(This is ironic: I was looking at my last post, which of course was the Vh1 top songs of the 90’s, and happened to open another browser window for pandora.com so I could listen to music while writing this post…and guess what the first song to play is? Sinead O’Cononr “Nothing Compares 2 U.” Yeah. I just told them not to play it again on my Frou Frou station.)
So…I realize it’s been almost a month since I last blogged, and for those loyal readers who actually check once in a while, I do apologize. Honestly, my job is so emotionally stressful that when I come home in the evenings, the last thing I want to do is rehash my day. Besides, ever since we bought Guild Wars, that’s about all we do at night. Yeah. Video game nerd: guilty.
This past Tuesday we had a staff meeting at 7am, which means that when I finally got home that night, I’d been at work for 10 hours. The meeting itself was pretty mild; as I had predicted, the director mostly talked about us splitting from animal control and what that would mean as far as changes in daily operation of the shelter, etc. One of the bigger changes that’s going to happen is converting the animal control offices into a public spay/neuter surgery suite and retaining our current surgical suite for shelter animals only. Since we’re going to be reliant on grants and donations only, my clinic co-worker Dan and I are pretty sure that we’re going to start doing public vaccinations, which will suck major balls. For one, if that were to happen, we would definitely have to hire at least one more clinic staff member to deal with vax for the public, as well as (probably) looking at public surgical sites that are effed up from surgeons in too much of a hurry. Oops, did I say that out loud?
After all that, we then segued into the necessity of keeping the kennel areas clean (which was never a problem when I was in the kennels, I’d like to point out.) After the main staff meeting, we had a separate meeting for kennel staff, which Dan and I also attended. Basically, our director was telling them to stop sucking and get with the program. Dan and I were glad to hear this, because of an epidemic that brings me to my next paragraph…
News flash: crowded shelters have a serious problem with disease and contagion. Our shelter in particular has been plagued with an extremely virulent upper respiratory virus for months now. In May, the month before I started working there, they evidently made the executive decision to euthanize almost 100 puppies (all the puppies we had) in a last-ditch effort to eradicate the virus. It was a PR nightmare for a while, but worst of all, it didn’t help. Now the cats and kittens are getting it, as well as the big dogs. The virus itself isn’t very serious–basically just the equivalent of a head cold–but dogs and cats just aren’t as smart as we are about eating and drinking when we’re sick, so once they stop doing that, they decline very rapidly. Unfortunately, most of the pet owners seem to think it’s normal for their puppies and kittens not to eat for two or three days, so by the time they’re bringing their pet in to see us, it’s almost too late and takes extremely drastic measures to get them out of the woods. Again, unfortunately, most pet owners aren’t cut out for that kind of rehabilitation.
Speaking of rehabilitation, about 3 weeks ago someone brought in 3 baby squirrels that had fallen out of their tree. Normally, we would have to put them down unless a staff member wanted to rehab them, so Dan decided to try his hand at squirrel-rearing. Knowing nothing about squirrels, we started out feeding them some kitten replacement milk (not KMR). They were quite dehydrated and happy to get some food. Two girls and a boy, named Ringo, Warbles, and Wolfie for reasons I probably shouldn’t go into. As of this week, Warbles and Ringo have both died, but Wolfie has opened both his eyes. From my research, I guess that he’s between 6-7 weeks old. I’m on my weekend now, so I haven’t seen Dan since Monday. I hope Wolfie is still alive, but wouldn’t be surprised if he isn’t. Everyone says that rehabbing squirrels is very difficult, especially your first time. A few days ago, one of the animal control officers showed us a squirrel that she’d rescued from someone’s porch. He was a bit older than Wolfie–tail was all fluffy and overall very cute. Unfortunately, she told me that he died the next day.
The last few weeks have been pretty depressing. A lot of animal that I liked tested positive for heartworms or FIV (feline immunodeficiency virus). We were able to get a rescue for 2 of the heartworm positive dogs, but not the one that I really liked, a super-sweet boxer/bulldog mix that I named Gargoyle. That was yesterday, actually, and put a damper on my whole day.
On a lighter note, I’ve gotten really good at drawing blood, especially from cats. I’m also pretty good at getting blood quickly from fractious animals.
Yeah, so enough about work…
Evan’s at a prolonged job interview today with a stained glass company. He’s pretty excited about it, and I really hope they offer him the job. He’d be perfect for them, which I hope they realize. Besides that, he’s still in the middle of the ridiculously long process of hiring for Gwinnett County dispatch…
I’m reading a book that I borrowed from work called The Social Lives of Dogs. It’s so fantastic that I can hardly put it down…
So. Besides work, not a lot going on in my life. Today and tomorrow of my days off, so here’s hoping they’re relaxing and blissful. 
