I feel like I've been slacking

It always seems that when Tuesdays (my Friday) roll around I am so ready to be at home that I do just about everything possible to do as little as possible. This Tuesday I really did start the day out fine, it just seemed that as the day progressed I quickly became less and less motivated.

The day started off pretty unassuming with the usual cleaning. It has been a little different since we have seven puppies that are all free fed so you can imagine how their homes look after 12 hours of confinement. Not only is there about five solid pounds of poo but about 90% of the time the little guys run through it and spread it everywhere, including my shirt as they are carried down to the puppy yard for a morning romp with each other.

After feedings and getting all of the guys back in their kennels I moved onto what seemed like the fewest rabbits I have ever seen here. Apparently there were quite a few adoptions of the little guys which made the cleaning a breeze aside from the running nose and constant sneezing. I really do think my theory is working though that the more and more I work with them the less my allergies will affect me. My reactions are night and day different from the first time I entered the rabbitat to today which is a really good thing.

After the rabbits I moved to iso to take care of the bite quarantined dogs. They were able to get out for a break and I made sure they had lots of good food for the morning. I'm not going to lie though, even though one of these guys was only about 20 pounds I was still very hesitant in entering the kennel, especially after the fact that my hand is covered in band aids after our last encounter. I took things very slowly and had another staff member help in calming the animal who really wasn't ready to leave its area. We decided to leave him be and just put a pile of treats in the kennel, some fresh water, and a bowl of food.

Moving on to taking out the garbage we decided it was going to take two of us today. Simple reason, we knew the dumpster was already stuffed full and today we would need someone to sit on the lid while the other locked it up. To my surprise we were able to get all of the bags in the dumpster, flip the lids, jump up and down a few times, and put all of our weight on the top and were able to get the thing locked down. I'm just glad no one was watching as I started slipping off of the damn thing and nearly broke my ankle. Hey, you gotta do what you have to do, and luckily the garbage will be picked up the next morning.

When I was washing my hands I got a text from my fiance saying that our son, a.k.a. our dog, had eaten a bag of chocolate so I asked around and decided to bring the guy up to the shelter so we could keep an eye on him. It was nice at first to have his familiar face smiling at me but after a while it was more of a nuisance because he really deterred me from helping the other guys. I decided to introduce him to a few dogs to see if we could find him a play date and it was fun to watch him interact and run around with one of our shelter dogs that has yet to make any friends here.

During the rest of the afternoon there was an abnormally high rate of EBR's (euthanasia by request) that was just depressing. I had to help carry in one of the dogs because he was so large. He was a sweet gray lab that weighed in at about 130 pounds that was crippled from his mid section back. We carried him on to the stretcher where he made a mess of himself. The owners were very emotional and you can really only say "I'm sorry". It is so sad to not only know that this animal is about to go over the rainbow bridge but to see the emotions that the family is experiencing truly makes these moments tough. I know that it is part of the job but it doesn't make it any easier. I'm just glad that I was not there to help out with the really tough task.

Luckily I was able to go and throw the ball around with my boy and his new friend. It really got my mind off of the tough reality that we all get old at some point and there is a threshold when we say that it is time to end the suffering. Turning away from all of the depressing stuff, our little guy that has been returned twice and just got through his second round of heart de-worming got to go home today. I have to say, I am probably going to go home and light a candle and cross my fingers that the third time is the charm. This poor little guy has been through so much that he really does deserve to live a full and happy life. I know that he will make a great addition to any family, I just hope that his latest one appreciate him for the companion that he is. On my Dad's suggestion I have taken a picture of him just so you can see how cute this little under bite guy is. Thanks for reading and keep the comments coming, I love to know what people are thinking.

Seemingly Uneventful Turns Eventful

Of course it was a coworkers last day and that is always something memorable. Especially when their new job is going to be taking care of one of the rarest animals on the planet, the Giant Panda. Business as usual, get to taking the animals down to their runs for their morning breaks and get to cleaning. Pretty normal beginnings with a little poop and a lot of scrubbing. After a quick feeding I headed over to the cattery to help out in there. Hopefully this time I won't get scratched to hell by some not so nice felines.

