With the bitter comes the sweet.

With my stint in kennels this week almost over I figured I might as well pick up after the dogs. Luckily though none of the ones that I cleaned up after had any sort of bacteria or parasites living in their intestines so the smell was at leas bearable.

After all of the cleaning was taken care of it was already opening time. People were already coming into the shelter even though there were still dogs that needed to be brought up and bags of garbage that still needed taking out. Fortunately there were some other staff members that were willing to help a hand.

Of course that didn't mean that I was finished cleaning. I still had to disinfect our South fake grass areas where our sick dogs with giardia had been going on breaks. Not the most difficult task, but scrubbing astro turf isn't the easiest thing either. On top of that there was a whole lot of bleach that needed to be sprayed on to make sure that it was actually disinfected for healthy dogs to use.

Once that was done I sat down with a staff member to go over a few ideas about an adoption event we are having this weekend titled "Puppy Love". In addition to having puppies though we are actually trying to focus the public's attention on our senior dogs. See, I just found out that we are pretty much the only shelter in our county that takes in animals over four years old. This was a surprise to me because we have so many senior dogs I thought it was the norm across the board. Anyways, I digress, the event this weekend will feature our KCS (kids community service) volunteers manning kissing booths (with puppies), selling baked goods, and having face painting. As well we will be offering discounted adoption fees as well as gift certificates to our thrift store with every adoption. Hopefully it will be a huge success and we will continue to grow these events.

Later in the afternoon it was finally time for some showings. All at the same time there were three cats showings. The first, which I grabbed, was with a pair of cats that we are adopting out separately. There story was a sad one to say the least, but as I was about to find out, it was a lot sadder. Initially when the pair came in we couldn't tell if one of the guys had an old scar or ring worm. Well, it turned out to be a mass cell tumor. Our medical staff removed it, and the surrounding area hoping it would take care of the problem. It turns out that today, with our vet, the med staff noticed a few more lumps. Upon biopsy, it was determined that they too were mass cell tumors. Now I'm not sure if they are going to try to remove these or not, but with two popping up in a matter of a month I have to be realistic. It's one of those moments that you really have to try not to think about. I mean the animal has been through so much already and now it's going through this, my heart really does break.

Even with all of the depressing news, there was still a little light yet to shine. Our sick cat's sibling got adopted as I was learning the sad news. Along with that another cat had also found her forever home as well. This place is one amazing emotional roller coaster. I really don't know how other rescues do it across the globe. I am still amazed at how lucky we are here at this shelter and the attention that we are able to give these animals.

I wanted to close on a picture of a few new arrivals to try to lighten up this down right depressing blog. The ones up top is an Italian Greyhound that came in with her sister from another shelter and of course some of our surgery dogs that found warmth with each other. Below is my first one eared cat that came in with the group of seven this past week. Thanks for reading and remember, the good stories always out weigh the bad ones at this shelter.