Feeling like a Monday

It's been a while but today was definitely one of those days. Right from the get go I knew that today was going to be tough and unfortunately I was right. For some odd reason at the shelter the schedule lately has been a little screwy and on Sundays it seems we are short handed, really short handed.

I began as any other day by taking out all of the dogs for their morning breaks, this took a little longer than usual because every single kennel was full with at least one dog. Once all of the guys were out it was time to clean. Unfortunately more dogs means more messes and a whole lot of scooping necessary. Eventually everything got done and I was able to get the guys back up and fed just before opening.

I moved on to getting the dishes done when I realized that there were a few more than usual. That was because not only did we have about twenty extra for meds that were given out they actually didn't get done yesterday because the shelter was so busy. Needless to say I had some nice raisins for fingers once all of the dishes got washed.

The rest of the day was pretty much a blur of showings and daily tasks. At any given moment there was about three showings going on, now this is awesome but it makes for a difficult time if you don't have the staff to cover it all. Heck, even feedings which are usually no problem took me a solid hour with the barrage of questions I got from guests at the shelter.

Eventually all of the dogs did get fed and by that time we had to take them out for their afternoon break. Thankfully we had some hard chargers that took the lead and got the animals out while there were still more showings to be had. Before I knew it the clock read 4:15, there had been six adoptions and it was time to bring the dogs back up.

All in all it was a great day for adoptions, just not for me. I love getting the animals out of here but when you are too busy to realize that an adoption is taking place you really can't appreciate it fully. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate it, I just wish I could have savored it more.

Well, that's about that, I appreciate everyone reading and I look forward to your comments. Oh yeah, the picture up top is an adorable cocker mix that we like to call a "second chance" dog.

Getting to know the new guys, and of course more poo than you can ever imagine

Today was a little different, with all of the rain we had to work things a little differently when it came to taking dogs out. Typically we get all of the dogs out at once, clean out the kennels, lay down food, and then bring the dogs back up, however with fewer yards to use it was more staggered today. You wish that you could get the little guys out as quickly as possible, but with so few covered yards that can be difficult. You basically have to pick and choose who goes out first while the others wait. You think that it might be a tough decision but all you really have to do is let the ones out that didn't poop in their kennel last night.

After all of the guys got out that held it last night I got to work. I tried getting everything done as quickly as possible because as I was cleaning all I could see was the looks of despair on all of the other dogs that were still waiting their turn. Not sure if it was the long wait for the guys or what, but for some reason there was more poo than any other day. I have to say I think I am loosing my sense of smell because it really wasn't to bad, wow, did I just write that? Anyways, I got the first half done and cycled in the others once the yards were empty. I was surprised that it all got done rather quickly but I would have still like the guys to all get out at once.

With time to spare I headed over to the rabbitat where once again we had a volunteer helping out by taking the rabbits to their play yard. It really is amazing how much faster you can change everything out in their beds when there isn't a bunnie there to work around. As always, I have to thank the volunteers for the role that they play at the shelter.

After all of the cleaning and daily chores I got a call over the radio about some people waiting on hold to ask some questions about some animals. The questions ranged from adoption fees to animal behaviors and tendencies. I am always hesitant to answer these questions because you never want to waste a person's time if they aren't qualified to adopt in the first place. In any case, I go over the details of our processes and try to answer every question possible without guaranteeing them that they can adopt, it really is a tightrope walk sometimes.

Once all the busy work had been done I finally got to go over and check out the new guys. Of course the first thing I see is one of the little ones chomping down on a big piece of freshly laid you know what. Luckily I was able to clean it up before he could finish it, poor guy, probably just nervous. Anyways, I soon learned that a few had some issues, ether on leash or when it came to food. They seemed fine with humans but definitely had some issues with the other dogs. I do have to say though that when it comes to humans all of these little guys are incredibly friendly. I have no doubt that when they become available for adoption they won't be here long.

When it comes to showings this week it seems that they are all pretty much the same. I have had a few denials but for the most part I have had pretty much perfect households looking for a new pet. Even with all of the great families though I still haven't had an adoption. It seems that people are taking their time with the process to make sure that the animal that they choose is absolutely the right one. I know that this is what I preach but I still wouldn't mind seeing an adoption or two.

To close out the day we got one more new dog in. She is a lab mix that was brought to us originally as a stray. The staff absolutely fell in love with her but because we are private we had to bring her to a county shelter. After the alloted time however we found out that she wasn't claimed and one of our staff members got her to give her a "second chance". I think she will do very well here and hopefully find her forever home very soon.

Thanks for reading everyone and I look forward to your comments, and me being me, I would love to have you follow us on google or facebook if you aren't already are.

