I think everyone knows about the "staffing change" that occurred on Thursday. I came in that morning intending to deep clean the cat intake room, but ended up cleaning dog kennels. Judith tackled the condo and cat intake and still managed to help me with the kennels. Julie cleaned the puppy room; it was the cleanest I had ever seen it. Bobby swept and mopped the front hall area and scrubbed bowls and water buckets. I heard Joyce was helping Judith in the back, and Shay was running calls and handling folks coming in. Rebecca came in to move the PetSmart dogs to the back room, which helped clear the puppy room of all but one dog. On top of this crisis, Julie's horse was sick and we had to prepare for 50 children to visit on Friday morning!
No one knew if we would be getting any new trustees any time soon, so I went in to the shelter at 7 am Friday morning to get the jump on the dog kennels before
the kids arrived. I showed up to find that we got a new trustee, C.J., and Julie was already training him to clean the kennels (which were just about done). David was getting started on the cat intake room. Bobby was cleaning dog quarantine, and Shay was scrubbing the front dog kennels. I started scrubbing bowls and buckets and was doing meds in the condo when Judith arrived. The shelter was sparkling by the time the kids arrived. Here, our little Kellie is greeting one of our visitors.
Julie and Shay set up tables for crafts in the sally port the evening before. There were magazine for the kids to cut out pics of animals for collages, and Julie made chocolate chip cookies and Kool-aid (there were plenty of leftovers for us when the kids left, and those cookies were yummy!).
The Pulaski County Sheriff's Office bloodhound, Jerry Lee, made and appearance along with his human, Cpl. D.R. Johnson. Jerry Lee got to show off his tracking skills and got lots of lovin' for being such a good dog!
The kids were also able to enjoy story time with Bobby, movie time with me, and shelter tours with Shay and Rebecca. The kids were very excited about the animals, and we hope they will get their parents excited about visiting the shelter--and providing a good home for one of our animals!
We got 15 news dogs at the shelter since Monday, 5 of them yesterday. Two beautiful boxers should be going home with their owner on Saturday. The owner was out of town, and her dog-sitter let them get loose.
We got at least 5 new cats since Monday. One kitty, who came in on Thursday, delivered 2 more kitties on Friday! I'm not sure anyone knew she was pregnant because she was so small. Another kitty, who came in Monday, arrived with her 4 babies. I didn't mention her in Monday's post because I got her confused with 4 other kittens who arrived on Monday. It looks like kitten season is in full swing! We have 15 mostly newborn kittens at the shelter, 7 newborns from 2 litters at Anita's house being nursed by a cat who isn't the mother of any of them, and one who is being bottle fed by a nice lady I know until she is old enough to come to the shelter. If you know anyone who has an unspayed cat, please do everything in your power to convince them to have her spayed! Try appealing to their wallets--spay surgery now is cheaper than cancer treatments later! Check out this site for more information, and this site for printable literature.
To open a kennel for one of the 5 big dogs that came in yesterday, I am fostering Baby, our little-but-fiesty puppy of unknown origin.
Baby has been enjoying herself by menacing my cats, terrorizing my 60- and 80-pound pit bull mixes, and chasing the neighbor's 100-pound lab. Plus, she enjoys taking herself for long walks in the park and scratching her back in the grass with my dogs.I really want to thank everyone who came in the last 2 days to help with cleaning and office coverage. In no particular order: Rebecca, Judith, Anita, Nicole, Bob, Joanne, and David. We all make a pretty great team when the chips are down! I also want to mention Barb for being a one-woman flyer-hanging army this week!
We have a very busy Tuesday next week, and will need as many helping hands as possible. The Rescue Waggin' and Assisi van both occur on Tuesday, we have a webinar on Panleukopenia, and it's Yappy Hour day! Whew! Some of us might be there from 4:30 am until 7 pm! I hope to see all of you!
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