Dear Friends:

I hope this letter finds you in good health, with not too many complaints about this crazy summer. Between growing webbed feet and being close to a heat stroke I am trying to keep my wits together, not an easy task. A few days ago we had 85 degrees up here. The air conditioner was working overtime. Today, I had to bring a load of wood in to keep the fire in the stove going. Looks like we will have another interesting summer.

The dogs at the Shelter are not too happy either, one day they are enjoying the heat in the outside pens, the next day most of them have to go inside again because their outside runs are collecting lots of water. Oh well, it’s the same old story. Jim and I will be spending some time at the Shelter, probably next week. Jim has to extend the roofs on the connecting runs of the Shelter. He plans on covering the walkway with a roof, so that in the winter the outside runs don’t get too wet. There has been a big problem with ice buildup over the past years. I remember Mary measuring up to five inches of solid ice on that walkway this past winter. This will be a big job. Jim has to weld extension pipes on the existing roofs, put wooden beams on top of that, and cover it with Plexiglas.

It is also quite an expensive job, just the pipes alone will cost over $200. The price of steel went over $3 a foot, a huge increase from several years back. We haven’t even priced the Plexiglas and wood yet. But it has to be done. We can’t take the chance any longer of someone falling down breaking bones. So far we have been lucky, lots of falls, but no one was seriously hurt. Hopefully this roof extension will take care of the problem. I will be coming along to do my old job – being the “gofor” for Jim, and training the new person. Yes, we had to let Bruce go. We parted in a friendly way, but we had to call it quits. I put an ad in the paper, Jim and I interviewed several people, and we found a lady in her mid-30s who seems to have a good head on her shoulders. Her fiancé is a mechanically inclined guy who will not mind fixing little things here and there, which will be a huge help. With Jim living 250 miles away from the Shelter and Ted’s non-knowledge of mechanical things, lots of stuff is getting out of whack. Loose screws have the tendency of falling out if no one knows how to tighten them. So I am looking forward to working with Ruthann and Mike. Mike has a full-time job and we did not hire him, so anything he does at the Shelter is purely volunteered time on his part.

Surprisingly, this time we had a hard time choosing from the applicants. There were several very promising sounding people, from a biologist to a vet-tech; and a lady who had several years experience in a shelter down in  Florida. Hopefully, we made the right choice; only time will tell. I have a good feeling, anyway. Friends of mine who own a restaurant and lodge across the border in Canada told me that it took them 4 years to find the right team; a cook, waitresses, and cleaners. Now they finally have it. And I always said that somewhere out there has to be the right person for our Shelter. Maybe this time we found her.

Two dogs found their way to our Shelter and space is getting awfully tight again. The first one was brought all the way up to us from Pennsylvania. His owner was heartbroken, both the lady and the dog where in tears. “Dante” has a problem with other dogs, seems to have attacked some neighbors’ pets, and the law was going to have him euthanized. Somehow this lady knew a relative of Ted, and Ted, of course, couldn’t say “no." Two days later, a stray,  very friendly young black lab was brought to us, and by now all we had left was an outside run for him. And all good or bad things happen in threes: Bandit who had spent two years at our Shelter because his human companion was away in the military, seems to have a problem adjusting to his old life. What I personally can’t understand is when we first got him he was a very mean dog. Everybody was afraid of him. It took many weeks before we could pet him. When he left us he was very mellow, and we actually were sorry to see him leave. Now I guess he’s gotten nasty again, and nobody wants the poor guy. So there was no happy ending for him. He will be spending the rest of his life with us at the Shelter. And I don’t care how much attention each one of our dogs gets, a Shelter is not a home. On the other hand, when I drive through the country and see these poor animals tied to a chain 100 yards away from the house, I guess our Shelter would be a great home to them. As everything in life; it all depends on how you look at it.

Some terrible news came to us by phone – Pat Thain, who has been a supporter of Charley’s Strays for many many years, lost her husband to cancer. Many of you know Pat from the fundraiser.

She always came to visit us with her collie, Toby, who was adopted from Charley's and also died last year. There are no words I can express my sorrow. I had met Al only once, but he was the kind of person who would make a lasting impression, very kind, very nice. I can’t even imagine how Pat will deal with a life without Al.

Thank God there are “lighter sides” to letters and phone calls from our supporters, for instance; the dry sense of humor oozing out of a note from Harry Clark whose mother fell down the stairs breaking bones. He says, "Mom is back home, but in a lot of pain. She has picked on my cleaning of the house. I can’t keep it clean like her." This sounds to me like she is definitely improving.  JJ

I found something I think is worth sharing with you, I thought it was really great:

Imagine . . .

There is a bank that credits your account each morning with $86,400.

It carries over no balance from day to day.

Every evening it deletes what you failed to use during the day. What would you do?

