Not the way I like to start the morning

I usually don't start out with a picture but today it seemed fitting. When I first came in today I figured I might as well get right to it and as soon as I saw the first kennel I was about to clean I nearly gagged. Apparently the 65 pound dog that was staying there got a little jumpy last night but not before pooping a few times. What this means is that there was some nice artwork painted all over the kennel, as you can see from the picture. Just be thankful that computers have yet to perfect the smell o vision because it was pretty rank.

Once all of the morning cleaning was done it was time for, you guessed it, more cleaning. There are those Tuesdays when you are incredibly busy with showings but unfortunately today was not one of those days. Even though I would have loved to have seen some adoptions it was nice to have the time to catch up on the necessities and even get to spend some quality time with the animals.

The next thing on the to do list for cleaning on the day was to disinfect all of the crates that our behaviorist had used the day before to bring back the second chance dogs. This can be a pretty daunting task but luckily we had three people attack it and knocked it out rather quickly. There were those nasty parts those where you would find some swollen ticks and of course a little vomit from the four hour long adventure to make it to the shelter.

During the week there is always the weekly cleaning assignments. Today was no different but at least a little easier, and more pleasant, than Monday poop buckets. The assignment today was cleaning and organizing the cattery. This includes vacuuming out the sliding door tracks because litter accumulates very fast, washing the windows, and organizing the cabinets. This sounds like it can be done very quickly but with three separate rooms it took up quite a bit of time, luckily though we had a few staff members tackle it together and get it done in a timely fashion.

Personally I didn't have any showings today, I did however help out a Spanish speaking gentleman with some cats. I am always amazed that I am the one that speaks the most Espanol her at the shelter because I really can't speak it that well. Luckily though as long as you try people are willing to work with you, and if I speak a little Spanish and they speak a little English we can usually get our messages across.

With everything pretty much done I had some time to hang with the animals. Of course I am going to hang with the new guys to see how they are but there is only so much bad smell that you can take. I know that sounds horrible but being gone for so long I think I got my sense of smell back.

One dog I payed particular attention to was a little terrier mix that literally looks like Benji. The only bad part is we had to separate her to ISO because of the amount of nasal discharge that she has. This could mean several things but until we can separate her and monitor her eating habits it might be tough to see what direction of treatment and testing is necessary. I do know that she is incredibly sweet and loves to be loved so hopefully we can start some sort of treatment on her soon and get her adopted come Saturday. Here are a few pictures of the cutie just so you have an idea of why I became so attached.

Well, hopefully tomorrow I can write about some great adoption stories and not about cleaning, but it is what it is. As always I appreciate your comments and keep them coming. Thanks for reading and of course thanks for helping out the animals.