When I was finished with the cats I headed into the office and saw Sparky, a dog that I had been working with due to his nervousness in the shelter. The big surprise was that he was adopted less than 24 hours ago and his new owner was "returning" him. I have had my heart sink a couple of times at this job but not like this. I actually felt some hatred towards the man for bringing him back. It turns out that in his new home the dog was left outside and tore through a screen door. Now I can understand that this would make anyone upset but have some patience. I guess the man really didn't want a dog because guess what, no one is perfect and some training and patience is needed when adopting any animal. I'm trying to hold back some real nice words I have for this guy but you have to look on the lighter side. We got a better idea of what time of home Sparky is going to need and I get to work with him some more. I guess I need to stop thinking that everyone is going to take care of their animals the way the shelter staff does.

After working with Sparky for about half an hour I spoke with the medical staff about his return. I kind of took a step back and put myself in the new owners shoes. It's not an easy thing to do because I think I have tunnel vision when it comes to taking care of animals. There might have been some underlying reasons he came back but in reality I don't know the whole story so no grudges here.

Later in the day I was asked to help out with some "photos". A local paper is nice enough to come by the shelter every so often to photograph the adoptable animals and get them some more publicity in order to get them adopted. I think it is a great thing that so many people care. This has definitely been an eye opening day where I need to be a little bit more positive about the people that really run this shelter, the public.

Of course after all of this I was called to the front for a "DB". If you haven't read earlier that means dead body. He was an old yellow lab that had passed earlier in the day. It is always tough to deal with this but it is part of the job and at least this time I didn't have to see his face. I just wish there was something that I could tell the owner to make it easier, but there really isn't, they are loosing a member of their family.

Time ticked by, the school kids in the weekly community service class came by and helped out with laundry and dishes. We got all of the dogs out to their yards for their evening break. After we brought them back up we had a small rush of possible adopters. We usually stop showing at 4:00 but because we had taken care of all of the closing duties some of the staff went ahead and showed some animals. So, closing on some good news, one of our Chihuahua mixes who had been in the shelter for quite a while was adopted. He is going to a great family and is going to make an unbelievable pet.

I know that there are always going to be tough times in life. Dealing with those times and taking something from them is a big part of our lives. Today I learned that not everyone is the same when it comes to pets, and you have to respect that. There are a lot of things that I do that I am sure annoy a good amount of people, but guess what, that is who I am. All animals deserve the best home for them, it is our job to put as many of them there as we can.

Some Ups and Some Downs

Saturdays always start the same, the only variance is who I am going to be sanitizing the kennels with. Today it was with a guy named Jeremy. I had met him a couple of time before and knew that he was a Marine that will be deploying to Afghanistan within the next two months. It seemed that the cleaning flew by with the stories we shared about training and transitioning into civilian life. No matter how long ago anyone has been in the Marine corps it seems it is still the biggest frat in the world. It was a good start to the day getting someone's opinion on the war, politics, and why they were working at the shelter.

After cleaning I got some very disheartening news. Mandy, a one eyed dog that had been in the shelter for quite a while had been put down. I really wish I could have found out towards the end of the day just so I wouldn't have had to think about it every time I walked by the empty kennel. It's pretty simple, this is a no kill shelter, however when there are health or behavior issues and the animal is unadoptable there is the option of euthanasia. It turns out there were no medical problems with Mandy but she did show some aggression. She had started as a sweet and loving dog early on, but as time progressed the shelter environment wore her down. She began showing some signs of aggression towards other animals due to her new lack of depth perception. She was being worked with the last time I worked and always seemed very friendly towards humans. What I learned my first day back this week was that somehow she escaped from her kennel and when a volunteer walked by she attacked biting the person's leg and doing some serious damage. With that type of behavior and unpredictability there were no other options than to put her down. Really not a good way to start my day out.

After the emotions the crowd started arriving. I had almost forgotten it was Saturday and the busiest day of the week. I sat in on a few showings and tried picking up some tactful ways of asking people some pretty serious questions. One showing involved a Rat Terrier that was the sweetest dog but had been returned twice due to behavior issues. The new adopter was for warned and took at as the third time is the charm. She had a German Pointer and really wanted a smaller dog with the same energy level. It seemed like a perfect fit so our little friend hopefully found the right home this time.

