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Tuesday, September 22, 2015

9/22/2015

BILL ANNOUNCES: Straydog Radio Show covering the events of Tuesday, September 22, 2015. Bill and Juana here and it is actually early Thursday morning. We are going to do the Tuesday report first.

JUANA: It was a good morning. We didn’t have a full crew, but we had Ronnie, Stephanie and Jacob. Oh, and we had Connor too. Connor is a new employee, who started last Friday. I hope Connor makes it. I always tell everyone how hard it is to work here and how it’s not for everybody. You have to really like what you are doing. He was here on Tuesday to help us with the kennels. Jacob was the walker of the day. I got pictures of Jacob walking our dogs and also of Ronnie, Stephanie and Connor working in kennels.

We have bad news. We think that blind and deaf Colt has ringworm. He had three big circular sores, which were very red, and one little tiny one below the other three. We put him in quarantine and we took him to the vet on Wednesday and you will see more about that in ourWednesday report. I didn’t want to take any chances. We put some medicine on his sores. If he has ringworm, it’s going to be awful. Our dogs don’t understand why they have to be in quarantine and poor Colt is blind and deaf. We doctored him and put him in quarantine. When it was time for him to go the park, he got very upset. We had to skip him and he didn’t understand what was happening to him. We will talk about this more on Wednesday’s report.

Ronnie and Stephanie doctor up the suspicious sores on Colt.

They do kind of look like the ringworm fungus.

Everybody was working very hard and we got lots of pictures.

Connor rakes one of the kennels in his section. He is doing a great job around here.

Stephanie scrubs a water bucket to make sure it's clean before filling it with fresh water.

Charlie the dog leads new walker Jacob to the park.

Ronnie finishes up this kennel with watering down the dry sand.

There are several pictures of Rosita and Purtis in the park. Purtis was limping. We took him to the vet on Monday and Dr. Shirey said that his knots are just fatty tumors. One of the knots on his back left side is getting worse and I called Lacie and told her that Purtis is really limping badly. He’s getting worse.

Rosita has her eye on something.

She must have been watching Purtis sniffing the ground.

The only three Chihuahuas that live inside are Henry, Bug and Rose. We have another gang of Chihuahuas and three of them, Lee-Boy, Owl and Allie, go to the park every day. They really enjoy the park. We can’t get the other two little black ones, Tia and Tamara, to go to the park. We have persuaded six out of eight of them to go to the park every day and I guess that is a good thing.

Momma Rose and her children Bug and Henry.

Rose

Henry is running and Bug is sniffing.

We discovered sores and hot spots on some of our dogs on Tuesday. Collin had a hot spot on his side and it looked infected. I doctored it and he gave me kisses. We also gave his kennelmate Kayla a treat. Even though his kennelmate didn’t have anything wrong with her, after we doctor our dogs they and their kennelmates get treats. They like their treats.

Juana tells Collin she needs to check his hot spot.

There it is, a little bit of medicine is all it needs.

Kayla asks Juana where her cookie is.

I noticed that the top of their doghouse was ajar. I moved it and I saw a huge black widow spider. It walked down the wall. That can be so dangerous. Not too long ago, we searched for spiders and cleaned all of the doghouses. The day before, Stephanie reported that she killed two black widow spiders in Splinter’s kennel. We are still seeing spiders and they are a danger to our dogs and to us. Maybe some of the dogs’ sores are bites. We lost two dogs due to spider bites in the past. We’ve been pretty lucky to have gone all of these years and not suffered more bites. It’s mindboggling.

BILL: The spiders couldn’t have bitten the dogs or they would be sick. Maybe black widow spiders don’t bother the dogs, if they don’t bump into them. We’d better do another search for spiders.

JUANA: There are a lot more spiders than we normally have, so we will have to do another search.

Rosita was limping on her foreleg. She loves to jump and she will even jump up into your arms. I think she might have jumped the wrong way, but she was limping. I think it might be a bruise. Her toes were okay, but she needed a good grooming. She had lots of tangles. We usually have to get her out of her shelter or she will hide from me. She knows that she is going to be checked or brushed or messed with and she hides. She’s just so cute.

Juana sees Rosita is limping and checks her out.

It must have just been a bruise.

We found a hotspot on Buzz. I doctored him with Animax, but it’s just a hot spot. It’s nothing to worry about.

Buzz says he's ok and feels just fine.

It's just a hot spot.

I got beautiful pictures of Marcela and Copper in the park. Marcela has a home visit scheduled for this Saturday. We are so happy for her. We hope that she is going to her forever home and that Copper will find a forever home too. They are both such sweet dogs.

Marcela sees park time is over and runs to the gate.

Jacob grabs a couple of cookies for Copper and Marcela.

Lucy had a hot spot under her foreleg. I put some Animax on her.

Lucy has a hot spot too.

A little medicine here and she will be fine.

During caregiving, Stephanie and Ronnie were holding Wup and cutting his nails. His nails are like needles and, when he tries to play with you, they can tear you up.

Wup is not too happy about having his nails trimmed.

Luna has a big skin infection and it’s the same thing that her sister Selena had about a month ago. At that time, we took Selena to the vet and Dr. Shirey said that it was a skin infection and it cleared up. Then she got it on her mouth. Now Luna has it. It’s just irritated and it’s so sore. Their kennelmate Embry had his staples removed and he is doing well. He’s still on Cephalexin and his wound is healing. I am very happy about that.

Luna has a skin infection just like her sister Selena had.

Embry had her staples taken out and the cut is healing up nicely.

Big pup James came home to Straydog. We took him to Dr. Lay on Monday and we brought him home on Tuesday. Dr. Lay didn’t keep him very long. He did two more enlargements of his throat. The doctor said that he doesn’t need to come back
next week. He wants to extend it to every two weeks. He wants us to take a video of us feeding James and send it to him next week. Right now, he is planning to see him in two weeks. So far, he is doing very well. He still has a feeding tube and that’s how we give him his medicine. He’s still eating and his food isn’t as watery. He’s holding his food down. He’s starting to gain weight and Dr. Lay thinks he is out of the woods.

BILL: David put up a piece on big dog James on our website explaining the whole procedure. We should call him, “Big dog James.” He is three years old.

James knows he has arrived back home to Straydog.

Juana and James pose with smiles in the park, both happy James is back.

Home Sweet Home

James was hungry and ready to eat.

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

You can listen to today's Radio Show below.

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Monday, September 14, 2015

9/14/2015

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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.