morning and there are pictures to prove it.

JUANA: We had a full crew and we had a good day. We didn’t get a lot of pictures. Yes, I know why we didn’t get a lot of pictures. The reason is that I plugged the camera in the charger, before we left on Saturday. I kept trying to plug it in and it looked like it was charging, but it wasn’t. On Sunday morning, the battery was low and we only got a few pictures. We had to charge it another hour or two and then we got another few pictures. We need another camera.

One of the good pictures that we took that morning was of Noble enjoying his big, big fluffy bed. It looks like a big ottoman. It’s big enough for a person. It’s a big round dog bed. All of the girls, Lucy, Shelby, Taylor and now Maci like to sleep on it with Noble. His bed looks so appealing. You feel like you could just jump in it and hug Noble. And Noble loves company all of the time. We’ve gotten lots of pictures of the girls with Noble and he loves it! The other day, I took a picture of Maci and Bug. Tiffany was there. When Bug is in Noble’s big bed, he runs Noble out of there. That’s Noble’s bed. I love that picture of Mr. Noble and he’s doing so well.

Noble sure does enjoy all the attention he gets sharing his new big bed.

This is a picture of big puppy James after he ate. Then we took him outside. He’s doing very well. He hasn’t vomited since we brought him home Thursday.

James looks like he enjoyed his meal.

Bill takes James out for an after dinner park break.

BILL: Has he gained any weight?

JUANA: I don’t know. We don’t have a scale. We need to get a dog scale and I need to weigh him. Jeanie, Dr. Lay’s vet tech, asked us to weigh him. He seems very, very skinny. He’s obviously doing better and he’s eating one can of dog food every six hours and he hasn’t vomited. He has had some bowel movements, but he eats very soupy food. He pees for a very long time and sometimes he does it twice and he takes forever. There’s a picture of him peeing. He still has a way to go. He’s doing well. He was going to have another procedureon Monday and he did. We took him back and we left him at the clinic.

Ronnie and Stephanie were caregiving. Ronnie was caregiving Wendy. Some of our dogs’ nails are very sharp and they can scratch you, when they jump on you. Stephanie got the nail clippers and cut Wendy’s nails and she was just lying there and she let Stephanie cut her nails. She’s such a good girl.

Little Wendy is learning that having her nails cut is just part of life. She was such a good girl for Stephanie.

There’s Maci doing walks. She was taking Brownie and Joe to the park.

Look how well Brownie and Joe walk for Maci.

There’s Stephanie caregiving Blondie and Toby.

Blondie can hardly sit still waiting for that treat.

There’s George Jr. caregiving and watering at the same time. It was a hot day, but not as hot as it’s been. We were just watering the shady areas, where the dogs like to lay, so they could be cool. It was around 89 degrees.

George Jr. is multi-tasking. Watering down kennels as he makes his caregiving rounds.

There are The Three Amigos, Jazzie2, Fritz2 and Fletcher. We moved Charlie and Skylar on Saturday and that worked. Charlie isn’t looking to fight with Fletcher anymore and Charlie can’t fight with Luigi and Jazzie either. Skylar doesn’t care to fight with anyone, so all of that is settled.

The Three Amigos

There’s Ronnie caregiving and brushing Harley and Nancy. It’s not a great photo.

Ronnie is brushing Harley but Nancy tells him to hurry up and that it's her turn.

We got beautiful pictures of our two temporary kennels. Wendy is on the left and feral Jimmy is on the right.

Wendy is hard to see over on the left kennel in the shade but she's there. That's Jimmy on the right.

There are more pictures of caregiving and doctoring. Unfortunately, Polly has ringworm for the second time and she can’t go to the park. Eventually she and her kennelmate will be able to go to the park. We hope it’s soon. She is getting better.

Polly gets doctored for the ringworm fungus. That's Mr. Friendly on the left smiling at the camera.

There’s Oreo smiling at Bill and Mr. Panda on his right. Oreo always barks at you.

That was our Sunday. It was a busy day, but we didn’t get a lot of pictures.

BILL: We will be back again soon with the Monday report.

You can listen to today's Radio Show below.

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Saturday, September 12, 2015 - Foster Dog Maxxie Adopted

9/12/2015

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Great News!
Foster dog Maxxie was adopted this past Saturday
Congratulations Maxxie!

Maxxie lies on the cool floor as her new buddy Carter proudly stands next to her.

Carter tries to get Maxxie to play.

Maxxie tells her new mom she likes it here.

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Saturday, September 5, 2015

9/11/2015

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BILL ANNOUNCES: Straydog Radio Show covering the events of Saturday, September 5, 2015. Bill and Juana here in the van on the way back from Tyler, where we just dropped off big dog James. We already talked about that on our Friday show. Here’s Juana with the Saturday report. Go ahead, Juana, you hold the mike.