A pretty big scare

Of course, like any other day, it begins with a lot of cleaning, today especially. I began by helping take out the dogs for their morning breaks and once that was done got to scooping poop out of the kennels. Once I got them all cleaned out, food all ready with special diets included, I brought the dogs back up. It might have only taken a few sentences to explain it but in reality it takes over an hour.

After all of the dogs were done I headed over to take care of the rabbitat. Usually around this time there is another staff member that comes over to help out but no such luck today. Luckily though there was a volunteer that helped out by taking the rabbits down to their runs which made the cleaning very easy. After sweeping up and changing out the garbage bags I went back to the office and noticed that there were still a few morning cleaning duties that hadn't been signed off. This of course is when I went for the "trifecta".

I headed over to the cattery and helped out by sweeping and of course my favorite, scooping. Luckily just about everything was done in here and what wasn't just took a few minutes. In any case, it's not every day that I get to clean up after dogs, rabbits, and cats.

After all of the cleaning was done I was talking to our med staff to learn about to larger dogs that were in our barn yard since the normal kennels really weren't big enough. It turns out that one of them had been up at the front desk on one of the days that I was off and seemed to be having some problems. She was foaming at the mouth, had a rock hard stomach, and was in some obvious pain. Thank goodness she wasn't at the barnyard at this time and our vet just happened to be walking by because what she had was very serious. It turns out she had bloat, a life threatening condition, that calls for immediate surgery. Luckily we had the right eyes on her at the right time and we were able to get everything under control. She is back at the shelter now doing just fine. I hate to think what could have happened if no one had been watching her.

Surprisingly the rest of the day was incredibly busy. Along with the busy work of taking out poop buckets, setting up new kennels, and disinfecting yards we had a new group of second chance dogs coming in along with a whole lot of showings. I had almost forgot it was Columbus day when I noticed that all of the showings were with stay at home parents and their children. Similar to yesterday though most of the showings didn't go anywhere but with the new group of dogs there will be definitely more of selection very soon.

To the new group of dogs, talk about a cute group. I am always surprised at the animals that are brought into the shelter. Not because there is a never ending supply, which there is, but because just when you think you have seen it all here comes something totally different. You will have to wait for future blogs to see them all, but here is one of my favorites. We're calling him a sheepdog mix but you never really know. All I know is that is super friendly and very adorable.

Closing out I wanted to talk about my girl Liza again. She is a second chance dog, treeing coonhound, that came to us via Mississippi several months ago. Her fear and timidness caused us to put her on foster away from the stress of the shelter, but there hasn't been much interest in her. Recently though we were able to get her in a local paper and we have finally sparked some phone calls, one in particular seemed promising. I don't want to get my hopes up but as soon as I hear something I will let you know. As always thanks for reading and I look forward to your comments.

Back to work

Coming back from several days off is never easy, today wasn't so bad though. I came into work noticing that there was a pretty solid staff and realized we had everything under control even though we were going to be a bit short handed in the afternoon.

Since our normal staff wasn't here there were a few differences in how the day started out. For one, I actually didn't have to clean today! I think that this is a first at my days at the shelter. So rather than clean I had to dish out all of the meds to the animals which might have actually been tougher than cleaning. The reason I say this is because there were a total of four animals on ear meds which can be a daunting task. On top of that there is another dog that also needs two eye medicines along with several pills, poor guy. Once I got all of the ears cleaned out and waited ten minutes to put more drops in them. Of course it's easier said than done. Pretty much every one of the dogs that needed the medicine was kenneled with another dog in the break yards, what that meant was that I had to no only control one dog while I stuck drops in their ears I had to dodge the other ones that would jump all over me. In the end, I was dirtier than I had ever been when doing kennels. In fact I actually had to change my shirt because of all of the mud that ended up on me. Hey, at least it was something new. Whether it was more difficult or not, I did learn a few things, like not all dogs like cream cheese.

After all of the meds were done there was still time to help out cleaning. I headed over to the rabbitat and got to work. Luckily there was a volunteer there to help take the rabbits out to their play yards which makes the cleaning that much easier. I can never thank them enough for taking time out of their days to help the animals and the staff. Because of the volunteer we were able to clean in record time, then of course head out to do more cleaning.

Once all of the morning duties were done it was time to spend some quality time with some special needs animals. We have a list of dogs and cats that need special attention and work to make sure that they can be as adoptable as possible. The dog I chose to work with was a Siberian Huskie mix who can be a bit of a spaz at times. She means no harm but she can certainly make it feel that way. I took her to our quite room which is a small area in front of the shelter that has no barking dogs, a nice couch, and carpeted floors. It took some time and a whole lot of jumping but finally she settled down and got comfortable. I think she just needs a very active household possibly with another dog because the energy that this dog has is amazing. It was good to see that she could calm down indoors though.

