A little bit of everything today

Getting to work at eight is a pretty nice thing when you know that your are leaving at 4:30. The day really seems to fly by when you are the early shift. Well, I guess it means that you are just always busy with something to do. Today was pretty much routine in that there was a whole lot of cleaning with a few dogs scheduled to come in today from a county shelter. What that means is that we have to rearrange a few dogs as well as sanitize the kennels that they were in. Also it meant that we have to sanitize the yards that the dogs use for their breaks. All in all it seems like a lot but because we were finally fully staffed today it seemed like there wasn't enough work to go around.

To give you an idea about what sanitizing the kennels entails it is pretty simple. You basically spray the entire thing down from top to bottom with a sanitizing agent. After about five minutes of letting it sit you have to scrub the thing until every little bit of anything is off, including the mounds of bird poop that can accumulate. Once that is done and you feel like you have just gone to a one on one workout with a drill instructor you rinse everything down then spray with a bleach solution. You then wait five or so minutes, rinse and you have now disinfected a kennel. It's really not that bad and I usually tend to enjoy it since I have my headphones in and try working on certain muscles while I am scrubbing.

With time to spare I headed over to the fake grass yards that needed to be sprayed down with the same bleach solution I used earlier. This would have been a lot easier if the nozzle had actually fit the hose I was using. Unfortunately though as soon as I turned on the water I was dowsed with a continuous spray of water that got me pretty much from head to toe. All I have to say is because of the water it made me finish up this task as quickly as possible.

Once all of the cleaning was out of the way it was to my surprise that we already had some showings as soon as the doors opened. Of course the showing that I got was kind of thrown on me because the potential adopter rubbed a few people the wrong way. I have to say it wasn't too bad but it certainly tested my patience. The woman initially wanted to look at three dogs but because she has a few cats it narrowed her search to just one dog. A sweet ten year old poodle that she absolutely fell in love with. She spent quite a bit of time with him and asked all the right questions. The little guy does have a few health issues but nothing serious and also needs a dental before he can go home but other than that he is a vivacious happy little guy. The only thing that needs to be taken care of now is the woman needs to bring in her dog to meet and make sure that it is a perfect fit for everyone. I'm crossing my fingers that she finds the time to return because this little guy has had a tough life and needs to be pampered.

I had one more "quasi" showing with the little dachshund puppy that I had a picture of yesterday. Because he isn't available yet we basically take applications on him to either qualify or disqualify potential adopters. This way it saves everyone time and effort when the dog does become available after medical and behavioral evaluations. The application that I had seemed like a good fit so my suggestion to the woman was to call back frequently to see exactly when the sweet little guy will be available. I know one thing for sure, as soon as Saturday rolls around and this guy becomes available he will be adopted very quickly.

The rest of the day was pretty routine. We got in a total of four dogs from another shelter and they seemed pretty much the norm ranging from chihuahuas to poodles. Other than the fact that they are extremely cute I don't know much about them yet. As soon as I get an update I will let everyone know.

The day came to an end with me taking out dogs for their afternoon break. We have a full house so it was tough to organize the space we had in the yards. We did however pair up our old yellow lab Eliza with a rambunctious little puppy named Benjamin and it ended up great. They ran around like they were both puppies and flopped down when they were done. It was good to find the little guy a mentor that can show him the ropes since he has been in ISO for the past week with kennel cough. It's also nice that we can put them together and save a little room in the yards for other dogs that don't necessarily get along with other dogs. Anyways, here is a picture of the two after a hard core play session.

That's about it for today. I hope to give everyone an update on my favorite foster dog Liza because from what I hear her foster mom is doing a great job and she is slowly but surely coming out of her shell. Cross your fingers and hope for her the best. Thanks for reading and I look forward to your comments.