Can't wait for a hot shower

Today I was reminded of the days when I was in the Marine corps., not because of all of the physical work but rather how dirty I was. It felt like those time when I was in the field for days on end when all you look forward to is a good hot shower and a warm bed. There were a couple of reasons I felt this way today.

It began as any other day, a little over cast and a light drizzle. We were a staff member short which meant a little more work for everyone. The big difference in today was that all of our ten Mississippi dogs had arrived and were in quarantine in the south side kennels. Of course I volunteered to take care of them today which was a little tough for me because it meant that I couldn't do any showings with the other dogs. That, and these guys won't be available for adoption for about a week. For the busiest adopting day my day would consist of absolutely zero showings.

Moving on, to clean and take care of these ten dogs meant you had to take a lot of precautions. It turns out that most of them have hook worm which is very easily transmitted to humans, woo hoo. I started by covering my clothes with scrubs and looked like I was going in to surgery. I put all of the dogs on the south show yards and got to work. If you're not familiar with hook worm it causes everyone of these guys to have some pretty wicked diarrhea...all ten of them. After I scooped about 45 pounds of poo I sprayed the kennels down, squeegeed, replaced some beds, fed them their medication, and put them back in their kennels. I have to say that even after their baths the three day trip these dogs took really caused them to smell not so great. That on top of the poop really made for an enjoyable morning. I have to say though that all of the dogs are increadibly friendly and loving. They might not know how to avoid stepping in their own poop but they are very loving towards any human contact. Once I got all of them back in their beds I bleached my shoes, took off the scrubs, and headed for the cattery.

Luckily I just had to knock out the kittery because the rest had already been taken care of. The bad news was since I couldn't do any dog showings today I had to take care of all of the grunt work. I started by taking out the garbage which usually isnt a problem but when the dumpster is overflowing by about four feet it's kind of tough to put eight more bags of poo and litter on top of that. After I took care of the balancing act of garbage I headed over to our new pet kitchen to take care of the dishes. Once that was taken care of I had to start knocking out some laundry. I just got word today that the washing machine was going to be leaving us for a week for repairs. Not sure who made that decision but I gurantee it wasn't a kennel staff member. A week without laundry is like not picking up your garbage for a year. I don't even want to think about the problems that are going to arrise from this.

Once all of the morning duties were done I was tasked with being the grunt all day since I couldn't do showings. What that meant was that I helped out with the 30 or so crates that needed cleaning. That wasn't too bad except that I was soaked down to my scivvies. Next it was time to feed all of the new Mississippi dogs. I put on my bio-hazard suite (not really) and headed into the quarintined area. They were all so happy for any sort of human contact. They still seam a little nervous and hesitant but once I pulled the food out they were finishing it before I could turn around. While I was feeding I was also scooping poo for the second time today. Not quite sure what these guys were eating before they came out here but the smell is like nothing I have ever smelled before. About half an hour later I headed back to the dogs and took them out for their afternoon break. To my surprise...more poo. Of course they were all jumping in it and splattering it everywhere so I had a tough time not getting any on me. I got them all out to their yards and dissinfected again. I got all the bowls picked up, kennels dried out, and dogs put back. I headed over to the yards to scoop up the mess and when I went back to say goodnight to the dogs guess what...more poo. If you can't laugh some times you are going to end up screaming.

I got myself dissenfected, changed my shoes, ringed out my soggy socks, and took care of the final closing duties. I could not wait to get home, undress, and take a hot shower. I have to say I hate not being a part of the adoptions on Saturday, in fact I couldn't even tell you who went home today. Next time an oppurtunity comes up like this I say we draw straws. Sorry for the lack of pictures today but the amount of poo I was picking up took all of my efforts :).