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Friday, February 5, 2010

Not a lot happening

Well, as my Thursday's go today was an uneventful one. Typically it is the day that all of the previously adopted animals get to go home after their surgery day but surprisingly enough there were none today. What that means for me is that my attention was focused on a different sort of task today.

The majority of my day was spent setting up our "on hold" messaging system. Sounds exciting I know, but it is actually something the shelter has been looking to do now for some time. What the system does is loop a series of pre recorded messages and announcements for all of our customers that have been placed on hold. This is a big step up from dead silence that has traditionally accompanied the uncertainty of our customers wondering if they have been disconnected when they are actually on hold. It is also a way for us to spread the word about upcoming events at the shelter.

It's actually a pretty cool system that is easy to modify if you have a new event or change of hours. The only thing I don't like about it is the fact that it is my voice playing on the message system. The other thing that kind of got to me, and a few other staff members, was while I was setting it up, just about every speaker phone in the shelter was on a continual loop of the message. Not that I don't like to hear my voice, but over and over again even I was annoyed with it. Finally I got a hold of the phone company and was able to straighten it out and get it all working, so now, we no longer have dead silence but rather a nice recorded message of the events that are taking place at the shelter.

There were a few other things that took place today up at the front desk. As always we got to spend some time with a dog in need of some good sleep. What happens is one of the kennel staff will bring up one of our animals that is having a tough time and set up a nice comfy spot for them behind the counter. It not only lets them get some well deserved shut eye but also puts the spot light on them for customers coming into the shelter. In addition to this we also had one of our staff members dogs up there while he tried introducing his other dog to one of ours. Not sure if he is thinking about fostering or adopting, but in any case I hope it works out.

I'm closing with a picture of one of our mange puppies that we have been treating at the shelter going on three months. I am amazed every time I see these guys because they are looking better and better. Hard to believe this guy was once hairless covered in soars! Thanks for reading everyone and I look forward to your comments.

2 comments:

  1. i love dogs with airplane wing ears!
    i must say i really enjoy reading your blog and looking at the pictures. How many animals are housed in the shelter? Do a lot of people adopt from shelters in the states?

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  2. The numbers really range, typically though we have around 65 dogs, cats, rabbits in total. We do get quite a few adoptions and more and more people are learning how good shelter animals can be for pets. The big thing that I see us doing is educating the public though. I sometime hear the analogy that we are mopping up after a waterfall and it kind of holds some truth. How I see it is, the more we save the more people will know how much of a problem there is with pet over population. Lucky for us we have a lot of free and reduced fee spay and neuter non-profits that are hitting the problem at the source. Thanks for the comment and right back at you, I love reading your blog and the hard work that you dedicate yourself so much to.
    NIck

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