Later in the day I was shadowing a showing for a kitten to two young adults that lived with their parents and about 20 other animals. On their paperwork that put the animal would be an indoor/outdoor cat. Unfortunately it is the shelter's policy not to allow kittens to live this way since they have no way of defending themselves. The staff member wanted to make sure that the people understood the question on the paper before telling them that we can't adopt to them. Of course they said they wanted what they put on the form and we informed them that we cannot adopt to them. I had almost forgot what maturity was when I saw a true lack of it. These people threw a hissyfit but we stood by our ground and apologized. It's good to see a place that stands by what they believe in rather than folding under the pressure to apease a client.

After this is was feeding time for the bottle fed kitten. This was my first time ever doing this. I held the little black 14 day old on my shoulder and put the tiny nipple in his mouth, boy was he hungry. After he finished I burped him and comforted him for a while. I was then taught how to make them go to the bathroom buy taking a cloth and rubbing those areas until it basically just falls out. Kind of an interested experience because I have never been fond of cats, but they are slowly growing on me.

During the usual aspects of the day, from doing laundry, picking up poo, and loving on some dogs, two strays had been brought in. Both were very good looking and healthy animals and one even had tags on him. We contacted the number and left a message, then of course we had to call county. The shelter is very specific about the animals it takes in. Since it is a private shelter it has the ability to do this, unfortunately the strays that do come in are transfered to county. Hopefully the owners will find their animals soon before they are adopted out.

Overall the ups and downs of this job are what make it interesting. Yes a great dog had to be put down but four more found thier forever homes. There is some hard work but the rewards are certainly fullfilling. I'm looking forward to tomorow and the Ugly Dog contest that I will be working as a representative from the Human Society.

The Really Busy Day, Kind Of

Today started just like last Saturday, aside from the fact I had a clue of what I was going to be doing. That and the fact that there were a lot more people scheduled and willing to get their hands dirty with me.

On to the weekly sanitizing of the south side kennels. Usually it is the entire shelter but we will be doing the rest tomorrow. Me still being the new guy got to scrub the worst of it. I really don't mind though as long as I have the ipod in and some good tunes to work out to. That's pretty much what it is, a good solid work out. It did still take myself and one other person over two hours to sanitize about ten kennels if that can give you an idea of how much scrubbing is actually going on. I just hope I am not part of the same crew tomorrow.

Just as the doors opened for the shelter I was told that some of the staff would be attending a training course in animal aggression. The course would be taught by the staff trainer who seems to know what she is talking about. Caesar Milan, you need to listen to this women, maybe you could learn a thing or two. The class was intense and long, I did catch myself day dreaming a little, after all it was Saturday and beautiful out. After I got back into it I really did learn quite a bit. There were so many details about dog behavior that can really come in handy in helping those animals in this shelter. Being able to read the signs of aggression and catching them early you have a better chance of helping those animals become better pets. I do have to say I feel like a pretty bad pet owner after the class once I realized how much I spoil my dogs. Oh well, they are family.

After the extensive training course I was told to take a lunch, aside from some scrubbing I really feel lazy here today. Thank goodness my fiancee brought me in a sandwich when she was volunteering otherwise I wouldn't be eating, I am that kind of forgetful. After lunch it was business as usual, kind of. Did a little laundry and took some dogs down to their runs. I did have some great news and some not so great news once I came back. I noticed TWO dogs had been adopted which is always nice to see, but I also saw one brought back due to some aggressive behavior that just broke my heart. Hopefully we can evaluate her and see what went wrong.

Towards the end of the day I had some more good and bad news scenarios. I had learned that one of the dogs was supposed to be put down due to overwhelming aggression. The dog did have some kennel issues but when you got her on her own she did really well and was trained. With all of this and a foster parents help she got a reprieve and the staff is going to continue working with her. On a sadder note, one of the dogs in the shelter was euthanized while I was on my "weekend". The animal was very skittish and you could tell he was not a fan of humans. I really do feel bad for these animals, it is not their fault. That fact that they are pretty much socially created tells me that whoever handled this dog originally is to blame.

After all of the sadness you have to think about the guys that got adopted and found their forever home. That is what this is all about. Helping those animals find the perfect families that will take care of them for years to come. Yeah, there are some tough times, but without those times the good ones just wouldn't seem as good.

On another note, the staff member that started a week prior to me has gotten another job being an animal attendant at a very well known zoo. So congrats and I wish you luck. And wish me luck because now I am the only newbie that is sure to get lots of fun jobs in the weeks to come.