JUANA: Yes, Bill. It was a very, very sad morning at Straydog. I spent the night at the shelter to help our overnight crewmember, David Ford, take care of Zack and James. Zack had surgery to remove his leg earlier that week and then on Friday we went to get big dog James. He came home to Straydog for the weekend. I went to pick James up at the clinic on Friday, so I could learn how to care for him. I needed to know how to feed him and give him his medicine.

Around 9:30 p.m., I was checking on Zack and changing his bedding and talking to David. I was giving Zack water, because he wasn’t moving very much. I also gave him his medicine. He drank a lot of water and raised his head and looked at us. I guess that was goodbye. I realize that now. It was a sad look and he looked right at us. He seemed fine. As far as I could tell, he wasn’t breathing hard or panting and he seemed comfortable. He passed away around 11:30 that night. I had just gone back to the little trailer, where David and I were taking care of Zack and James. It was so sad and so unexpected. I thought he would pull through. He was such a strong dog. He never stopped eating and he never stopped fighting. He wasn’t using his leg, but I guess it was just too much for him. I thought he would have made it. Lisa’s Big Boy was old and fragile, when the same thing happened to him years ago, and he made it. It might have been the weight on Zack. I just don’t know. He passed away. Rest in peace, our Zacky-boy. I am so sorry that this happened to him. He was such a great dog.

Big puppy James did well. He didn’t vomit and he was taking his medicine and eating. He was going outside and he was doing well.

Almost every Saturday we attend an adoption event. David Rentz and our wonderful volunteers were going to an Adoption Day event at Petsmart in Mesquite. David was taking Chester, Patrick, Miss B and Genie. Genie was kind of scared, but she needs to find a forever home. She’s such a wonderful little black dog. She’s a Cocker Spaniel/Lab dog mix and she’s just an adorable baby. We also had a home visit scheduled for Mariela. She was adopted and she went to a good forever home. We got a full report and pictures of that from David. Like I said, Mariela was adopted but none of the other dogs were. Sometimes it just takes a long time to find good forever homes. We will just have to give it time.

David gets Mariela ready for her home visit later this morning.

Mariela checks out the back yard while her new buddies and her new mom chat with Erin.

Mariela says that we can go ahead and go now, she's happy and that this place is going to be just fine.

Back at our shelter, we were shorthanded again. Maci, George Jr., Wayne and I were the only workers. I hired four girls about a week or so ago and I thought that we would have plenty of help. Shelby normally works on Saturday, but she asked if she could take time off and go to Oklahoma this weekend. It was Labor Day weekend and she didn’t have school on Monday. Little did I know that none of the new girls would show up. We still did everything that we normally do and the dogs were happy.

We also had a visit from two of Stacey’s friends. They were interested in Marcela. I thought it was so cool. Mariela had a home visit and Marcela had people interested in her on the same day. Mariela and Marcela were rescued together and they are so very sweet. They are full grown and so friendly and they are potty trained. Stacey’s friends came to meet Marcela. They said that they were thinking about bringing their other dog to meet Marcela later on that day. Later that day, they texted Stacey and said that they would pass on Marcela.

Marcela greets the visitor who came to meet her.

Marcela takes her visitor for a walk in the park.

And here she is taking the other visitor for a walk.

In addition to having such a sad day and losing Zack that day, we also found more dogs with ringworm, to top it off. A few days ago, we noticed that Newly had them. Then on Saturday we noticed that Quinn had ringworm. We had to put her in quarantine. I asked Maci to stop walks, while we checked out all of the dogs. Then later Saturday, we noticed that C-Stat had ringworm.

BILL: How many dogs have ringworm?

JUANA: Polly has ringworm sores for the second time this year. Newly, Quinn, and C-Stat have them. Portia still has them. MJ and Judy have them too, but Judy is almost clear. That was seven. I will jump ahead and tell you that we found ringworm on Noel on Monday. That makes eight dogs in quarantine. It’s scattered around the shelter. It’s not all in one place. We are bleaching all of the kennels again. We stopped walks for two days. I am disappointed, but it’s not that bad. We were almost done with the dreaded ringworm, but now there are a few more dogs with ringworm.

We followed our normal routine on Saturday.

Annie was barely walking on Saturday. I increased her medicine and decided that, if she didn’t get any better by Monday, we would take her to the vet. Morton Clinic is getting like us and they are always open. I was going to give her until Monday and see if she was better. I know that she has very bad arthritis on her front shoulder. That’s how Honey started and she ended up having an osteosarcoma and the same thing happened to Zack. We lost Zack like that too. I don’t want to start messing with her leg. I don’t even want to talk about the dogs we lost recently. I hope that Annie just has a bruise.

Annie and her kennel mate Wup give some great smiles for the camera.

BILL: I guess that we already reported that we dropped big dog James at the Starnes Clinic in Tyler with Dr. Lay and we will have a report on that on the Tuesday show.

We’ll be back again tomorrow with another report from Straydog.

You can listen to today's radio show below.