Leo, Leona and Fiona

A bad sign, I've begun naming the animals in my office. Little Bit was okay because he came in to us with that name. But everyone else I'm sharing my office with right now has a name I have given them. Leo is the parakeet and since he's going to stay it's okay that I've named him. Whenever he talks and chatters at me it takes me back to my childhood when we had Charlie, a parakeet with very similar coloring. Leona is the torti cat with beautiful green eyes. I've become very fond of her and could see bringing her home if she doesn't get adopted. I've named the choc lab mom Fiona. Chocolabmom sounds too much like "Octo Mom" so I had to come up with something else. And it sounds absurd to call her Baby when she is sitting in her kiddie pool nursing five babies of her own.

It's also easier when I have people walk by my door and ask "what's her name?" Does giving our animals names get them adopted sooner? I don't know for sure but suspect that it does.

Chocolate Mom

This pretty chocolate lab was found this afternoon in the cold, pouring rain huddled over her five 10 day old puppies. When she was brought in she was quickly dried off and checked out by the clinic. Believe or not the puppies were mostly dry. Rather than place her and the pups in the general population (we so need an isolation ward!) they have taken up residence in my office. She's a good mom. A kiddie pool lined with a blanket is perfect, keeping the puppies warm and contained while allowing Mom to lie with them and nurse or move around the office. It's now been raining for hours and were are due to have snow by morning - I am so glad she and her family are with us.

But I know there are many other dogs and cats out there in this weather. Animals with owners who keep them outside with no shelter and no water - and drinking out of puddles of rain water in the yard doesn't count. It breaks my heart and makes me hug my own chocolate babies even harder.

Desk Dog

Yesterday I had animals in and out of my office all day. It was my fifth day with Little Bit, a black and white Chihuahua who came in last Friday after his person passed away. He is five years old and very much a lap dog. He became my desk dog when after placing him in a blanket on my desk, he was very happy to sit there and watch the world go by my office door. Each morning I came in he was happy to see me, and wanted up on the desk. Yesterday he was adopted right before lunch. A family with two children fell in love with him and were thrilled to be able to take him home right then. Little Bit landed on his feet.

I asked Dr. P who needed to come in with me next and she told me of a black lab/pit mix on the back row that could use some exposure. The young dog was very energetic but soon calmed down and was a pleasure to have in the office. We played ball and greeted everyone who walked by. A few hours later as I pet her, she had a seizure. Her stance changed completely, she began crying and snapped at me. It lasted about 90 seconds. We immediately got her to the clinic but they couldn't find anything physically wrong. She didn't return to her previous engaging behavior and wasn't making eye contact at all. It was very disturbing to see such a sweet, friendly animal change so swiftly. We had to euthanize her. Dr. P said it may have been the first sign of distemper. I'm glad it happened with me rather than with an adopting family and that she had fun, love and companionship before hand.

Then toward the end of the day I had a beautiful german shepherd and a black chow/newfie mix puppy with me. They got along beautifully and it was a good way to end the day.

A Flight to Denver

Ten puppies and dogs went to Denver today, first class. Thank you to E. and K. who took their time and their plane to take our babies to their new homes. We met them at the airport early this morning and loaded the dogs in the plane, figuring out which carriers and cages would fit best and give the both the animals and the humans the space they would need. It took less than four hours to get there and we followed their progress on the Flightaware website. The dogs were up on the website by mid-afternoon and here we are late evening and Harley and Hootie have already been adopted. If only they would get adopted that fast here!

All of them

I want to take all of them home. It was one of those days I want to take them all home. Get a house on 20 acres outside of the city with a big barn for the cats and rooms of good food, cool water and soft beds for the dogs. A blue pit with a beautiful big head was brought in badly injured. I don't know what happened but both front legs were so badly damaged that all we could do was to end his suffering. He had beautiful eyes and his tail wagged when I talked to him in spite of the pain he was in. I stayed with him as he fell asleep from the anesthetic - I just couldn't leave him all alone. I don't do that very often but today it was important for me to be with him.

Ethical Quagmires

What are we going to do with my sweet young pittie? He's been with me on and off since he was brought in as a result of a cruelty complaint and we have worked very hard to make him healthy and to socialize him. He went home with an eager adopter but the resident dog would have nothing to do with him and he was back in a week. This weekend he snapped at a volunteer and now we just don't know if we can adopt him out again. It's not his fault. He will need someone who can spend some time working with him. What are we going to do?

It comes down to the same question at the foundation of so many ethical quagmires - how do you allocate precious limited resources? Do you spend $100 to save one animal with issues or to save ten animals without? The same is found in human healthcare, education, even economic stimulus packages!

Every day we ask, what are we going to do?

Sleep

Sleep is a great healer. I was able to really get a handle on the job again on Friday. It felt like everyone was back on the same page - or maybe I just felt they were more on MY page. More good things happened including the sweet girl dog in my office going home.

I'm ready for the week to begin.

Tipping the scales - bad wins

No, not the stock market (though that is depressing enough), I just feel like I was beaten with a really big bat. Yesterday I was so pumped and ready to look at ways to put the new cat assessment program in place, yet somehow today I was as low as I've been so far.

We are so understaffed - when even one person is unable to work, it puts tremendous pressure on everyone else. The work is never done and most days that's okay. I accept that we will come in tomorrow and essentially do the same thing we did yesterday. But today I wasn't accepting. How do we keep our compassion in our work every day? It's not okay to forget why we are here. It's not okay to blame the system or others for not getting the job done. And I have to keep saying, it's not just a job, it's not just a job.

Good things did happen today. A cruelty case is proceeding to trial. We've completed the next step of the master plan. Animals did go to new homes. All the puppies in the transfer program were adopted and in new homes within 72 hours.

It just wasn't enough to tip the scales for me, today.

Feline-ality

Feline-ality, the cat equivalent of personality, is a fascinating concept. As someone who grew up with dogs and currently has dogs, cats have always been a mystery to me. I love watching them, enjoy playing with them and do respect them, I just don't know alot about them.

After two days of intense training in cat assesment, part of the ASPCA Meet Your Match training, I finally feel like I can make a difference in their lives. Our facility can make a difference. We just have to be committed to doing it.