Later in the day I had a few showings, a few denials, and absolutely no adoptions to speak of. Even though I didn't send anyone home there was a nice cat adoption and I think a few of the showings that I had could pan out in the future. One in particular really stood out, it was with a family that had lost their dog of 13 years three weeks ago. They had been to several shelters but felt that the right dog would pick them. Overall they were a perfect household to send any of our animals home to, it's just a matter of finding the right one. They said they will think about Dixie, the sweet dog they were looking at but they will also check back to see if there are any new additions.

Kind of a different day today with some nice quality time with the animals. It did get a bit hectic in the end trying to make sure that everything got finished, but being a little short handed and having some late showings made the afternoon fly by. I hope in the next few days that some of the wonderful families that came in to look at animals will be back to take them home. Not a great day for adoptions but that doesn't mean that tomorrow won't be. Thanks for reading everyone and I look forward to your comments. By the way, the picture up top is Kissy, our overweight cat that likes to lounge around in the indoor/outdoor room.

A nice pair of adoptions today

Being back to normal hours where the employees aren't staggered on their times is nice. What it means is that everyone works together to get all of the morning cleaning done and it really seems like it is happening faster and faster.

Today I worked with one of our new staff members, for some reason it seems like there is always one. We knocked out the south kennels and I was to train him on the little details that need to be taken care of when cleaning. The details aren't many but if they are not attended to some pretty nasty stuff can take place. The details included emptying out the drain filter that can clog very easily, making sure the garbage full of poo gets taken out, and of course the bleach water that holds our scoopers gets changed. All really fun stuff to do but if you miss a few days consecutively the flies and smells are a coming. Luckily the new staff member seems pretty in tuned with what needs to get done so I have no doubt it will.

Since we worked together we were able to take care of the kennels in record time and headed over to the rabbitat. With two people attending to the little bunnies it wasn't really even work. In fact we were even able to finish this a good hour before we opened. That meant it was time to take out the garbage, wash the dishes, and start the laundry. Surprisingly enough someone had already done most of that since they had finished up early as well.

With a solid staff on hand it seemed like I finally had some time to spend with the dogs, and that is exactly what I did. I hung out with Wendy, a doberman mix that has the attention span of a two year old. Luckily I brought a treat wheel that helps her focus on the food and work to get it. I was surprised at how much she calmed down after a few minutes. That's not to say that as soon as someone walked by she was up again jumping off the walls but at the very least we know that she can be calm in a stimulant free environment.

On to my first showing, it was with a woman that had apparently been in on Sunday with her husband to look at two dogs. They initially were looking at one but fell in love with her kennel mate. The unfortunate thing was that we didn't want to send the little guy they wanted to adopt home to household without another dog, mainly because of his timidness and antisocial behavior. I told this to the woman and she immediately made a call to her husband and shazaam, both dogs were going home. I was surprised to say the least and I hope I wasn't forcing two dogs on the family but when I saw her with the pair and how they acted I knew it was the right decision. I'm looking forward to seeing how it all works out.

My showing from yesterday came back today to do an interact with one of our dogs. Unfortunately she didn't want to see grandma Kelly again but she did want her dog to meet Reina. Now I wasn't part of the interaction but apparently there were no problems but just to make sure that it was a good fit the woman decided to take the dog home on foster for a night to make sure that it was the right fit. Hopefully come tomorrow when I am writing this blog I can tell you how wonderful of a fit it is and how our girl Reina got adopted. Keep your fingers crossed everyone!

Ending the day we took out the dogs for their afternoon break. Nothing too exciting except learning about my little friend Roy who tops the scales at about twelve pounds is an extreme climber. It looks funny at the time but really tells you how much he is in need of human contact. I need to make sure that he gets some special attention in the coming days, and just so you know what I mean by extreme climber, here is a picture of the little guy trying to get to his leash.

Thanks for reading everyone and I look forward to your comments and suggestions.

Learned about a few adoptions

So I had the entire weekend off these past few days and boy could I get used to that. Of course though I missed out on the majority of the adoptions that took place. There were several dogs and a few cats that all got to find their new homes. Unfortunately the cycle never ends and we had a few relinquishments as well as a couple of "returns" this weekend.

