Another houseful!

Finally! I've been trying to post this blog since last weekend (been having internet problems again). So enjoy the new pics/blog and be sure to vote in my new poll to help name my lil' boy!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

The current count is 5 dogs and 3 cats (and 1 fish)! I got a new foster kitty this week and am babysitting 3 puppies for another foster mom as she is out of town for the holiday weekend. The foster kitty’s name is Jack, he is only a couple weeks old and is still being bottle fed. He gets to come to work with me and gets to ridealong when I go out on calls. That way he can get his feedings on the go. He is super sweet and has a big belly so I am hoping that his fate will be better than the little orange kitten that I had last time. A gentleman brought the kitten in and wanted to adopt him if someone could foster it until it was old enough as he has some personal things going on right now to where he can’t care for him right now. The lady who took in the cat at the front desk of my shelter said she only knew one person that would be willing to foster it. So she came back and asked me and I got suckered into it! The other puppies are little Chihuahua/Cocker Spaniel puppies that one of the dogs had at the shelter. They are sooo cute! They all run around the house and outside with Zoey, Kahlua, Ally, and the (still needs a name) little boy kitty. They have a circular routine of sleep, potty, play, eat, sleep… They even got to go swimming yesterday and go on a lot of field trips. My neighbor next door loves having them come over to their house to play with her 3 dogs and actually watches them when I go out on calls (as I am on call this weekend).

I have had a few fun calls this week. I had 8 aggressive dogs in one area and was able to catch 3 of them. Only saw three others so not sure what happened to the other two, but one of them was a pregnant female. She actually had the puppies in the shelter the day after I brought her in. I’m glad I caught her when I did or it would have been a lot harder to get her. The kennel techs said that she was really sweet and let them handle her puppies. I walked up to her kennel to check on her and she growled at me. It’s amazing how they remember things. She wasn’t too happy when she got caught in my dog trap. Then I had to use my trap again on another dog that was skittish and wouldn’t let me near her. She wouldn’t even go in when I was there so I left it on the property and told the homeowner to call me when she went in as they lived nearby the shelter. Well I guess our response time wasn’t fast enough because next thing I know I have the 70 something year old homeowner with a dog trap and dog in the back of his pick-up pulling into the shelter. These dog traps are not light and I have a difficult enough time lifting them without a 50lb dog inside! I asked him how he got it in and he said “I lifted up the first half, the dog was on its own, then lifted the second half.” I was kinda bummed though, I was looking forward to going out again as I had nothing else going on at the shelter.

Then this weekend I went on an animal neglect call. The neighbor called in because the dogs had no food or water. There were also horses on the property with no food or water. I responded and sure enough there was only a little water in one bucket for the baby horse that was solo in a corral. There were 3 dogs with no food or water. Two were loose in the neighborhood as they fit under the side gate and one was tied to a tree with his tie out wrapped around the tree several times shortening his tie out to about 4-5ft. As I filled the large buckets with water for the horses the remaining 4 horses came over and were almost fighting over the water. The dominance hierarchy was very clear. After giving the very thin (ribs and hip bones were sticking out) horses water you could see the difference in them immediately. They were much livelier. Then I gave the dogs some food and water, they drank it and ate it right up. I returned the next day with another officer and the owners had been home, but did not respond to the notice we had left on their door. You could tell they had been home because there was hay in the backyard, but they didn’t bother to refill the water containers and they were all bone dry again. This time we impounded the dogs, but unfortunately we can’t do anything with the horses except give them water and contact livestock in hopes that they will do something about the situation.

Also, I just had to share a little smile I got at work. I was talking to two other officers and one of our dispatchers on Friday. They all said that they didn’t think I was going to make it when I first started, but that I have proved them all wrong and they all think I’m doing great! Yay! That felt good!