I am determined to get caught up and let ya’ll know about the weekend but it looks like it will be in bits and pieces.

Today was - dreary. Yesterday was -

dreary. I used to love rainy days. Some of my most productive days were when

it was raining. However, I have discovered one of my least favorite things in life is running an animal shelter when it is raining. The dogs are wet, the blankets are wet, the floors are wet and will not dry. When floors won’t dry, I can’t seem to get them clean. No one wants to go outside and get their dainty poodle feet wet so in the house and in the kennel I am finding little stealth droplets and bombs. Those that do go outside come back and plant muddy paw prints all over me. I can’t hang clothes on the line. I can’t feed out doors. We can’t walk the fields. It’s almost impossible to do yard clean up. Sheesh. Pray for sunshine!

Today was vet day. Gracie (silver toy est 6 years old with juvenile cataracts, stray from Spartanburg shelter) got her dental and is good to go. If anyone is looking for a great lap dog, Gracie is the gal.

Frenchie (Rocky Mount NC shelter, stray, black toy poodle mix) went in for yet another recheck of her skin. Doc says she now has a bacterial infection in her skin so we’ve started on a strong antibiotic and stronger run of prednisone. Poor baby just REEKS. She wants so badly to be played with – but it’s hard to get near her much less pick her up and cuddle with her. I hope this will help.

Belle (silver SP from Georgia shelter, may be pregnant) had an x-ray today. We see a mass in the abdomen but if it’s puppies they’re not far enough along yet to count or to tell for sure. It’s a waiting game – we return in two weeks.

Tony (black TP stray from Cleveland OH) got his heartworm test and all was well. His sister, Cleo, was spayed yesterday so now we start looking for homes.

And the puppies – puppies do two things well. One of those things is eat. You guess what the other is. Every time I go in the puppy area, I hear this little ditty going through my head. Remember “weebles wobble but they don’t fall down.” Well, my version says “puppies poopie and it don’t slow down.” Unfortunately, not only do we have the normal amount of outflow right now, it’s all very soft outflow. I rushed stool samples in to the vet yesterday based on this soft phenomenon and – nothing. No parasites, no coccidia, nothing. I talked to Ed at Doo South Labradoodles and he says he’s battled the same thing. He has had the same diagnosis as our Doc’s assessment, it’s a bacterial infection of some kind going on. We started today on a basic run of amoxicillin. Everybody cross their topknots and toes that we have FIRM poop by tomorrow else I’ll have to cancel any meet and greets until the babies are well. They act fine, but their little bellies are distended and, of course, sanitation is a real issue with the profusion of discharge they are creating at the moment.

Now, back to the weekend. I’ll try to do a few stories at a time from last weekend until I get this caught up.

The weekend is still a blur. What a wild ride this one was!

It started Friday 10/13/06 (of course – Friday the 13^th). The Bala family from Florida came in to adopt Frankie and Johnny. Let me back up.

The day actually started the night before, when volunteer Carol Voyles called to say she had a big grooming job come up and she could not help me with grooming. Shoot….okay, so I’ve got two adopters coming in and four standard poodles to get ready. I can do this, take a deep breath! I got to the kennel early and got Frankie groomed and was working on Johnny when the Carol and Gregg Bala came in to adopt Frankie and Johnny.

Everything about the introductions and finalizing the contracts went really, really well. The Bala’s are wonderful people. They are empty nesters and are so very excited to be adopting the boys. They went out the door and I went back to grooming to get ready for the Segel’s (from Wilmington) and the Pursers (from Charlotte). More about those adoptions later.

About 8:30 I had finally got to the house to have dinner and, after dinner, and went upstairs to check messages before heading to the kennel again to put everyone to bed. Boy was I surprised to find a message from a distressed Carol telling me that Johnny was missing! I briefly thought of my long, hot bath I had planned for that evening. Oh well, I knew Johnny and I knew that young man would never come to the Bala’s. It was up to me – and his buds Phoebe and Frankie. I ran up to the kennel to put everyone to bed, grabbed Phoebe (black SP that lived with Johnny) and stuck some clothes in a bag just in case the worst happened and we could not find him tonight. Samson (my black SP) was outside when I hit the truck door and, figuring that two SP’s on track were better than one, he invited himself to go. I agreed with him.

So, I had two standard poodles, a fistful of Bil Jac frozen and about 1 1/2 hours to drive to Easley SC. The dogs settled down for a nap, I turned the radio on and I called Carol to let her know I was on the way. She had been walking Frankie around and around trying to find Johnny and they had spotted him several times. Frankie was getting pooped out – this had happened about 5 pm and it was now 9 pm. He was more than ready for the Calvary to show up and replacements to take over.

Fortunately, it’s smooth driving all the way to Easley and I found the hotel with no problem. Carol was prepared and was a woman on a mission – get her dog back! She had fresh flashlights with brand new batteries, she had purchased a wire crate like Johnny was used to and canned food and had that set up where she had seen him last. We took off with Sam paired with Carol and me paired with Phoebe. The hotel is right on the main drag in Easley and Johnny had fortunately went away from the road and made his way to a residential area next door. The area Carol took me to had houses and lots of trees and cars and such to hide under and around. It was so dark, it was 10:30 by this time.

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On the way to Easley, I called several of our folks who either do animal communication themselves or know those who do and asked for help. The word I got back was that Johnny was under a trailer or vehicle of some sort, that he was within sight of the hotel and the lights. He had seen and heard his name being called and he could see Frankie when Frankie was walking around. He wanted badly to get back to Frankie (the two are brothers and are very close). He was hungry and thirsty and cold and tired but he was afraid to come because he was afraid he was in trouble. He really liked those new people and he really, really wanted to get back to Frankie soon. He didn’t know why he ran away, it was just the thing to do. This was consistent with the behavior I had seen out of Johnny in the kennel. He’s a good boy and he’s a mischievous boy who loves to play keep away. During our interview process with the boys earlier that day, I had told Carol and Gregg that Frankie was the son that would make them proud and become a doctor and that Johnny was most likely to end up going to jail. I was joking, or at least I thought I was. It was behavior I should have corrected but I am not much of a trainer. In the kennel, behind closed and locked gates and doors, it was one thing. This time, it was serious and it could cost him.

The info we had from the AC did not jive with the area where Johnny had been seen last but we felt that searching there had to be done. We did that and were walking back to the hotel, about to call it a night with plans to start in the morning. We were about a block from the hotel when I saw a ghost shadow of a dog dart across a darkened yard. I froze…..and Carol looked up when she realized I had stopped and saw it too.

(to be continued…….tomorrow night, coaxing Johnny home).