Seemingly Uneventful Turns Eventful

Of course it was a coworkers last day and that is always something memorable. Especially when their new job is going to be taking care of one of the rarest animals on the planet, the Giant Panda. Business as usual, get to taking the animals down to their runs for their morning breaks and get to cleaning. Pretty normal beginnings with a little poop and a lot of scrubbing. After a quick feeding I headed over to the cattery to help out in there. Hopefully this time I won't get scratched to hell by some not so nice felines.

When I was finished with the cats I headed into the office and saw Sparky, a dog that I had been working with due to his nervousness in the shelter. The big surprise was that he was adopted less than 24 hours ago and his new owner was "returning" him. I have had my heart sink a couple of times at this job but not like this. I actually felt some hatred towards the man for bringing him back. It turns out that in his new home the dog was left outside and tore through a screen door. Now I can understand that this would make anyone upset but have some patience. I guess the man really didn't want a dog because guess what, no one is perfect and some training and patience is needed when adopting any animal. I'm trying to hold back some real nice words I have for this guy but you have to look on the lighter side. We got a better idea of what time of home Sparky is going to need and I get to work with him some more. I guess I need to stop thinking that everyone is going to take care of their animals the way the shelter staff does.

After working with Sparky for about half an hour I spoke with the medical staff about his return. I kind of took a step back and put myself in the new owners shoes. It's not an easy thing to do because I think I have tunnel vision when it comes to taking care of animals. There might have been some underlying reasons he came back but in reality I don't know the whole story so no grudges here.

Later in the day I was asked to help out with some "photos". A local paper is nice enough to come by the shelter every so often to photograph the adoptable animals and get them some more publicity in order to get them adopted. I think it is a great thing that so many people care. This has definitely been an eye opening day where I need to be a little bit more positive about the people that really run this shelter, the public.

Of course after all of this I was called to the front for a "DB". If you haven't read earlier that means dead body. He was an old yellow lab that had passed earlier in the day. It is always tough to deal with this but it is part of the job and at least this time I didn't have to see his face. I just wish there was something that I could tell the owner to make it easier, but there really isn't, they are loosing a member of their family.

Time ticked by, the school kids in the weekly community service class came by and helped out with laundry and dishes. We got all of the dogs out to their yards for their evening break. After we brought them back up we had a small rush of possible adopters. We usually stop showing at 4:00 but because we had taken care of all of the closing duties some of the staff went ahead and showed some animals. So, closing on some good news, one of our Chihuahua mixes who had been in the shelter for quite a while was adopted. He is going to a great family and is going to make an unbelievable pet.

I know that there are always going to be tough times in life. Dealing with those times and taking something from them is a big part of our lives. Today I learned that not everyone is the same when it comes to pets, and you have to respect that. There are a lot of things that I do that I am sure annoy a good amount of people, but guess what, that is who I am. All animals deserve the best home for them, it is our job to put as many of them there as we can.