A full house

Ah, my Monday. It's tough some days to come back to the overpowering smell of poop but after ten or so minutes of it you remember why you are here. Today this rang true. When I first started taking dogs out all my mind could think about was how bad everything smelled. Not sure if it was the new dogs or the fact that they all had giardia but man did it stink. Of course, once I actually started cleaning I realized how many new faces were at the shelter and how many more animals we were helping this week.

I learned quickly that our behavior specialist had ventured out to a far away shelter and given another ten dogs a "second chance". I was expecting her to do this but it is still always a nice surprise to see all of our kennels full. I was surprised though at how full we actually are. I think that this might be the most dogs in house that we have had since we have been here. Not sure of the total number but in addition to all of the kennels being full, several of them are doubled up.

Anyways, once all of the cleaning, special feedings, and bringing the dogs back up were taken care of I headed over to take the garbage out. Not the highlight of my day but at least I get to get some sort of a workout lifting the kitty litter bags into the dumpster.

Moving on with the day I learned of some great cat adoptions while I was off. In fact I think there was a total of five! They included the sweetest bonded pair that had both been in separate car accidents before making their way to us. Another special adoption was a cat named Gertie, a fourteen year old one eared cat that one of our staff members decided to take home and make comfortable for her remaining time. Now I see where she is coming from but boy could that turn very tough in no time flat.

With all of the good though comes the unfortunate, in addition to all of the adoptions I learned of two more returns. A cat that had been adopted out this weekend had already come back because the adopter said that their apartment was too small. Not sure how big of an apartment a cat needs but I will continue to tell myself that I am not a people hater. Another animal that came back was also adopted out this weekend, a sweet older dog that apparently gave the adopter some severe allergies. Understandable none the less, but I would think that a person in their fifties would know what they are allergic to. Dang it, do you see what I am doing? I need to not be so negative and just get over it! We will find these animals the right home and just because it didn't work out this time doesn't mean that it won't the next time.

Today was a good start to the week, even with getting used to the smell again and learning of some returns. When you are in this industry you have to realize that sometimes it doesn't work out, but at least the people tried. It takes a lot for a person to go down to any shelter to even consider taking these animals home so I will continue to tell myself that even when these animals are returned at least now we know how they are in a home. Thanks for reading everyone and I look forward to your comments. And the picture up top is a new second chance dog named Porky Pig, apparently he is an albino chihuahua mix...I can see where his name comes from.