friday office update

Well today was pretty successful. Lilly one of my previous fosters has been adopted. He went to a very loving home.

Amelia has found a home. She will remain here where I have been fostering her. Amelia gives love bites . I have fostered her since she was a tiny kitten even bringing her back to life with Kitten CPR I feel it would be best to let her live out her days with me.

AC adopted out Binka, today as well as the kitten CCCC plus to other kittens from back.

We have number of adorable puppies and we are taking applications for all puppies is my understanding.

AC stated Buster the older min-pin's owner is supposed to come and claim their dog.

One of Bell's puppies still needs a home, it is currently in foster care and we are taking applications for Decaf.

We are also taking applications for Shilo, I know we are have had a number of inquires let see if we can get folks to come in and meet him.

Fiona is in foster care and is also in need of a home.

A man came in today interested in adopting a dog. He has 2 pits at home and I told him it would be best if brought his dogs in to see if they would get along with the dog he wants to adopt.

Little Barb the puppy has a skin condition that the vet has stated she will outgrow. So we are trying to find her a home. She has very short legs so she may not grow to be a very big dog.
She is very sweet and wopuld make a great indoor pet.

I have openings for dogs and cats on the Aug 7th assisi van so please book and fill up the spots when possible.

Have a great weekend all.

Saturday update, and as usual, my inane musings

I expected that on such a beautiful day there would be a ton of visitors to the shelter, but sadly, this was not the case. Don't get me wrong, I was happy to see volunteers Judith, Tasha, Jane, Karen, Jen, and David, but very few families came to look at animals.

Despite that, several animals did leave the shelter today! Jane came to pick up a puppy (Gizmo? Someone correct me if that's wrong!) to be fostered; I expect that this puppy is destined for the Rescue Waggin'. This puppy is the poster puppy for cute puppies everywhere! Gorgeous fawn with hazel green, heart-melting eyes! Jane was pretty excited about taking him home!

Another dog was being auditioned just after I arrived this morning. I think it was Molly; she was one of the fluffy ones from the puppy room. She seemed very sweet and happy to see the woman who put her in the car, not back in the cage!


This kitten from the condo, also named Gizmo (hence my confusion), was adopted today by Sherry and Diane, pictured here. He would hardly sit still--he seemed so very happy to be out of his cage! He will go home to a few other cat and dog friends and be totally spoiled! In the brief time I spoke with Sherry and Diane, I learned that they are animal lovers who have taken in strays and totally support (and practice!) spay/neuter! We are lucky to have nice folks like them in our community looking out for our animals.

Our little Ginger was looking pretty shaggy today! Being a Chow mix, she has a ton of fur, and being constantly confined in a cage, she has nowhere to shed it! David and I decided to brush her, and what a chore it was! There was much more fur than we exptected. After a while, it looked like a dog exploded outside. We brushed her for about an hour using a variety of grooming implements. She looks a lot better but still needs to be brushed again, if anyone is at the shelter and has time. Ginger has previously passed SAFER, but has become a little mouthy. If you are working with her, please correct her immediately when she does it!

Of course, I am still on my Michael Vick rant, and thank goodness, so is everyone else! BAD RAP's recent blog entry is fantastic, and CNN has been covering this topic like a champ! They have also brought up hog-dogging, another disgusting, idiotic, and barbaric "sport," which I believe is popular only in the deep south. The stupid rednecks....er, I mean....oh yeah, STUPID REDNECKS who participate in this amentia claim that it is not cruel; it is a training exercise for hunting season; the cretins claim that the wild hogs are hunted because there are too many of them and they are destructive. Well, IMHO, there are too many humans, and most of them are destructive or are only contributing to the increasing drug and crime rate; ergo, the same should apply. Line up hog-doggers; my 4 legged friends would like to meet you......

As for the inane musings...I'm sitting here drinking a Yuengling Black & Tan and eating some Fruity Pebbles and rice milk (vegan doesn't always mean healthy), when I notice that on the front of the box o' Pebbles, it says "Now Better Tasting!" "Better tasting than what?" I wonder. Or, by that statement, does Post imply that their colorful morsels of crispy rice were not perfectly flavored prior to that bold declaration? What has changed? The answer folks: nothing. They still taste the same. I'm such a tool.

