It's been three and half weeks and now I'm being called a blogger slacker on FB! My only excuse is the usual - it's been so busy, both with the good and the bad. I'm truly worried about what the budget cuts are going to mean to animals in town. Not being called out for Priority One calls is going to have consequences I don't think many people have contemplated. The entire City budget has been slammed, I'm glad I don't have to make the choices our Mayor has to make - what do you do when the money just isn't there? Meanwhile animals in the field won't be getting the care they need. I'm not worried about those already in our care, once they are in the building we can do what's necessary, but what about our citizens, our animals and their needs? A dilemma I can't see the answer to. We're climbing kitten mountain these days - that time of year when the graph of kitten intakes climbs fast and furious. So many litters are being brought to us by the public. Kittens under the porch, in the barn, in a box on the side of the road. Some with Mom, most without. Some too young to make it without bottle feeding, others just big enough to make it on their own. Mostly they come in as strays which means we have to hold them for three days in case someone comes in to claim them. But let's be real, you don't "lose" an entire litter of kittens. So many and not enough homes to adopt them all. Fiona was back in the office last week for the last of her heartworm treatments and she looked great. She came right to my door and practically wagged her tail off when she saw me. She looked wonderful and her family loves her. She'll always be special to me.We continue sending dogs to Colorado for adoption. We've sent another plane load up as well as another van full. Another volunteer with a SUV was headed up there for another reason and offered to take a few dogs with her. We sent four and all were adopted within hours. A favorite, Waldo, went on the trip - he was a 3 month old black lab with hound ears and the most laid back young lab I've ever seen. He would sleep on a quilt under my desk for hours at a time, was happy to just lay in my lap and would tolerate any other animal in the office - amazing.The office is getting so full! I have another, yes another, chocolate lab. He came to me with the name Hershey and is a mostly choc lab with some cattle dog mixed in. He has faint white markings on his face and of merled choc and white stockings. He's housebroken and very sweet. Another cat named Midnight, a black (duh) long haired domestic, is living happily with the run of the office. That's because of had four kittens living in the big cage. They were very tiny when they came to me and I've had them about three weeks now. They greet me every morning with a chorus of meows and entertain me no end. As I've said before the cat world is a new one to me and I love to sit back just watch them. They aren't named but I have two black ones and two grey ones with white stockings. So along with the chattering parakeets, the meowing kittens, Midnight sitting on whatever I'm working on and Hershey demanding a pat on the head, it's a wonder I get any work done at all. And tomorrow is the 16th, that means payroll.One of my officers who's been out for more than two months is back today, YEAH! Dr. P will back from vacation soon, YEAH! We start training with the new software next week, YEAH!See, it's not all bad, it's not all bad, it's not all bad. (Just repeat after me!!!)
Even with the difficulties of money and staff, small points of light keep shining through. - We're sending another 12 dogs to Denver tomorrow morning.
- After ten days out sick, AK is back and we're glad to have her.
- After three months missing, a ferret was reunited with his owner by LM. She checks Craig's List almost every morning to see if she can match up any of our animals and get them back home.
- The new software is installed and we are just waiting on training. It only took a year!
- I got to see several women graduate from a dog grooming program in which the shelter participates. They have overcome challenges in their lives and are ready to start new chapters. It was very moving and there were many hugs and some tears.
- JW and his wife have a new baby girl.
- And for the past few days space has not been a deciding factor in the hard decisions.
But the best light of all is that Georgie is officially mine. After deluding myself into believing that I was only fostering him while he received heartworm treatment, I paid the $$ and his status was changed to "adopted" in the computer. Dr. P said they knew all along that he was mine. Everyone else just said "finally!".
Take a quick glance at this photo - can you tell which one is real? The beanie baby lion on the right is the favorite toy of Frank, a two week old Boston Terrier puppy that came into the shelter a few days ago. He came in with an owner surrender dachshund Mom and her puppies. It was so obviously not a member of Mom's litter! LM has taken on Frank's care. She brings him in every morning and takes him home every night. Frank has a special spot in the clinic and he loves sleeping with his lion.Another case of taking our work home.
