Behind for a reason

The title of this blog will be better explained in the last paragraph, just wanted to give you a heads up. I was tasked with the cats today since our new hire still is only trained on the dogs and the rabbits. It was pretty easy to get everything done on time and a little entertaining at the same time. I took care of one room of cats and then moved into the kittery where so many kittens assumed my legs were trees to be climbed. It was pretty funny to have five kittens literally climbing up my pant legs while the others ran around like maniacs. I tried getting a picture but they were just too fast for the shutter speed of my camera.

Once the cats and the rabbits were done it was time to haul out the garbage. It's always fun to balance a whole lot of bags on a wagon as your hauling it through the shelter. I have to say it is a good thing there is teamwork in this place otherwise it would have taken several trips to get rid of the trash. Of course after that was done we were assigned a few necessary jobs to get things in order. Myself and another attendant took care of the iso yards, kennels, and all of the crap you could possible imagine building up in a storage area for the past five years. It was good to see the difference when we were done though and hopefully it won't go back to chaos too quickly.

Now it was time to move on to the fun part of the day. Showing after showing for all sorts of animals on this busy Saturday. Unfortunately my first showing wasn't a showing at all but rather a denial. It wasn't a bad denial because the couple would have made a great home for any animal except maybe an eight week old puppy. The reason I say this is because the couple both works full time and is away daily for more than eight hours and we tend to want the youngsters not to be alone that long because some behavioral issues tend to arise. The couple was very understanding and appreciated the time and having their questions answered.

My next showing was with a puppy once again. Everything looked good on the application except for one little detail. The couple was renting and the weight restrictions on animals was stated as being 50 pounds. It's not a huge problem but the only thing we know about these puppies is that their mom is about 40 pounds and they are very good sized for eight weeks old. I explained the issue and they understood but we decided to go ahead with the showing anyhow. The immediately fell in love with the little guy and his temperament but were concerned about their lease agreement. Luckily they have an understanding landlord and I was able to speak with them over the phone and explain the situation and the possibility of have a very large dog on their hands. The landlord explained it was more for specific breed restrictions than weight and confirmed that they could adopt even if the dog ended up 60 or 70 pounds. After a little bit of paper work the puppy was on his way and the couple was happy they did everything by the book.

There were a few other showings later in the afternoon with one of them ending great and the other having a really crappy finish. One showing was with one of my favorite little Mississippi dogs who is a sweet little brindle girl that looks nothing like a hound dog until you hear her bark. I wasn't in the showing but apparently it went great and the little girl got to go home this afternoon. The bad showing was pretty bad, it was with a four month old puppy that has been here for quite a while. Everything was going well until the dog started getting to aggressive and ended up biting the adoption counselor several times on the hand. What this means is another one of our little guys is on bite quarantine for the week.

Overall it was a good day. We got a lot done in the area of cleaning and organizing and also got some great animals adopted. It's amazing sometimes how the shelter seams so empty with so many adoptions but we will be getting in another ten this Monday. Hopefully the long term animals will find homes soon as well because there are a few of them that have been here far too long. If you want to read what happen last week in the blog I skipped continue reading below, it is a little sad so be fore warned, that was the reason I skipped it last week, I needed a little time before I relived it through this blog. Thanks for reading and keep the comments rolling.

For those of you who actually follow this blog you might have noticed that I skipped a day last week. It wasn't laziness I promise, it was more not wanting to deal with it and me trying to get over it as quickly as possible. The reason I skipped a day last week is simple, it was a very tough and difficult day to deal with so rather than live through it again immediately following it I decided to post pone it until today when I could be a little bit more composed. I am not going to go into to much detail about that day except for the fact that a dog that I had adopted out was returned because he had bitten someone unprovoked. It was a horrible thing to have happen because not only did he do this but he can also jump fences which makes him a real threat. After his bit quarantine and evaluation it was decided that he was not adoptable and that he would be put down. It is such a horrible thing to experience especially because one grows so attached to these animals. Because I was so attached I decided to hold my old friend in his last few moments. I cried as usual (not something normal for a former Marine) and talked to him the whole time. He went very quickly but it was incredibly hard for me to experience.