Starting out today I read the adoption board and learned that three dogs along with a slew of cats had gotten adopted. One cat in particular stood out, her name was Honey and she was one of our special needs cats. I remember doing her intake and thinking how could this cat be so skinny. Well, it turned out she had a medical condition along with being the runt of her litter that made her the size that she was. Aside from some medication and a special diet this cat was awesome, I was actually surprised it took this long for her to get adopted. In any case, a lot of animals got to find their forever homes this weekend so I was glad to see the board filled with names.

After reading the adoption board, I went to read the kennel assignments and noticed a few new dogs along with two returns. The two names that really stuck out were Kelly and Mack, two dogs that had recently been adopted out. Kelly was our senior citizen that ranks in at about 11 years old while Mack is a young guy who just recently went home. Both returns weren't horrible, it wasn't as if the dogs had bit or anything but rather the owners felt that there could be a better home for both of these loving animals. In any case, we at least know how they did in homes and we can now find them the ideal place for these guys to live. Hopefully though it is sooner than later.

Aside from the normal cleaning there were only a few showings today. Kind of weird from me to start my Monday on an actual Monday and realize how slow this day actually is. My first showing was actually with Kelly and another older dog. It was with a young lady who was looking to not only find another companion for herself and her dog but she was looking to help out an older shelter dog. The two she wanted to look at were six and eleven and it turns out they she really liked them both. Since she does have a dog at home however, we will need to do interactions to make sure that everyone gets along and that it will be a match that will last a lifetime. Hopefully we will see her soon and we can find one of these great animals a new mom and brother.

I had one more showing to close out the day. It was with a couple that I had spoken with last week that initially wanted to see Dixie, a kelpie mix that had been on bite quarantine a few weeks back. I steered them away from her mainly because the couple could be having kids in the near future and due to the recent events along with the dogs food guarding issues I thought there might be a better fit for the couple out there. Interestingly enough, the couple had thought about Dixie the entire week and what it would take to give her the best home and they decided to come back and meet. I was glad to see them and even happier that they had spent some time evaluating the situation. After talking to them for a bit we went to go meet Dixie and they really enjoyed her company. I'm not sure if they are 100% but I am sure they they liked her, I gave them some training handouts on food aggression ect. and told them to go over them to see what is in store. I have no doubt that they will provide a good home for one of our animals, I just want them to know what needs to be done to ensure that they have a great, well behaved, animal.

It's nice coming into work knowing that you only have a three day week, but in reality I do miss working on those busy days when the animals get to find their forever homes. Call it fringe benefits, but that is the feeling that I work for because I certainly don't do it for the money. Thanks for reading everyone and if you aren't following me yet on google or facebook, I would appreciate it if you did. I look forward to your comments and hopefully will write about some more adoptions tomorrow.

Nice, a weekend off

As usual, lots and lots of cleaning. I'll try not to bore you with the details because it was pretty much just like every other day of cleaning cats and rabbits. The only difference today was that we were playing musical chairs with the kennels by disinfecting and relocating a few of our feline friends to make room for some new arrivals later in the week.

Once all of the cleaning was done it was on to the necessities of the day. Laundry, washing windows, and of course more laundry. There were a few showings but the real excitement for the day was the care-taking of an extremely young abandoned kitten that still had it's umbilical chord attached. In these cases you never know what the outcome is going to be since especially with an animal this young. You never know if there was reasoning that it's mother left her behind, whether it was medical or motherly instinct we'll never know. All we can do is try our best to give her the best chance at a long life. You will be glad to know that she is keeping up her energy and bottle feeding very well. Here is a picture of the little lady with a nice milk mustache.

Later in the day I was approached about an upcoming EBR class. The EBR stands for euthanasia by request. In any job that I have had I have always jumped at the opportunity for extra training, but in this instance I have to think twice. Now I understand that it is part of any shelter but for me to actually be the person to do the duty I'm not sure if it is right for me. This coming from a former Marine! In any case I turned down the opportunity and since I did that gave the option to another kennel staff member. What that means is that I will work on Friday to cover their shift and in return I get Sunday off! I can't believe how excited I am but it is so nice to be able to spend a few days with my lady rather than heading into work.

The rest of the day was pretty dull until of course we brought all of the animals down for their afternoon break. We have two very large fenced yards for our jumpers and both were full when I walked by. What I noticed though was that the two dogs were fence fighting pretty intensely. I kicked the fence as usual to distract them. This usually works but this time it worked very well, for the simple fact that by pushing on the fence caused a pvc pipe to crack and send water spraying everywhere. Not a great way to end my day but luckily it split the dogs up and we were able to find the cut off switch to the water very quickly.

Thanks for reading everyone and I look forward to your comments. Remember that there are so many ways to help animals in your community, do the research and volunteer your time, there are only a few things in life that can relax you as much.