Too busy to know what's going on

The day started as any other with two of us being the early morning shift to knock out most of the cleaning. Of course before we started I learned that one of the late shift would not be there today. What that left us with was three staff members and one new hire, that of course didn't show up either. What it all meant was that we were extremely short staff with a whole lot of tasks that needed to get done.

Luckily the three that were here today seemed to work well together and able to prioritize the tasks that were the most important. We ran a little late in the cleaning during the morning but luckily the front office new the situation and pushed back any showings half an hour. Of course as soon as we were able to catch up with everything the crowd came. I'm not actually sure if we were unusually busy for a Monday or it was just being short handed but it seemed like a Saturday with the amount of people that were coming through the doors.

Oh, I forgot to mention that one of the three of us had to go shopping so we were left with two kennel attendants for the better part of two hours. It was necessary for us to go shopping because we had three litters of kittens coming in that were immediately going to go out on foster and we were running very short on kitten supplies. Luckily the person that went shopping was pretty familiar with it and able to make it back rather quickly.

My first showing was an introduction with Sara, our resident momma dog, and a potential adopters English Bulldog. The showing went well and the two dogs were obviously interested in each other but the adopter was still curious about another relinquishment that wouldn't be available until Tuesday. She basically said that if it doesn't work out with the new dog she would adopt Sara. Well, I hope it works out with the new dog because later in the day a grandmother and her grandson came in and absolutely fell in love with Sara and decided to adopt right then and there.

While I was in the interaction we got a call that our new "second chance" dogs would be arriving at 1:00 today. We had a total of ten new dogs coming in and no kennels set up yet. Once again I am thankful for everyone, especially the med staff, for pitching in to make sure that everything was prepared for their arrival. While they finished setting up the kennels I disinfected the yards that the new dogs would first go in as well as getting some fresh water for them. Before I new it they started arriving. A good group that I am sure will find homes very quickly. Here is a picture of one, he looks like a super skinny poodle with Italian greyhound legs. I am sure glad I don't have any property because I would be taken home way to many dogs working at this place.

There were a few more showings the rest of the afternoon but only one stood out. It was with our super senior Kelly who ranks in at eleven years old. She is a mini Schnauzer that I like to call grandma. She initially came into the shelter about three months ago but because of medical reasons she has just recently come up for adoption. Don't worry though, she been lucky enough to have a wonderful foster family that takes her home every night and brings her back to the shelter in the morning. Anyways, the showing was with the sweetest lady that brought in her granddaughters as well as a great grandson. I explained all of the medical issues and also the life expectancy and she said age doesn't matter. One issue that did arise was that she owned a cat and we needed to cat test her to make sure it would be a good fit. It was kind of funny showing her a cat, she was really curious and put out the funniest bark I have probably ever heard from a dog. The cat did hiss a little then Kelly just backed off and pretended like a cat wasn't even there. The big decision now is weather or not to adopt. The woman was going to go home and think about it this evening and hopefully return tomorrow.

The rest of the day was just trying to play catch up and make sure that everything got done that needed to get done. Fortunately we had one staff member come in at four to help out with the closing duties since it was going to be just me from 5-6. We got most of everything done but I am sure we missed something in the commotion of closing and late showings. No more adoptions but at least the day flew by. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a few animals to go home with some great families in the very near future.