Oh, Joyous Day!

As I'm sure most of you have heard, Michael Vick, the shame of Virginia Tech, has been indicted for dog fighting. I can barely contain my excitement, but I must; I don't want to get my hopes up. We all know that celebrities, sports figures, and the wealthy have a history of doing whatever they please; Michael Jackson, Kobe Bryant, and that British dude that killed his wife, for example. (Funny how they lynched Martha Stewart, though. I've always wondered about that.)

The dog in the pics above and to the right (from the HSUS website) was one of 52 who were seized from Vick's Surry County property. Most of you are well aware of my soft spot for pit bulls, especially after my time in New Orleans. I don't want to imagine what this poor baby went through. And although I know the HSUS will do everything in their power to make this baby's life the best it has ever been, I fear she will never know what it's like to snuggle on the bed or romp untethered in the grass, like my babies. I hope I'm wrong.

All the big groups have something to say about Vick, which I love, since we are all on the SAME TEAM! Check out what the ASPCA, HSUS, and PETA have to say (and please be sure to take action where indicated!). Wayne Pacelle's blog is informative as well (and not just today; I'm a frequent reader). Another of my favorites, Virginia Voters for Animal Welfare, has compiled an extensive list of whom to contact about Vick or for legislative change in general. It is not yet on their website, but I'm sure it will be soon. Believe me, Lillian Clancy and Don Marro are on top of things!

Get your "Neuter Michael Vick" t-shirts here. The title on the page reads, "Dog fighting is for savages," but I'm sure they did not intend to insult savages like that.

PCHS office Update for 7/13/07

I contacted all the owners of pets scheduled for Assis Van July 17th.
Linx the Cocker puppy went to a very good home today. He was such a cutie.
But the best news is that Onyx was adopted out today by AC.

I got in and their was a donation from one of our volunteers of tube socks filled with rice ( I think) that we can use for the clinic as well as 10 bottles of hand sanitizer. Boy those bags holding the socks were very heavy.

Another volunteer had some friskies canned cat food shipped to us. Thank you so much it was very much needed. I restocked the condo canned food supply.

I tried to get an application approved but the vet was out of the office, so I left a message and put back in pending folder.

There was money in the vaccine box and I have been told it is to be logged as a medical reimbursement as we are being reimbursed for vaccines.

I was told that the flow of cats ands kittens has slowed, so that was good to hear.
I did get the laundry into the drier but I did not get it folded hope tomorrow the volunteers can address that and put things away.

Use the yellow tubes of eye ointment for all the cats. I was told to toss the white tube.
I use the yellow tube of meds when fostering and actually seem to get better faster results.

AC got in the new bowls for kennels so they were all hung today.

All in all a productive day wish we had some applications for some of our condo cats.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

LAKE PARTY 2007

The PCHS had it's annual volunteer LAKE PARTY and Laura and Jeff's place on the lake.

A few "observers", watching the rest of the gang shoot through the water on "Bill's wild ride".

Brave souls being drug around by Bill. It was a ton of fun actually. Don't have any photos of the 3 seater tube - but it was a truly WILD RIDE.

The biggest wipe out award goes to Anthony - it was a GOOD ONE. Too bad his injury was a pre-party "carry the casserole" to the car injury and not a REAL lake injury ----

We ate, drank some colada's, and just kicked back w/the huskies.

Sychronized Loafing ...

friday update

Well I noticed that Trixie and Cole kittens from the Condo have been adopted out sometime last week.

The air conditoning was out today making it miserable for humans and animals. They finally got it running again about 4pm. Laura ran some fans over to the condo to help with the cooling. Thanks so much Laura.

Snider the big black dog was adopted out by AC today. Then a couple came in and filled out an application for Ginger but they are also interested in Draper. They would like to have their current dog meet with the ones they are interested in. They came so late in the day I did not get a chance to check out their application. They also filled out an aide applicaiton to get their current dog on the assisi van I just clipped them both together. See pending.