Use all of it, of course.

Each one of us has such a bank…

Its name is TIME.

Every morning it credits you with 86,400 seconds.

Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to a good purpose.

It carries over no balance.

It allows no overdraft.

Each day it opens a new account for you.

Each night it burns the remains of the day.

If you fail to use the day’s deposits…

the loss is yours !

There is no going back

There is no drawing against the “tomorrow”

You must live in the present on today’s deposits.

Invest it so as to get from it

The utmost in health, happiness, and success!

The clock is running

Make the most of today

Take responsibility of your happiness

NOW

www.workyourlife.com

CAT REPORT – June 2005

I’m writing this with tears in my eyes, because we lost Snooks today. She had another crisis over the weekend, naturally. This time I decided there was no point in shoving medicine down her to gain another week or two, maybe. Snooks was one of the three cats I had who lived with Charley, I think the oldest of them.  We placed her with a woman here in China who took good care of her.  Snooks got a serious kidney infection, and the woman saw her through it and brought her home and could not get her to take the antibiotic pills she needed to finish the cure. Don’t we know how frustrating that can be! So Snooks came back to me, I don’t remember how long ago, and was a good, brave cat through a series of health problems. 

Her death leaves Tess, another of the “Charley’s Originals,” alone in the room they shared, because neither of them really likes other cats. They did learn to like each other, moving from sleeping on opposite ends of the bed to sharing a pillow, and I think Tess no longer wants to be all by herself.

I  have a couple ideas for getting her together with another cat; I’ll let you know next month what happens.

The cat department had already run up the vet bill this month.  This time it was the turn of Gray Cat (Heidi/Speedo’s son), since Mama did it in May. He went off his food and was taken in for tests and X-rays. It turned out he was extremely constipated. He also had an infection that showed up in the blood work. We never did pin down the infection, but a dose of antibiotics cleared it up. The constipation problem was stubborn, and he needs daily medication to keep his little insides in proper working order; but he feels all right most of the time now. 

Last month I commented we hadn’t had a heat wave. Now we have had, almost a week, with the temperature in the 80s and occasionally 90s and humidity in the 70s.  I haven’t had the air conditioner put in the window in the upstairs back-room then, but now it’s in – just in time, I think, because more heat is forecast for this week. Those of you who’ve followed this newsletter for a year will remember that last summer I bought my first ever air conditioner, strictly for the cats. In spite of having cross-ventilation, the upstairs room gets uncomfortably warm with the sun coming in the south windows. The cats downstairs with access to the porch stayed out there on the hottest days, but they sprawled on the bare floor, ignoring the warm bedding they normally curl up on. 

As always, my thanks to all of you who help keep the vet paid and the whole place running. I’m also grateful to Olivia Charles for weekly cat food and to Teresa and her family (her husband, sons, mother and sister are involved with my cats now) for the many things they do, including collecting returnable bottles, clipping coupons and knitting cat blankets.

Thank you very much!

Nancy Capone, Wakefield

Ruth McKinney, Grand Isle

Enid Hayes, Halifax

Inge Maiellano, Marblehead

Sylvia Cohen-Bell, Newton Highl.

Viola McDonald, Woburn

Naomi Teixeira, Jay

Judith Rohweder, Northport

Irma Simon, China

Dante Bartolomeo, Temple

Elizabeth Johnson, Sanford

Josephine Smith, Woburn

Carole Parker, Stoughton

Maureen Murray, Brick

Linda Merriam, Dresden

Josephine Ford, Holden

Cindy Houston, Woburn

Marlene Kaplan, Melrose

Rust Pappathanasi, Swampscott

Pat Thain, North Billerica

Robert Hull, Lawrence

Mary Klayda, Winchester

Roberta Chaves, Westport

R.D.Bournival, Nashua

Lorena & Harry Clark, Beverly

Jean Catignani, Conway

Harriet Snyder, Brockton

Merle Sideman, Burlington

Doris Babitt, Westford

Beulah Fortier, Thorndike

Joseph D’Alessandro, Tuftonboro

Doris Lary, Hartland

Marian Delarue, Woburn

Dorothy D’Alessandro, Center Ossipee

Marcia Smith, Bucksport

Joseph Blake, New Bedford

Joseph Arouca, Ormond Beach

Mildred Walker, Presque Isle

Jackie Lowney, New Bedford

Iris Martinello, Tewksbury

Jennie Bering, Lynn

Sandra Nicholson, Beverly

Robert Hull, Lawrence

Lisa Montmarquet, Raymond

Linda Clish, Bangor

Florence Mason, Lexington

Margo Davis, Waterville

Gabriele, Mary, Karen, Ted, Peter and Jim

PS: Just in case you are wondering about the new name, “Peter." He has been helping us A LOT on Saturdays.

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