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!

More pictures

Here are some pictures from my trip to SD last weekend! I had a great time!!

Make a Smilebox photobook

My foster failure

I did it, I adopted another cat. He went to San Diego with me last weekend and he did awesome on the road and kept Ally company in the bedroom when we were there, not to mention when they are at home too. They play wonderfully together and Ally will even groom him! It’s the cutest thing ever. So today I got him some shots and a collar (and there is not much selection in his size, I actually had to get a puppy/ teacup dog collar). Now all I need is a name!

Work has been pretty mellow, I have gotten two weeks off of being on call and it seems that the exciting calls are those that come in late at night or after hours. I did have fun trying to make sense of a bite call that I had. I went to where the bite occurred and met with the dog owner, but he only spoke Spanish. So between my bare minimum Spanish skills and some charades, I was able to get some of the story, or what I believed to be the story. It was the part about his shoes leaving sores on his legs that I didn’t quite get. Anyway, I was able to get a name and phone number so that I could pass it on to my supervisor who is the only one in Animal Control that speaks Spanish. Then I had my first court case in which I actually had to talk. I decided I need to have better notes next time because as I was talking I realized that the judge probably didn’t need all that information and I missed out on some other pertinent info. Oh well, it was good practice since the defendant’s weren’t even there, I was just explaining my case.
One new thing at the shelter is that we got an incinerator for the euthanized animals. It’s nice that no one has to go to the landfill anymore, but it is definitely going to take some getting used to. The old way was that we euthanized then put the dog or cat into a body bag. That way we didn’t have to see it anymore, loaded the bag into wheelbarrow and then into truck. Well now we don’t put them in the bags so we have to load them up into the wheelbarrow and still have to see the dogs. Then we have to pile them up into the incinerator. The worst part is when they land in any kind of unnatural position. Most of the girls that I work with will at least try and put them in a comfortable looking position when loading in the wheelbarrow, but it is definitely interesting and just something else I suppose we will have to get used to. On a fortunate note, I have not smelled anything yet!

Foster Nightmare!

I know some of you have already read this one, but due to my lack of sleep lately some of it was lacking some details! The purple notes are new so you don't have to re-read the whole thing!

My little orange kitty has passed away. I came home last Tuesday and I really wished he was just sleeping, but he was beyond “just sleeping.” It was really sad to have to come home to that, especially when he was just walking around the house that morning. I'm not sure exactly what happened to the kitty, but my guess is that he was just too young and he could have possibly been sick or got something at the shelter. There were a lot of sneezing cats in there the day that I took him home. So that left me with the other kitty, that stayed in the cat room and hissed at my dogs. Yippee, I thought about bringing him back to the shelter, but I believe it was Wednesday morning; Ally and the little kitty were kinda playing together. There were some interesting noises and Ally would go to pounce on the little kitty, but then she would start licking his head and ears. Pretty cute! Then over the last couple days he began coming out of the room and exploring the house. He even got curious at breakfast time while all the other animals were eating. So I got his bowl and after a couple redirections, he was sitting there eating his food. So now he eats in line with the other animals. He is even warming up to the dogs. He was actually snuggling with Zoey, the main dog he would hiss at! The little gray kitty has also been playing more and is more interactive with me as well. I have also been working on holding him. When he first came, he would wiggle, cry, and squirm if you tried holding him. Now I can actually hold him for a minute or so before he’s ready to go. Tons of progress for this little kitty in just a few days! I guess this could be a foster success story as well! So I brought home two kittens, mainly so I could help the little one, the little one that I liked so much passed away, and now I’m in love with the other! Although there is a possibility that he could be a foster failure, a term coined by another foster mom I have met to describe the animals that she fostered and then adopted! Now I just need a name other than little kitty!
Work became very, very slooooow for a while since I moved to the south. I was averaging about 1 call a day and that included follow ups. I was asking everyone if they needed help because I had caught up on all my paperwork, cleaned my truck, my shoes, and my desk. So bored. But then, the pager… So much for the south being slow. Thursday I didn’t make it home from work until Friday morning at about 1am, and found Zoey greeting me at the door. (Yes, lovely! I need to fix the roof of the kennel now, but fortunately she just decided to spread things around the house for me, rather than really destroy anything.) I think she jumped on top of her dog house and then was able to jump through a hole in the tarp that covered the top of the kennel. She's pretty agile when she wants to be. She got into a lot of the dog toys/ leashes and such and spread them all over the house, but not where Kahlua has access. Kahlua's behind another gate that Zoey can easily jump over. The only thing that made it outside were lots of doggy treats. Zoey was nice enough to jump over the gate with treats in mouth and share with Kahlua. She had to make at least 3 trips to get all the treats she did. Crazy dogs! Anyway, so that was a long day, went back to work on Friday, was all set to go home at five and then...another call! Got home about 8pm and then it was actually pretty quiet for a while. I slept in, caught up on some sleep. Saturday I did get a couple pages, but didn’t have to go out on them, until 10:30pm that is. I got a bite call and had to go out to the south. I didn’t get to the dog owner’s house until almost midnight. Fortunately she was still awake, but she had a hard time finding her rabies vaccination info. I really wanted her to find it, because without that proof the dog would have to go to the shelter for quarantine. If she had the proof we could set up a home quarantine and save her and the dog some stress. So I gave her some time to find it, but after her searching and searching I had to start pushing the fact that the dog was going to have to come with me. After being there over an hour she finally had the dog in my truck. Then to show the dog that I was friendly she grabbed me and pulled me up next to her to show the dog I was a friend. At first it was fine, but then she did it three times. It still didn’t work as the dog didn’t like me or my catch pole too much. Fortunately I was able to park close to the kennel he was going into so there wasn’t too much fuss. So by the time I finished impounding the dog, completed the bite report, and made it home, it was about 3am. Needless to say I came home and passed out. Until about 7:45 that is, cause the pager went off again, twice. Both were “aggressive” pit bulls. I got a hold of one and she admitted the dog was friendly, so I told her to call Monday. The other I couldn’t get a hold of by phone so I headed out. When I get there the caller said the dog wasn’t really aggressive (even though he had used that exact terminology on his message) and he had actually pet the dog, but he had seen the dog in his yard and it was chasing his cats up onto his roof. When I went to the dog owner's house the dog was in the garage and the front gates to the property were open. Anyway, I found the dog owner and he had a lovely morning when I woke him up and wrote him a citation. Fun times! At least I didn’t have the North pager this weekend, I talked to the North officer and he said his pager was going off almost every half hour. Yikes!!
Hopefully that didn’t seem too whiny, I really do love the excitement and spontaneity of the job, just not on 3 hours of sleep! I have now had 8 hours of sleep for the last two nights combined. I should probably go to bed now! I think I am at about 24 hours of OT for the week, including my lovely call at 2:45 this morning.
Thanks for reading, I hope this finds everyone well!