A woman came in about 4:30 wanting to adopt a cat she just had to have her old cat put down due to old age. I showed her everything in the condo. But then they wanted to see the cats in
back and they liked Maggie the white one with one blue eye and one gold eye. Told them to come back tomorrow at 8am till 12noon. I explained all about the differences in cats from front and cats in back and she still wants the white one in back.

People came in looking for puppies. The border collies can not go till Monday. But there are some that can go. The small black dog in puppy room Barb has some type of skin condition, may need it checked.

I tried to arrange an appointment with one of our local vets for a spay but that will have to be completed monday when his receptionist returns from vacation. Please see pending file and notes.

AC was out of vaccines gave them some, so now all dogs are vaccinated that can be.

I checked out the couple that wants to adopt Bell and one of her puppies and would foster the other 2 . Got a great recommendation from vet. Julie was willing to transfer to PCHS and then Rebecca will make necessary arrangements.

The new monitor is so wonderful, A thousands thanks to the great people who donated it for our office.

Just a note Mr. Dot and Lewey maybe a bonded pair. I know when choy and kungfoo the other litter mates were adopted out Mr. Dot stopped eating. So I am concerned about Mr. Dot. They are the sweetest set of Kittens. Home we can find them a good home soon.

Looking forward to Sunday at Laura's hope everyone can make it.

Later Anita

Fuegos artificiales en la casa del Presidente

Hello all! I haven't posted in quite some time, so I wanted to give a shout out to all my homies. Um......good evening, homies (I'm not very good at this shout out thing). I wish I could have seen more of you at Laura's house this past Sunday. Anita and I got to be in the boat parade, which was loads of fun. There was a brief moment of excitement when one of the boats sank, sending woman and dog asunder (sounds way more dramatic than it actually was), and the sinking boat (which was a small dinghy being pulled by a jet ski) won the "Most Team Spirit" award for their Hokie pride.

We picked up Nicole mid-parade after Laura, who was piloting, sped back to her dock to drop off Anita and Kayla, who had to go to work. I have seen Laura take off at top speed in the Expedition at least twice to chase after run away dogs; I don't know why it didn't occur to me that she can and will do the same in a boat!

Anita and I had already cleaned the cat condo that morning, and after the parade, we both had to run home to clean our own "condos." But I came back with Billy and Anita brought Chuck for the cookout and fireworks, and Nicole was still there (and was much less tan than I would have expected!). Anita's little nephew (Anita calls him Oopers; I can't remember his real name!) was also in town--I'm sure he wasn't expecting to be in a parade and see fireworks while he was here! I think Susan may have been watching from her boat. Evan and Ethan and a few others sent up the fireworks at dark--I would dare say some medium sized municipalities would be envious of the pyrotechnics display that night! Good job guys! And thanks to Laura and Jeff--great friends who are always willing to share home, hearth, and mixed drinks!

I hope everyone can make it this coming Sunday. If it helps to encourage everyone, I am bringing chocolate pie! I would love to see everyone. This whole employment thing has seriously cut into my shelter time, but we all know that where there are abused children, there are abused animals, so I get to intervene in both! I have already re-homed a soon-to-be-homeless cat and an abused dog, made a new friend at a new rescue, and handed out a ton of spay/neuter info from Margaret B. Mitchell clinic and Smyth County Humane Society. It never ends, but we keep plugging away. Which is why we all need to chill out at Laura's this weekend!

tuesday update

I stopped by the shelter today just to say howdy to Lewey and Mr. Dot. I had just returned them to the shelter Monday, now that they are ready to be adopted out.

There was a woman there wanting to adopt out Tinkerbell. She had emailed an application and I had her complete one from the door as Bob was working in the office. As soon as she crossed the last T and dotted the last I , I was on the phone checking out her references, turns out everything was in order, had excellent vet reference and within 1/2 hour she was out the door taking her new pet home. Please see note on her application regarding adoption.

I had to leave and Bob was trying to get information on two other applications. When I returned at 5pm Rebecca was there and had approved another application for either Wally or Snuggles, so those people are scheduled to come in and adopt one of those kittens wednesday after 3pm.

