Rain Rain go Away

Typically I love a good thunder storm, but when you work at an out door kennel it can be a little trying, both for the animals and for myself. Don't get me wrong, the shelter is a well designed place but there are always places that seem to accumulate water no mater how much you prepare, especially when the rain just doesn't let up.

The day began with all of the kennel staff teaming up to knock out the dog kennels to make sure that everything got done quickly. We do this because it can get pretty chilly for the animals away from their heaters so what we basically do is shuttle all of the animals that didn't go in their kennels into the fake grass yards, quickly clean, then shuttle them back and focus on the remainder of the dogs. Once this was all done it was time to head over to the cattery.

Once in the cattery it was nice to see everyone teaming up well to get all of the morning cleaning done. Not to mention everyone was happy to be out of the rain and into the only controlled climate on property. In addition to cleaning all of the kennels we also set up a few because we had some new arrivals coming in today. A bonded pair and a sweet Persian. Here is a pic of the Persian below, a really sad story of an elderly gentleman, that due to health reasons, can no longer care for the animal.

After all of the cleaning was done it was on to a group meeting where future adoption and volunteer events were discussed. I won't bore you with the details but it was nice to get that other side of the shelter and of course a chance to learn a little.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent laying sand bags and trying to control nature. We moved a few dogs around just because the wind was picking up and some smaller dogs seemed a little chilly. All I have to say is luckily our shelter's kennels are completely heated otherwise I don't know what we would have done.

Closing out the day we learned that our Huskie had actually jumped several fences while on afternoon break and we were unable to track her down. This is not typical and in fact this has never happened since I have been here. Our procedure was pretty much to stop everything and go out and look for her. In addition to this we notified her microchip maker to send out an email blast and of course animal control to be on the lookout. We also had some staff members make posters to be handed out and hung throughout the area. I'm trying not to be to depressed about the whole thing and cross my fingers that she will be back in the morning but it's definitely a stressful situation. I will keep you updated.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!WOOOOOO HOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Right when I walked into work I learned that our Huskie had made it back and was hanging out in the parking lot this morning! Glad she had a safe night out and was able to make it back into our care, I'll tell you one thing, that won't be happening again.