It’s HOT!!!

Phoenix has a heat advisory out until Saturday at 8pm and I really wish I didn’t know that. It’s amazing how much cooler you think it is when you don’t know the forecast. I guess it was 112° today, and here it is almost 10pm and Queen Creek is 100°.
For a foster update, Sophia has been adopted. Penny and Polly went to get their surgery this week and should come back tomorrow! Not sure about Darby, as I get frustrated with the website when I go on it. Very sloooooow. Gracie, my mommy, was unfortunately put down L A very sad story. I guess her tummy started getting bigger so they thought she might be pregnant. There is no way she could be, but she started losing hair behind her ears so me and the old adoption coordinator figured she probably had some kind of parasite or ringworm. If she wasn’t sick I would have brought her back home with me until she could find a home. She was an awesome cat and got along with all my animals. Now I have begun fostering two new kitties. One is very tiny, fits in the palm of my hand. The other was in the cage with him the last couple days and they are buddies. I picked up this little guy from a lady that was allergic to cats and found him in her backyard. I had to tell her the kitty wouldn’t be euthanized in order for her to let me take the cat. I figured I would at least try to prevent that from happening so I wasn’t a total liar. So now I have the kitty. This one is really tugging at my heartstrings though! I think cause he is so small. The pics of the kitties were after bath time today (part of the come into my home routine which includes a bath, ear cleaning, and nail trim) except the one where he is all fluffy. That was a day or two after I brought him to the shelter.

So, I have been switched areas again. I will now cover the South part of the county, which is really slow. Although, my paperwork is caught up and it is nice to be able to get to a call within 30 min or less as the majority of the main cities in the south are nearby the shelter. That is a little different than a range of 1-1 ½ hours of distance from the shelter to my North area. Yesterday I only drove about 50-60 miles and that included driving to work, going on one call, and driving to lunch. That is very strange compared to just over a week ago when I drove about 400 miles and used a tank of gas in one day. That was a fun day. I had a call up in Superior where I was driving down a dirt road right next to some cows. One actually scared me; I was looking left then started scanning to the right as I was driving. All of a sudden there was a huge black and white cows head staring at me. Fortunately it was far enough off the side of the road that I didn’t hit it, but did get my heart beating pretty rapidly. I’ll have to get the pictures off my work camera, but that is at work right now. My calls have been pretty boring, nothing too exciting to report.
One last thing, if you want to be notified when I post a blog, please click on:

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Yippee!!

