10 tails and 1 fin

Yes, that is what my zoo consists of here at my house! I picked up 5 new foster cats, well 1 momma and 4 kittens, this week! They were on “the list” about 2 weeks ago and I kept telling myself, “I can’t save them all, I can’t save them all…” So I started on the dogs and figured another officer could do the cats. Well, that day I pretty much did it all. By the time I got to the cats, the adoption coordinator arrived at the shelter and I showed her the cats. I offered to foster them, but she just put a hold on them so that she could adopt them out when they were old enough. Well a week and a half later, they still weren’t old enough and we were inundated with cats. I offered again to foster them again to offer them more play room and human interaction. Well it was approved by the director and I got to bring them home! They are so cute. There are 3 girls and 1 boy. So I now have just 1 boy in a house full of girls, unless you count the fish whose sex is unknown. The dogs have met the kittens, but I have to make sure that the momma is somewhere else as I don’t want her to get the sudden urge to protect her babies. They are still nursing, which you can tell in the picture. Then there is a picture of Adah, just relaxing. Both Darby and Adah have full run of the house when I am home. They have just become a part of the family, but yes I know, a TEMPORARY part of the family! I actually moved Darby and Adah into the extra bathroom and gave the new foster cats the bedroom. I figure Darby and Adah get more room when I am home and the 5 cats could use a little extra space. Darby and Adah go to the shelter to get vaccines and weighed on Sunday. If they are over 2lb (which I doubt) then they stay, if not, I keep them longer. The other kittens (that need names!) will probably be with me for a couple weeks. They are nursing, but are eating wet/solid food as well. The black/ white one is the boy, the rest are girls, so again, give me some name ideas. Momma needs a name too!
Work is going well too. I’m just learning that plans change! I don’t think I have had a day go to “plan” all week! This is fine, except I feel like I am falling farther and farther behind in work. I have a ton of paperwork to do, but I am hoping to get some done next week (here I go with the plans again!) as I go on call on Wednesday! I’m super nervous that I am going to sleep through the pager at 2am, so if anyone has any suggestions of how to train yourself to wake up, please let me know!! I sleep pretty heavy the first couple hours I am asleep.
I do have one funny story from this week. I was helping out another area and responded to a stray dog that was confined at someone’s house. I received a call that stated: dog tied up in front of house. I went out and found a large german shepherd tied up to a trailer. No one was home so I left a note on the door and proceeded to get the dog. The dog was kind of growly and nippy so I used a catch pole to get the dog out from under the trailer. Then I had to unclip the cable from the dog’s collar. I was able to do that safely and brought the dog to the truck. 10-15 minutes later of trying to figure out how to get this huge dog into the truck, the dog finally put his front paws up on the side of the cage. I quickly lifted his back end in and there he was in the back of my truck. I was so proud of myself that I had gotten this big dog into my truck! I made my way back to the shelter and impounded the dog, took his picture and was sitting in the dispatch office printing out his cage card when dispatch received a call. She hangs up the phone and says that I picked up the wrong dog. That was the caller’s dog and the dog to be picked up was a little black dog. Oops! I then had to ask my supervisor to approve the overtime (in front of the office supervisor and director) to go return their dog and get the correct dog. So I returned the big dog and picked up a little 4mo. old lab puppy. That would have been a lot easier to get in the truck the first time! They had her tied up around on the side of the house, which I guess on a trailer, is the front of the house. Oh well, no harm done, and fortunately the dog owner had a good sense of humor about it.