Dear Friends,

Hello to all of you,
It has been a fruitful week. I had a great meeting today that I cannot
share anything of with you. Just that I am very pleased. I also was very
successful with my ongoing work at the Trade day. I went Saturday. I will
give details in about a month-and-a-half.

I can tell you that I came back from Ripley with seven pups. When I was
making my rounds I spotted two pathetic pups. I chatted the peddler up and
learned that there were seven siblings. He told me that their mother kept
them in hay so they had some fleas. Not to worry, they didn't have
mange, they were Great Pyrenees Mt. Dogs, and their skin would clear right
up.

He either thought I was ignorant, or he is really ignorant for a dog dealer.
Fleas are not active this time of year, mange mites not fleas hang in hay,
and wasn't it convenient to blame the mother dog for where the pups were
kept. I didn't argue with his price of $10.00 each. I wrote him a check
for$70.00 - took the little angels to our van, and drove straight to Dr. Don
Rowans office when my business at Ripely was concluded. He wrote me a
report diagnosing them with sarcoptic mange, internal parasites, and noted that
theywere underweight - and, what a shock, they weren't Great Pyrenees.

Monday I canceled the check, and I am waiting with baited breath for him to
contact me. I will send a complaint to add to the others the Attorney
General's Office is receiving on the fraud perpetrated at Ripley.

Our media work regarding companion animal overpopulation carried over into
other issues that negatively impact animals. WTVA took a list of ideas from
me for a series of stories. There are other features in the works as well.

And of course Easter brought with it the sell of baby fowl and rabbits. I
shot off a LTE to the Grenada paper after speaking with the feed stores
regarding the sell of colored chicks, and other baby animals. I bought the
last two ducks, and single turkey from one store. Barbara Corder took them
in for us. I also bought nine colored chicks from a woman at Ripley. She
was displaying them in a cage on the back of her pickup. Although she had
them under an overhang so that the rain wasn't falling on them, the wind was
vicious. They must have caught a chill because only three of them survived
the second day. Barbara is also caring for them. They are in her bedroom.
Her now grown Billy goat even sleeps in the house. She is a Godsend to me.
I adore her. You certainly don't want her to catch you abusing an animal.
I could write a digest of short stories from her numerous encounters with
negligent and uncaring people. One of my favorites was when I identified a
puppy that was dumped in her yard on a subfreezing day. Let me tell you,
she didn't just take on the person that dropped the dog off, she tackled the
whole family - and still tongue lashes them when she runs into them.

PETA rented billboard space in Jackson, MS. for their dairy-free campaign.
What a stink was made over their use of Mary and baby Jesus in their
message.
I wrote a LTE of the Clarion Ledger, a Jackson paper that has Statewide
circulation. I haven't yet found out if my letter was printed.

We brought Jack home Monday. He is a cocker that was found as a pup, but
not really taken care of by the well-meaning family that rescued him from the
highway. He was dipped for tick infestation, and will be groomed on Friday.
He is darling, gets on fabulously with other dogs, but was banned from our
staff room for going after Salem and Richie. They are our resident staff
room cats. Salem is blind. He loves to play with dogs, and is really
clever when he spars with them. This was not a good experience for him. Jack
caught us off guard, because he waited until he settled in for a couple of
days before he decided he could take on our Salem and Richie. He is sharing
an enclosure with new pals now. Actually is quite satisfied with his
playmates.

Margo is coming on April 15 to get our web site up to date. We will take
pictures of all of our sanctuary friends, and she will get our computer set
up, and me trained to maintain updates. It will be really good to have
someone from home get a first hand vantage of our progress, and needs.

As usual we are responding to a number of cruelty complaints, and stolen dog
reports. I will spare you the details this week.

Thank you as always for your super support. We depend on you being there.

Doll, for Robin, and the whole gang here.

Sincerely, Doll - for all of us.