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Wednesday, March 19, 1997 Page:
KRT PHOTO
Pat Arnold gets a kiss from Angel, a black lab mix. Arnold cares for 24
dogs,
mostly strays, at her home near Eustace, TexasDogs never stray from woman’s
heart
By BRYAN WOOLLEY
The Dallas Morning News
EUSTACE, Texas — The day that Pat Arnold’s life began to change was a
rainy one, she remembers. She had stopped at a country store to buy gas and
was standing in the downpour, filling her tank.
“This little dog crawled up to me on her belly,” she says. “She was wet and
shivering. I picked her up and put her in the car. I took her to the Humane
Society. I was going to leave her. She looked sick.”
Tears rise into Arnold’s eyes.
“I don’t know why I’m breaking down like this,” she says. “I guess because
there are so many strays. It’s so sad.”
She was halfway home from the animal shelter when she thought, “They’re
going to put her to sleep.”
She turned around and got the puppy back and took her to a veterinary
clinic, where the dog was treated for mange.
“I thought, `Surely we have room for one more dog,”‘ Arnold says. “And
that’s what started it all.”
Happy, as she named the stray, became the third dog in the Arnold
household.
At the time — in 1993, she believes it was — Arnold and her husband,
Bill, were living in a “normal” house at Payne Point on Cedar Creek Lake.
“But after that, it seemed that everywhere I would go, I would run into
another stray dog.”
A year after that first stray, eight dogs were living in kennels that the
Arnolds had built on their one-acre lot.
“The neighbors started to make it clear that we had a few too many dogs,”
Arnold says.
So they looked for another place and found the ideal spot on a hill a few
miles outside of Eustace. It was a 21-acre spread with a storage barn that had
been converted into a cabin — and no nearby neighbors. The Arnolds bought it
and built four 30-by-30-foot chain-link-fenced kennels around the cabin, and
shelters for their eight dogs.
Today there are 11 kennels and 24 dogs.
“I found Misty on a country road in the middle of nowhere. She was a
puppy,” Arnold says.
“I found Teddy Bear in a grocery store parking lot. Fluffy and Buffy were
two little puppies about 6 months old we found on Highway 175. They looked too
sick to move. Cars were just whizzing by those little fellows.”
Every time Arnold finds a stray, she takes it to the Lakeside Animal Clinic
in Gun Barrel City, where Dr. Damon Stevens or Dr. Jim Collingsworth checks it
out and treats it for whatever ails it.
“Fluffy had parvovirus, which is very deadly. She had to stay at the clinic
five or six days. When we got home with her and her little brother Buffy, we
had to keep them separate from the other guys for about six months. That was
really something. We had to bleach everything and wear special clothes when we
went out with the puppies.”
“Little Lassie’s owner just moved away and left her fenced in the yard. And
then there’s little Sandy that I found at the Humane Society, sitting in a
cage all by himself in a dark room. He was holding up his little leg and had
cuts all over him. I asked the woman what was going to happen to him, and she
said he was going to be euthanized. It was so heartbreaking. So I said, `Could
I please take that dog?”‘
Spunky, the most recent arrival, had been shot. The veterinarian X-rayed
him and put four pins in his shattered leg.
If a stray is healthy, it gets its shots and is spayed or neutered before
it joins the crowd. The last thing the Arnolds want is a litter of puppies.
Although Stevens and Collingsworth give the Arnolds’ big discounts, their
veterinary bills still average about $500 a month. The clinic has set up the
Arnold Stray Dog Fund to which people may contribute to help pay the bills,
but not many have.
The 11 kennels, which house 22 of the dogs (Toby and Blackie live in the
house) cost $1,100 each to build, and the Arnolds spend about $400 a month for
dog food.
Pat Arnold retired from her job at a Dallas printing company several years
ago, so it’s up to her husband to try to make ends meet. He stays in Dallas
and works his customer service job during the week, then drives home every
Friday with a carload of dog food. He works extra hours, too.
“I volunteer for all the overtime I can,” he says. “Luckily, I’m earning
enough to keep our heads almost above water. We’re surely not saving any money
now. But what is the alternative?”
Meanwhile, Pat Arnold works 12 hours a day, 365 days a year, taking care of
the dogs.
At 7 o’clock every morning, she begins preparing their meals.
“Two of the older fellows have hip dysplasia,” she says, “so they get a
home-cooked meal of grains and vegetables. It seems to help them. It takes
about two hours to feed everybody.”
After feeding time, Arnold cleans all the kennels and fluffs up or replaces
the straw beds in the shelters. While she cleans a kennel, the two dogs who
live in it get to romp in the central play yard with a lot of doggie toys.
When all the kennels are clean, Arnold walks all the dogs, two at a time, on
leashes. It takes about three hours.
After her own lunch, from 2 p.m. until dark, it’s dog rounds again. The
dogs get their dinner, then Arnold brushes them all and gives each pair
another romp in the play yard.
“They’re all healthy and happy,” she says, “but I still feel that they’re
not getting enough attention.”
The Arnolds haven’t had a vacation in years, or even a day off.
“We spend only two hours away from here even on Thanksgiving and
Christmas,” she says.
“Our kids ask me, `Mom, when are you going to start living a normal life?’
Well, as long as these dogs don’t have homes, I don’t see how we could ever
live a normal life.”
Contributions for the Arnold Stray Dog Fund may be sent to Lakeside Animal
Clinic, Gun Barrel City, Texas 75147.