A complete reversal

With all of the sad and stressful times this past week I was ready for a rebound, and today it came. The day started off as usual with lots of cleaning and making sure all of the animals were fed and as soon as the doors opened I was in a showing.

The first showing I had was with a tiny little kitten with the fitting name Itty Bitty. The woman had been in yesterday but because she came so close to five we were unable to show the animal. Luckily she wasn't deterred and came back first thing this morning. The showing went great with the adopter asking all of the right questions. The adoption was a go and this new kitten has a new place to call home.

The day seemed pretty routine for a Monday after my showing. There was lots of cleaning and of course preparing for the new batch of dogs to come in through our second chance program. Usually they arrive with our behaviorist around one but today she was running a little late and wouldn't be back at the shelter until after three. This was good news because now we had a little extra time to set everything up for the new arrivals.

While all of this was going on our med staff was taking care of some new cat intakes, more specifically five rag doll kittens. We've had a run on cats and kittens lately and the cattery has seemed pretty empty so over the next few days there are going to be a lot of intakes.

Now on to the highlight of the day. I was called to do a dog introduction with our longest of long termers Margie, aka Minnie. She is a super sweet deaf Chihuahua that is going to need an extremely patient home. The poor thing has been at the shelter upwards of six months because not only is she a special needs dog she is also pretty aloof. Luckily though she had already gone through the showing and it was already onto the interaction with the potential adopters dog. I was honestly amazed to see them interact. A little of Margie's bitchiness and jealousy came out but we were able to calm her back down quickly. Better to prepare the potential adopter of everything than adopting out a dog that could potentially get returned very quickly.

After we let them get used to each other we put them in our quite room with the family and two adoption counselors. By the end of it Margie was actually giving the other dog kisses. It was so great to see and the potential adopter felt the same way. It was also great to hear how her new family plans on working with her and her disability. After a solid hour the adoption was a go. I almost couldn't believe it but our Margie has finally found a home. Did I mention also that her new adopter is deaf, you want to talk about a perfect fit. We are such a lucky shelter that we have the ability to wait for the perfect adopters rather than just putting as many dogs out there as possible.

Later our behaviorist arrived with the new batch and was a little disappointed to see Margie still here. She had known about the showing when she called to tell us she was going to be late. Then of course I told her that Margie will be going home on Wednesday because her new family wants to prepare the house for her. It was nice to see some tears of joy, it really is amazing the group of people here and how much they truly care for these animals.

I'm truly uplifted after today and glad I get to share it with everyone. All the new pictures are some of our second chance arrivals that came in today, I have no doubt they won't be here long once they are available. As always, thanks for reading and if you have any questions or comments about animal shelters in general I would love to help.