Adah and Felix have found their forever homes. 2 down, 5 more to go! I wish I could interview the potential adopters! More good news, my runaway doggie was found the following day. Another officer got called out and as soon as he saw the truck he tried to run again, but he was stuck where he was at and got caught! Good news and bad news I suppose, no one claimed him and he was put down this morning :( So sad, he was a sweetie, minus his escaping habits, but he loved people, just not animal control. Smart dog! This week at work wasn’t too exciting, although I’ve been enjoying the short lived break from the pager. Short lived because I will be getting it back tomorrow. So my SD trip this weekend is being pushed back to the 26th and 27th. Definitely bummed about that because I’m really homesick! About the only exciting thing this week was my drive to work last Friday. We were carpooling to work and I begin to smell this burning. Didn't think much of it because some of the farmers had been burning the brush/weeds in the area recently. But then smoke began coming from my vents (of my work truck). Yeah, not so good. Fortunately we made it to the shelter and they took my truck in. I guess the wiring harness broke??? Who knows, still not exactly sure what they fixed on it. A lot of the trucks are having A/C problems right now, a truck had just been taken in earlier in the week and another one got dropped off when mine got picked up on Monday. Anyway, hope everyone else is doing well!

It’s been 24hours…

…and my groceries are still sitting on the counter! I’m exhausted!!! Being on call is more than I bargained for, of course working 25 more hours than your're used to in one week will do it to you. It truly started Friday morning with my first page at about 7:30am. Dog was loose, but wasn’t aggressive so I didn’t have to go out. Simple, easy, piece of cake! Then at 8:45am my pager goes off. It was the sheriff’s department. There was a bad accident on a hwy leading from Florence down toward Tucson and there were two dogs involved. My supervisor called me before I even had a chance to call him (I think he was scanning radio, which I have found useful as well). He ended up meeting me out there. When I arrived, one of the people in the car was being flown out by helicopter. The two dogs were ok. One had no apparent injuries and the other had a big gash on her back. It was approx. 6 inches long and a few inches deep. I transported both of them to an Emergency Vet Hospital. That was actually it for the holiday. Saturday I had a couple calls, but nothing too major, but Sunday… I was ready to throw the pager out the window on Sunday! I worked almost 10 hours on Sunday alone. Then I was excited for Monday! No pages from 8-5! Well I got a late bite call and got home late, and then I finally got brave enough to go grocery shopping. I was almost done and I get not one but two pages! I didn’t get home until about 12:30am. It was weird looking at the 24hr watch and seeing 00:24. Today the pager started at 5:05! I actually got 3 pages on the way home from work. Only had to respond to 2, and one the dog ended up being ok so I didn’t have to do anything. I relinquish the pager tomorrow!!!!!! At least I hope I do anyway. The girl I am supposed to give it to will be out sick. Poor thing, but we’ll see what happens tomorrow. Today, during my regular work hours, has been an interesting day in itself. A lady had her front door open so she could carry something in her house this morning and two pit bulls ran right in. Poor lady was scared, and I would be too. A sheriff got there long before I could get there so he got the dogs in his car and met me down the road. So that was a pretty easy call. Then I had my first court case today, but the defendant didn’t show up so I didn’t even have to say a word. After that I had go to pick up a live dog and then a dead one. Gross stuff to follow continue reading after next set of stars if you don't want to read it!!

***********the dog was on one of those metal plates they put on the road to cover holes in construction. Well in this heat it was more like a skillet. The dog was stuck to the plate like an egg on a non-oiled skillet. Ewww. The call came in yesterday so I was hoping that it would be safe to get today, but it was still bloated and the blood was still fresh. So other than a slight gooiness, the dog made it safely into the bag. ************

Okay, it’s safe to read again! So I make it back to the shelter to impound the one live dog. Well I had just prepared it to go into the kennels (we spray for ticks/fleas) and then somehow it got out of my truck and he bolted out the front gate. I ran to my truck and followed it across the street where a couple other officers had run to. We had 3 trucks go out to get the dog, but it jumped across the big canal into some brush and we lost him. I was up on the actual dirt road that goes along the canal and then the two other trucks were down below in a dirt field. Well the other two trucks got stuck! One of the girls was able to rock her truck out of it and get back on the path she came out on, but not without a lot of flying dirt and a horrible ruckus coming from the suspension (first pic). The other truck was really stuck and my supervisor, who has a 4x4 truck, had to come out and pull her out (second pic). Fortunately we weren’t too far away. Anyway, I have a feeling I’ll be washing some dirty trucks tomorrow! We set up a trap just outside the shelter, so hopefully the dog will come back for some food. Oops!
On a good note, my foster kitties (all of them) are up for adoption! I am hoping they all find wonderful loving homes very, very soon! It’s also very nice having it just be the four of us at home (Me, Kahlua, Zoey, and Ally). Ally is stoked to have her room back, which was about the only thing I got accomplished yesterday!