Slowly getting back into the routine

I have to say that I was lucky to travel to a place with not the best smelling bathrooms in the world. Usually you would think this would be a negative side to a honeymoon but at least it didn't take much for me to get used to the smell of the kennels again.

I began my day by first taking out the dogs for their morning break. This is still kind of tough for me because of the simple fact that there are so many new faces and I still have a tough time knowing where everyone goes and who can play with who. Thankfully the whole staff has been great and helps out whenever I ask.

Once all of the dogs were out doing their business, it was time to get scrubbing. I had almost forgotten that it was spring/summer time and there were a lot of new baby birds around until I started cleaning off bird poop from the kennels. There has to be some scientific use for this stuff because the amount of effort I had to put into just to make a dent in it wore me out for the rest of the day. Anyways, I was able to finish up cleaning the kennels and I am sure the bird poop will be back tomorrow, but at least it looks good today.

After I got all of the food down it was time to bring up the crew for their breakfast. It was to get some interaction with the dogs but at the same time it was good just to be able to pet them. I have to say though that one of the dogs, Nicky, did give me a weird vibe. Of course it turns out that I didn't read his kennel notes and he needs someone he knows to introduce them to him otherwise he can be a bit of a turd. Luckily he warmed up and now seems to be one of the sweeter dogs at the shelter.

The rest of the day seemed to be a lot of busy office work for me. I did learn of a great thing that will be taking place at the shelter in the coming year and it is an installation of a war dog memorial in our dog park. It's a great way to contribute to the amazing animals and their handlers that serve and have served this country so well.

In addition to this I learned a little bit more about our fiftieth anniversary gala that will be taking place in October. I sometimes have a tough time realizing that the shelter has been here for that long. It should be an amazing event that will really bring our shelter onto a bigger stage.

That's about it for the day. I want to thank everyone for the warm welcome back and of course for doing all that they can to help animals in their area. We are truly a lucky nation to be able to do what we do for them so keep it up and the rest of the world will follow.

I'm Back

Well, after a three week sabbatical I am back and slowly getting used to the shelter again. Apparently this is the longest time anyone has ever taken off at our rescue so they were all pretty surprised to see me stagger in after thirty hours of travel and still incredibly jet lagged. I do have to say, after my travels I have gotten a better sense of not only how lucky we are in the U.S. as far as animal welfare goes but especially the shelter that I work at.

I have to say that no matter your job or career, taken this much time off makes it very difficult to get back into a routine quickly. I found myself asking in my head exactly what do I do in this situation throughout the day. Everything from cleaning to doing showings I felt like I needed a refresher course. I'm sure after a few weeks I will be able to get back into the routine, otherwise I might realize actually how difficult this job actually is.

Enough about my day, I want to catch everyone up on the what has been going on in the shelter that past month. I was a little sad to see a few of the same faces, Marco especially, still at the shelter but I did learn of some amazing adoptions. Just about all of the long termers, including cats all found homes while I was away. It was really amazing for me to learn about all of the stories and how good all of their new families were. Heck, even a fourteen year old cat with arthritis found the perfect home

After I finally got a little organized and caught up on all of the adoptions I was surprised to hear over the radio a number of showings. I ended up taking a total of three that were all great homes. The toughest part about the showings was actually having to learn about the dogs from other people. Typically I can go on my own experiences with the added knowledge of our staff and behavior specialist, but in this case I was only getting my info from the computer. I was surprised at how easy it was to assess the animals and which ones might be a good fit from all of the notes on their files, but I still like going into the showing with my own observations, that was the toughest part. Anyways, all of the showings went well, I just wanted all of the potential adopters to take their time with the big decision. Hopefully they will come back later in the week and take home a new addition.

Well, as you can see, I am going to have to gradually work my way back into not only writing this blog but also working at the shelter. I hope everyone has had a great month and I hope there are still a few of you left out there that are going to read this. I didn't take any pictures at the shelter today but I took a few while in Tibet that I thought I would attach. My doctor told me not to handle or pet any of the dogs but I just couldn't help myself.