Fiona went home today. Her new people brought a beautiful new purple collar and leash and she looked wonderful. I'm going to miss her.
It is a day to celebrate - Fiona has been adopted! I dropped her at the office to be spayed this morning and start her heartworm treatment. I was at a seminar all day and when I got back to the office late this afternoon she was being visited by her new family. She had been pouting all afternoon but seemed happy to see me. I brought her home tonight to rest and recover from surgery and we'll see how she is doing tomorrow. I know a new family is the best thing for her but I'm going to miss her alot. Adopting her and then leaving her home with my two all day is not what she needs. I'm also seeing some stress in my two labs. They are not used to having to share!
A welcome break from the office today, attending a day-long seminar on social networking. Trying to determine the best ways to use Twitter, Facebook and all the other social media opportunities can be mindboggling
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Budget cuts, staff changes, and difficult animal decisions have conspired to make the last two weeks very difficult.
We found out last week that Fiona is heartworm positive. Her last puppy was adopted last Saturday and so SH brought her to me at the end of the day. I just couldn't stand the thought of her alone in my office over the rest of the weekend without her babies. So I had four chocolate labs at my house - on a very wet, rainy weekend. Fiona and Georgie played and played and played. In fact it was hard to keep Georgie as quiet as he needs to be during heartworm treatment. So I've been taking her back to the office during the day so that he's not too stressed.
With the heartworm diagnosis comes the tough decision. Treat or not - spend high dollars on one animal or a few dollars on several animals. I've already committed to treating Georgie, a young male, and fostering him until he is cured and ready for adoption. Fiona is an older, female lab who has had many litters. Her chances of adoption at the shelter are fairly slim and the local breed rescue has as many heartworm positive animals as they can handle. Can we dedicate the space to hold her for an extended length of time when we are getting more than twenty animals every day, healthy puppies and young adults who are very cute and not sick?
Yesterday the veterinary staff and I made the decision that we should euthanize Fiona. I asked only that we wait till the end of the day and that I hold her while she was euthanized. I had a series of difficult personnel meetings to get through first. I took Fiona to the clinic late yesterday and sat on the floor to talk with her and hold her. Living with her for six weeks and watching her care for her puppies had created a close bond. For the first time I had tears running down my face while at the office. It felt like we had just used her until she had done her job nursing the pups and was now expendable. I looked at Dr. P and she looked at me. AK, LM and JS were there ... and we couldn't do it. We had gotten too close - she had become a fixture in the building and a favorite of the staff. Several of them had taken turns walking her several times each day.
So I took Fiona home last night. She walked out the front door and ran for my car. She trotted in front of me this morning on our way in and she is now sitting at my feet along with Georgie and my own two chocolate labs. There are more hard decisions to come - some will be as difficult to face as yesterday's. All I can hope for is the instinct and the courage to make the right ones.
After spending 1 1/2 hours waiting to make a four minute report as the last one on a very long agenda this morning I spent some time with the animals in my office. This is Midnight II, sitting on timecards while I attempt to do payroll. While the same color as Midnight who was with me earlier this year, II is a long hair version. She has the run of the office and whenever she can will head across the hall to JW's office. 
Here are the kittens with a curious Hershey. They are very curious whenever he sticks his nose up there to find out what's going on. The kittens spilled a full bowl of water at the end of the day so I let them have the run of the office while I cleaned up the spill, fed them and changed out the litter box. It was hilarious - all four were running all over my desk, darting around the floor. Hershey was totally confused, not knowing what to do. Midnight watched the chaos from my desk, above it all as an adult cat should be. 
We were able to send two animals home with their family today. One had been with us for ten days for rabies observation after biting a meter reader. He was just defending his property and his owner was so excited to get him home. The other was a dog that came to us after the death of his owner. Luckily the owner's family wanted the little pug and came today to get him. I always worry most about the cats and dogs that come to us from loving homes - I worry that the stress of the shelter environment on top of the sudden loss of their person/people must be absolutely crushing.
