Slowly but surely

All I have to say is I am glad that we didn't open up until 11:30 today. News to me, but on Tuesdays there is an all staff meeting that usually takes place around 11:15. Well, we needed those last few minutes in order to get everything in order this morning. I started out with cleaning the south kennels and disinfecting about four of them. It was good to hear this morning that the dog that had to stay here temporarily because her owner was taken to the hospital was able to be picked up and didn't have to stay in the shelter any longer than she had too. Anyways, after the dog kennels I made sure the garbage was out and all of the south yards had been scooped and bleached down, the flies can become quite a problem if you don't keep up with the cleaning. After the dogs were all taken care of I meandered my way over to the rabbits, they were already about half way done but I jumped in and got them done in a flash. Once everything was swept up I headed over to the cattery and worked around a volunteer that was spending some quality time with the cats. It was actually pretty nice to have someone in there to keep me company while I dumped out the litter boxes, changed the bedding and fed the felines. Everything was going fine until one of the fickle torties started growling at me. All I had to do was put the litter box back in the kennel and I was done, of course that's when the cat hissed and swatted at me to where I dumped all of the litter and had to start all over. Good thing we open a little later today.

After the morning meeting and updates on everything from our thrift shop to our marketing department it was time to head back to the laundry room. It was good to see another staff member had the same idea that I had had. She was already getting the chaos back in order and all I was able to do was shuttle some clean laundry while she folded and organized. I'm glad the washer was fixed and it seemed that the new rigging was holding up. The whole reason it "broke" was because it is this huge commercial washer that should have more washers staked around it bracing it but in our place it is merely free standing. When the spin cycle used to run basically it sounded like a helicopter was landing five feet away. The whole building from the foundation to the walls would shake until finally it knocked down the hot water heater and we got to where our predicament was. Luckily we have a crack team of maintenance workers and they put a pretty solid brace on the whole thing and we were able to start the uphill climb of catching up with the laundry.

With the laundry now a waiting game for the cycle to be done I was asked to set up a kennel for three kittens that were in intake with medical. I got some wet and dry food together and got it all set when I walked into the cattery and I had to volunteers waving at me to come into the south cattery. I figured something was wrong but when I went in all I saw was one of our cats screaming, hissing, and basically attacking every kennel that had an animal in it. The volunteers told me that the cat had jumped down and was fine at first but got excited and proceeded to "go nuts" on the rest of the cats which in turn freaked out the rest of them. So now it was time to see how quick my hands are, I started by extending my index finger out to the cats side and moved it in towards the kitties nose trying to be as less intimidating as possible. He smelt me and calmed down a bit but was still really on edge. I was able to scruff him and get him back in his kennel which I covered to give him a little quite time. The next step was to put a "staff only" sign on the outside so this doesn't happen again. Hopefully he'll be able to calm down and we can check on getting him a room to himself. I'm just glad he didn't bite and no one got hurt, especially the cat.

I was finally called to a showing just after we had brought all of the dogs out for their afternoon break. It was with this little relinquished corgi that believe it or not topped the scales at over 44 pounds. The poor little guy can barely walk due to arthritis and being so overweight. We not only have him on some glucosomine but he is also on benidryl because of his seasonal allergies. I was glad to see that when I went through his medical file his orthopedics were fine, just a lot of extra dog to be carrying around. It turns out the family was merely driving by and decided to stop in, they have been looking for a corgi to run around on their ranch and immediately were drawn to the "big guy". They have worked with difficult animals in the past and I couldn't emphasize enough that this dog needs a lot of work and patience to not only get his girth down but to keep it down. They were looking forward to the challenge but had a few more hoops to go through before they could adopt. First the rest of the family (dad and two other children) had to meet as well as an intro with their current dog a 13 year old whippet. It can sometimes be tough when you are introing an older dog just because it can be tough territorialy. Anyways, time will tell if they do come back but hopefully soon our little diet man can go to a home that will work with him rather than indulge him.

Thanks for reading everyone and I look foward to your comments.