Some good times, some bad times

For some reason I was actually looking forward to cleaning today. Not sure if it was the set task at hand, the fact that only one of the dogs actually went to the bathroom in their kennel, or just because I got to jam to some music. Anyways, I was able to finish the south side kennels pretty quickly, I returned all of the dogs for their breakfast and went over to help out with the rabbits. That was pretty much handled but I grabbed a few carrots from the fridge to hand out some special treats.

Beginning today as my Monday was a lot different than starting my week on Saturdays. It was nice to have a slower start but there are a lot of things that I miss about working the entire weekend. Sundays can be pretty busy but there is no comparison to the flow of traffic and the number of adoptions that come through on Saturday.

After all of the morning tasks were done I was asked to help out take a little puppy's temperature. It turns out that one of the second chance dogs we brought back last week might have a case of distemper. If you're not familiar with it you really don't want to be. It is a viral infection that affects the central nervous system, respiratory, and the gastrointestinal system. The very unfortunate part is that it is usually fatal and incurable. The little guys fever was still very high but it was a good sign that it did not increase from yesterday. Hopefully he can pull through and I am also crossing my fingers that the other young dogs that came into contact with him aren't showing any signs of the disease any time soon. So keep your fingers crossed everyone because this little guy is incredibly sweet.

Once the medical stuff was done and I was washed from shoulder to fingertip I was able to spend some time with my Mississippi friend Liza. It is really amazing how different she is in her kennel compared to being out in one of the yards. She is completely different when she is running around wither her K9 friends wagging her tail and truly enjoying herself. This is reason that we are not going to be sending her home unless there is another dog there to help her come out of her shell. I just hope that we find her a match sooner than later and she can get on the road to recovery away from the stress of the shelter.

Usually around this time I am running around like the rest of the staff trying to play catch up but today everything was under control. I even had time to run to Walmart (I know, shame on me) to pick up twelve bags of kitty litter.

I was called to a showing with a little chihuahua named Moose with two gentleman that would make a perfect home for the timid little guy. They really like him but there was still the step of introducing the little Moose to their pug Stella. If everything goes accordingly tomorrow we can slap an adopted sign up on the cage, get the little guy neutered, and get him on his way home.

I did learn that a showing I had done last week with one of our long termers was back. I was afraid that they had decided against my good ole friend Lady Bird but it turns out they had actually come back twice in the time that I wasn't here and they were on there third trip back with the man's wife to meet the pretty lab mix. I brought them all down to the yard where she was hanging out for her afternoon break and I was completely surprised at how much the woman liked Lady Bird. Initially I was expecting the woman just to say "she's alright, she'll be your dog anyhow" or something like that but it turns out she was throwing the ball with her, taking kisses from her, and really seeming to enjoy her company. They all discussed it and decided that she was the dog for them. They went back to the office to take care of the paperwork and go over the details. She is all clear so she was able to go home as soon as everything was doen up front. Here is a picture of her waiting in the office to go home.



Like any day at the shelter if you over analyze things you are always going to find some good times and some not so good ones. It is always tough when you hear about animals that have some pretty serious conditions but all you can do is hope, pray, and work as hard as you can to solve the problem or make them as comfortable as possible. I hope that my little buddy we rescued last week pulls through and that no one else contracted the infection but today I am not going home and thinking about it, I have to leave it here because the more I think about it the worse I feel. Instead I am going to go home, know that a great dog got adopted today and take things one day at a time when I head back to the shelter in the morning. Thanks for reading everyone and I look forward to you comments.