We didn't know

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I’m usually alone up at the front desk, I’m the only shelter assistant. We’re incredibly short staffed and no one really wants to be up there anyway, so they all avoid it. We have two animal control officers, they only time they are both working is Saturdays. They do 4 10 hour shifts. Two kennel techs and one vet tech (Registered Vet Tech). One of the kennel techs is part time, she only works Sunday & Monday. The shelter manager is always busy doing something, meetings, paperwork, etc. So it’s all me. The other day the RVT was sitting up front with me while she checked her email and ate her lunch. Three people came stumbling in the door. There was a young girl, maybe 16, a guy who was maybe 25 and then an older guy who was mid forties, I’m assuming they were family. The two men didn’t really speak English, so the girl translated. She pretended that she didn’t understand me, but she knew damn well what I said. The conversation went like this:

Girl – “We want to give you these dogs” Me – “Are they YOUR dogs?” Girl – “yes, we don’t want them anymore so we want to give them to you” Me – “are they fixed?” Girl – “fixed?” Me – “So they can’t have babies anymore?” Girl – “Yes. We don’t want them anymore” Me – “Mmmkay. Do you live here?” Girl – “Yes. We want to give you the dogs” Me – “Right. We can take them, it’s $35 for each dog” Girl – “No we don’t want them anymore. We want to give them to you.” Me – “Right got it. You have to PAY to surrender the dogs to us” Girl – “Oh we didn’t know” Me – “Ok, well it’s $35 each” Girl – “We don’t want them anymore. We didn’t know” Me – “We can take them but you have to pay $35 for each dog” Girl – “Oh we didn’t know. We have to pay?” Me – “Yes. I need you to fill out some paperwork” Girl – “Can we come back?” Me – “Yes but it will still be $35 if you want to leave the dogs here” Girl – “Can we come back? We don’t want them anymore. We didn’t know” Me – “Yes you can come back, it will still be $35 if you don’t want them” During this conversation she was translating everything to the two guys, who were completely confused by the idea that they had to PAY us to take their dogs. The RVT finally said “You don’t WANT them? Why do you have TWO then” Which made me laugh a little.

We do have a little flexibility and if someone can’t pay we’ll take animals for free. But this wasn’t a matter of not being able to pay, they just didn’t WANT to. Part of me was thinking I should just take them for free because there’s a good chance they’re going to dump those dogs somewhere. BUT if there are no consequences to ‘not wanting’ the dogs anymore they will just continue to adopt or buy puppies and dump them when they get older and become too much work. She wasn’t smart enough to make up a story or ask if there was anything we could do about the $35. Most of the time people make up stupid lies and you can see right through them, the most common one is they ‘found’ the animal. It’s refreshing to hear the truth, but it also made me cringe. Animals aren’t garbage, you can’t just decide you don’t want them anymore like an old pair of pants. They never came back, not that I thought they would. Hopefully they found another shelter and LIED.

Changes...

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I should change the title to “Living with SEVEN cats”…yes we added to our circus. Lots of things have happened. I’m no longer working in financial services. I work at the animal shelter, which is good and bad. Good because I love the animals and I love being around them and helping them find good homes. Bad because I want to save them all AND I see the worst of the worst. More on that later.

Our latest addition, Squirt, was supposed to be a ‘long term foster’…hahahaha. He was left in a box, by the front door. He was about 6 weeks old and had a broken/dislocated ankle bone. (Worst of the worst) We don’t know for SURE but we THINK someone probably stepped on his leg. The leg may require additional treatment at some point. This fact must be disclosed to potential adopters. No one wants a handicapped kitten, lots of people looked at him. I was a little protective though, no kids, NO outside, not sure about other cats either. He was in a cage in front of me in the lobby. So I’d look up and he’d be on his back, looking at me. I worried that when the healthy kittens started coming in he’d really be passed over. The shelter manager told me to take him home as a foster, to see how our other cats received him. Pippi was NOT happy, she spent the first week growling almost non stop. He just walked around in her in a big circle. Herbie welcomed him, he taught him to wrestle and let Squirt chase him around. After about 10 days I caught Pippi playing with him, she saw me and instantly started growling again. Once Pippi gave her stamp of approval it was official, Squirt was far too comfortable here for me to take him back to the shelter. He would have been heart broken.

Squirt fit right in and made himself right at home. We were worried about the stairs. He stepped off the first stair, lost his balance and did this ass-over-tea kettle roll down the stairs. You could hear his claws trying to grip the carpet. We stood at the top of the stairs, stunned. I thought for SURE he broke something. He got to the bottom of the stairs, legs all spread out and shook his head and took off. His leg does NOT slow him down, he’s all over everything.

The biggest change is that I’m not working at the animal shelter. My responsibilities are to keep the shelter running. I do the deposit, dog licensing, answer the phones, process adoptions, etc. However, we’re short staffed and I can’t let the cats sit and wait for one of the kennel techs to clean. So every morning, except Tues & Sat, when we have volunteers come in and clean, I clean. If done correctly it’s a LOT of work, but I don’t mind it. It’s satisfying to know I’ve done something worthwhile and it gives me the opportunity to get to know the cats. From 9 to 10:30-11:00 I clean. I go to lunch around 11:40ish, I need to be back to open the shelter at 1. Then from 1-6 I sit up at the front and greet people and answer the phones. Everyday brings something new and I always think I’ve heard it all….