One a day is all you can ask for

There are only so many ways that I can start this blog but today I am going to skip past all of the cleaning and daily chores and get right down to business. It might shorten my writing a bit but if you want to know what goes on during the cleaning you can read any one of the eighty blogs that I have previously posted.

Once the three or so hours of cleaning was done and I noticed once again that all of the laundry was once again caught up I got a call over the radio to start my first showing. It was with a little poodle mix named Lily who was actually adopted out last week but returned after only four days. The main excuse the adopter used for returning the animal was that she would leave the dog in the garage or out in the back yard and when she was in the yard Lily would find holes in the fence and escape. The adopter felt that she could not afford to fix the rotted out areas in the fence and decided to return the dog. I am not going to lie, it kind of aggravates me to hear something like this but at least we got a better idea of the perfect home for our little Lily. Well, today I think we might have found it. I had a stay at home mother with her two children come in and absolutely fall in love with Lily. This would be their first dog so there were a lot of questions to be answered. Initially we wanted to send Lily home with older children but after watching the the kids in the showing I knew that they would be a good home for any animal. The big issue that arose in the showing though was that the husband/dad was unable to come in and interact due to conflicting schedules. I spoke with a few people and got the O.K. from my supervisor that we could make an exception and do an interact over the phone or we could hold the dog until tomorrow with a 50% adoption deposit. I ended up speaking with the man over the phone and he had some pretty serious questions which I liked to hear. In the end he said it should be a good fit and the adoption was a go. It was good to send an animal home the day that get adopted rather than the dogs having to wait for surgery or other medical reasons. This is the benefit of working here, seeing smiles on faces and knowing that a great dog has gotten another chance.

After all of the paperwork had been done I went to the back office where I saw some of the kennel staff standing around a new kitten named Wally. He was brought in by a family that actually found the week old kitty in their wall. The little guy was tiny but we were able to keep him warm, bottle feed him some milk, and of course get him on foster until he is big and healthy enough to be adopted. It was kind of funny how excited a few of us got when one of the staff members was able to make the little guy go to the bathroom, ah, it's all about the little things in life. Here is a picture of the fresh new face to the world.


I had one more showing towards the end of the day with one of our younger puppies. Initially when I went over the adoption profile I found a couple of things that would need to be discussed. The biggest one was the age of the children, both at seven. Before I even considered bringing the dog out to meet I spoke with the woman about the positives and negatives of the animals that she wanted to look at. The big problem with the puppy she was looking at wasn't everyone getting along but rather that the little guy is an extreme door dasher. this is an issue when you have younger children that might have a tendency to leave doors open not realizing that the dog is there and then you have a missing dog. She completely understood and decided because of that he might not be the best fit. Rather than leaving though she took a look at a little terrier that will be available tomorrow and said she would be back to meet her. She said she was in no rush and wanted the perfect fit which is what we all like to hear so hopefully the new dog might meld better with the family and we can find a new dog her forever home.

I'm trying to stay away from talking about the cleaning and the mundane chores that are an everyday part of the shelter because honestly is getting to be like the mail. I know it's boring to do so I am assuming it is boring to read, so unless there is some crazy thing that happens while cleaning I am going to stick to the adoptions and actual interactions I have with the animals. I would also appreciate any of your suggestions about what you would like to know about the happenings in a shelter. Thanks for reading and I look forward to hearing from you.