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.