We are waiting to hear back from the landlord regarding one application. Once we get the landlords approval and reference from landlord we may have another cat being adopted out. It is my understanding we are going to have to work to get the applications processed in a more timely manner as we need to reduce the number of cats we have in the condo currently. So office staff please try to make sure that all applications are processed on your shift if at all possible.

We have had some adoptions coming out of the back room also . But it's not enough more kittens are pouring into the shelter then are getting adopted out. Also mention the adopt one and get a second cat or kittens for 1/2 price I know I have adopted out two sets.

If they come out of back 30.00 goes to AC the person pays us 55. on day of adoption and we can put the two cats on assisi which they will pay us the difference on day of van make sure you note on assisi paperwork they owe money and on assisi log. it should be $42.50 and if they are kittens they will need boosters and there is an extra 5.00 charge for each kitten making it a total of $52.50 to be paid on day of assis. I hope that will clear up confusion that one of our office persons had regarding this matter. However if the cats/kittens are all from condo and have been spay/neutered and are upto date on shots then they must pay the $127.50 since they will not be coming back to get on van.

Need to check and make sure all dogs have been vaccinated. Julie was out of the office for a couple of days so it was hectic and I am not sure all dogs got vaccinated.

Because of the really hot weather just check before leaving office for day that all animals have water. The animals are drinking it faster then we can pour it in their bowls.

Thanks folks for your tireless devotion to the shelter pets. Don't forget Thursday is Rescue Waggin day we have a lot of dogs going to rescue so if you can help us out at 5 am that morning we need all hands on deck. Email Rebecca and let her know you will be coming to help.

Stay cool yourself and drink plenty of water.

Puppy Update

Well I recieved a request to keep everyone updated on Bell and her Pups, so here it is. The puppies were two weeks old, as of yesterday and I noticed two of them had just opened thier eyes. As of this morning we now have three with thier eyes open, the fourth one should have his open by the end of the week if not sooner. Here are some updated pics for those of you that are unable to get to the shelter and see them. These babies have grown so much, they were about the size of my hand when they were born and as you can see from the black & white pup she is much bigger than my hand now. I hope you can see thier eyes in these pics, they are open, well all but the one.

Assisi Van Tuesday

Well folks we have scheduled future Assisi Vans for August 7th and Sept. 4th.
Today we had ALOT of animals on the van. All dogs were the public's pets. I managed to get
Dot, Lewey, Lilly and 3 of Chantels Kittens on board to be fixed. Plus we had a number of the public's cats on board today. It was a very busy day.

I also had A.C. make up paperwork for Marty and Wallie, plus Chantels Kittens. Beauty's babies also have paperwork. It was time for some of the condo cats to get updated for vaccines and rabies. So Ariel, Fiona, Wildknot and Pearl 2 are now all updated and have 3 year rabies certificates.

A young man who had his dog neutered today brought his girlfriend and they adopted 2 grey kittens from the back getting the buy 1 get 1/2 off on second.

I want to Thank Catrina for showing up and helping me this morning I was swamped.
Then Lisa came in and again did a great job with helping on the van and doing the discharges.
And Joanne helped me vaccinate the cats and kittens today. A Great Big Thanks to a wonderful group of volunteers.

AC got in a senior cat that is fixed and Declawed so if anybody is looking for a declawed cat it is beautiful. Declawed cats are recommended as inside cats. It will only cost $15.00 to save it's life. Please come and see it if you are interested or tell a friend.

Later in the day Rebecca, Laura, Nicole and Barb were in doing safer test for dogs going to rescue. Of the 10 dogs tested today 8 passed with flying colors.

Bob was in the office Thanks for all your help today Bob. He also checked and brought in money from the dog banks.

We are all working hard to prevent pet overpopulation and at the same time trying hard to save the lives of those pets that do get brought in to the shelter . If you want to help please stop by the shelter and fill out a volunteer sheet. There is so much to be done and altho we have a number of devoted volunteers we would love to have ( and need ) more help.

Well that about covers it for today. I am tired tonight but it s a good kind of tired.