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Monday, July 13, 2009

Back to Business

I'm am back to it after a well deserved few days off. It's amazing how different of an attitude I have when I can take a step away. I am going to admit though that while I was off I checked the website oh so often to see who was getting adopted and what new dogs were coming in. While I was away there were two adoptions of the second chance dogs that became available on Saturday. Of course there were also two more relinquishments that came in as well but from what I have heard they shouldn't have to hard of a time finding new homes. In addition to checking the web site I also check my email and learned that our Mississippi girl Liza went out on foster to a wonderful volunteer's home with a few brothers and sisters to keep her comfortable. Usually in foster situations the dog will come back to the shelter every morning but in this case we feel it might do more harm than good so we have decided just to have Liza stay in the home. I haven't heard any updates on her yet but as soon as I do I will pass them along.

Of course with the good news comes the not so good news. I learned that the Huskie which was relinquished a while back had to be put down for behavioral reasons. I hate the fact that I am almost becoming numb to this but I feel like I have had to put blinders on just so I look past it and pretty much try to ignore it. I know these things don't happen every day but when they do it is incredibly hard. I was told that he was euthanized when I came in this morning but had a pretty good idea about it when I saw him taken off of the web site and heard a voice mail saying to call the shelter if I wanted to know about the dog. Of course I really didn't feel like crying on my day off so I chose to ignore the call. I do know that he went peacefully and is now over the rainbow bridge so all I can hope for is that he is in a better place now.

There are the updates for the three days that I spent sitting on my butt. Of course things don't slow down no matter what day of the week it is but it was nice to jump back into things today. I was the late shift which is nice that I can sleep in on my Sunday mornings but cleaning cats isn't that much fun to me. We were able to get it done pretty quickly. Luckily the propane had finally been filled so we were able to get the dishes done with hot water and start the laundry which was still incredibly backed up.

Early on there were showings after showings. I decided to hold off on them until I was able to get all of the morning cleaning out of the way. As soon as I was finished though I headed back to the office to do an interaction with one of our Mississippi boys Spud. He was to meet an eleven year old who could be his new older sister. The big concern is that Spud tends to hump a lot and the adopters dog can be a bit of an alpha and have a short temper. In the end she growled Spud off when he tried to hump and he actually took direction very well. The family decided to adopt and it was great to see a loving animal get to go home. Of course while all of this was going on another Mississippi dog Mystic was also getting adopted. That means that Liza is the only one left out of the group. Hopefully her in house "rehab" will do its job and she will be able to be the perfect pet sooner than later.

A few more showings followed late in the day but no more adoptions. There either weren't the right fits or no rental agreements to finalize the adoptions. There was one more interaction with our girl named White Lightning who came into the shelter in pretty bad shape but she seemed to growl off the other dog. Understandable when you think that this dog once had a broken jaw and fox tails embedded in her coat. She might just have to be an only dog. Here is a picture of the beautiful lady.


Overall it was a good day and I was glad to be back to it. I know that I can get a bit negative working here but it is part of the job. There are certainly the highs that come along with it as well. Hopefully this week will be a good one and we will be able to send some great animals home to some great families. Thanks for reading and keep the comments rolling.

1 comment:

  1. Yay! Liza is in foster! *happy dance!*
    My only other suggestions would be crate-training (once shes more comfterble, her hound-y traits may become more prominent and may include but is not limited to: consuming unconsumables, furniture re-arrangement, drywall taste-testing and loud vocal proclimations of her pleasure/displeasure. =p
    She would benefit from socilization (at her pace) and basic obedience to increase her confidence. Rhyden loves taking walks on nature trails (on a 30ft lead) and once he had his basic obedience down, I would take him on "field trips" to the local outdoor flea market, Pet stores, etc. and have a baggie of training treats so I could work on his distraction and his reaction to strangers. Strangers are much less scary when they have food- especially to a hound!
    Good luck and keep us (me- haha!) posted on her progress!

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