2 down, 5 more to go…

First of all, thank you to all those that have given me such wonderful name ideas! I have picked from the list of names that I got and here is what I came up with. The mommy is Gracie. Then the boy kitten, black/white, is Felix, the black/orange one is Penny, then the two others are Polly (1 orange ear) and Sophia (orange on both ears). Saturday morning I took Adah and Darby back to the shelter. It was sad having to say good-bye, but they made their two pound limit and will be spayed on Monday and go up for adoption on Tuesday! I’m hopeful that they will find good homes quickly. Adah surpassed Darby on the scale at 2lb 3.5oz and Darby was 2lb 1.5oz. The vet was amazed at how quickly they were gaining weight, but they are very healthy and ready to find homes! My other kitties will return to the shelter on July 7th and then I will be foster free and will be planning a trip back to San Diego very soon!!
Then there is my crazy cat, Ally! She really warmed up to Adah and Darby the last few days they were here. She played with them and was even grooming Adah on Friday night! It was so cute. I think she was a little sad yesterday when the left, cause she has been really cuddly. Then today I think she was trying to get cuddly with my fish, because while I was in the other room I hear this big “CRASH!!!” I knew what had happened. I ran out to the kitchen and saw the fist tank, the rocks, the decorations, and the water spread out all over the floor. I quickly spotted the fish and was able to rescue him before Ally, who was getting in pouncing position, was able to. Then I had to carefully clean up 2 gallons of water off my floor (thankfully it wasn’t a bigger fish tank), but I was trying to save as many of the rocks as possible. So my fishy got his tank cleaned today and is now back in his habitat (also thankful the tank is plastic and didn’t break). Here is a picture of Ally and Groucho the fish taken a while back. I wish I had taken pictures of the mess, but at the moment picture taking was not at the top of my list of things to do!
Life as an animal control officer has been a bit stressful this week. I have had a long list of calls in my designated area and was having a hard time getting them done. We had “a list” 3 days this week and that takes up most of the morning by the time you finish and take all the animals out of the computer system. Then Tuesday when we didn’t have a list, we all had paperwork that had to be completed by Wednesday. This only left me with about 3-4 hours left each day and it is about an hour to an hour and a half drive out to my area from the shelter. Unfortunately that only gives me time to complete a couple calls per day. Fortunately on Friday, another officer helped me out with some of my calls and I was able to complete 11 calls that day and clear all but one call out of my area. Hopefully next week will be better for me! Of course, the schedule got a little mixed up and I will actually be going on call THIS Wednesday. So that will make for an interesting week and also means that I will be on call July 4th and over a 3 day weekend. I’m wondering how many pages I will get after the fireworks with dogs running loose/ lost. Of course I only have to respond if it is a priority, like if the dog is aggressive or something.

I hope everyone has a wonderful 4th of July!!!

Getting Bigger!

So, Adah and Darby had an appointment to day at the shelter to get vaccines and to get weighed. Darby topped the scale at 1lb 14oz! Two weeks ago when she was there she weighed only 14oz. She gained a whole pound!! Adah isn't too far behind at 1lb 12oz. They are getting so big. I have a feeling that they will be returning to the shelter next week as they will most likely surpass their 2lb requirement to get spayed. In other news, here is a cute pic of the kitties right after bathtime. They don't look too happy, but they posed nicely for the camera!

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.

Week #2, I made it!

Well I have survived Week #2. All I have to say is that I do a lot of driving! I feel that 50% of my working time is just spent driving around transporting animals and running to and from calls. Of course that is probably a little inflated, but I calculated driving approx. 250 miles and over 4 hours on Friday. That was an extreme day though. I had to drive up to Phoenix to pick up some of our animals from a veterinary college there. Then when I got back to the shelter my supervisor let me know that I changed areas from the west to the north. So next thing I knew, I was on a trek toward a priority call in the far north end of the county (and then the complainant and the dog owner weren’t even home!). Although, I did wrap up the day completing some calls in Queen Creek. That made for a nice short commute home! Working the north is nice because I may be able to go home for lunch sometimes, but there are parts of the north that are very far, far away! That and I was just getting comfortable with where I was at in the west. I had some ongoing calls that were left from another officer that I had just completed and was working on all MY calls. Now I am in the north having to wrap up other officers calls that they had been working on. Oh well, I guess I should get used to the shift, it sounds like it happens fairly often here. In fact they are hiring a new ACO right now, so things may be changing! Overall things seem to be going very well though! I even got my name badge. Now I just need my button up shirt to wear it on. They should be coming in soon though.

The kittens are doing great! Dot had to change her name because there was another foster kitten with the same name. So now she is Adah, which means "beautiful addition." Katelyn helped select the name again and I think it's perfect because she was a beautiful addition to Darby! The kitties and I took a nap together and they were little cuddle bugs. Now they are in explorer mode and are checking out every piece of paper and nook and cranny on my desk! So incredibly cute!!

Darby and Dot

Okay, so the winner was “Darby” for the black kitten! Thank you Keeler. I had to bring Darby in on Wednesday for some vaccinations and they ended up keeping her :( I was very, very sad as I was expecting to take her back home with me. The foster coordinator called me the next day she stated that the vet wanted to take a look at her as the other two kittens had gotten sick. She also said that Darby should have some friends to help promote socialization. She had talked about putting Darby into another foster home and give me some different kittens, but I objected. Anyway, it came about that I would get some new kittens along with Darby! When I went to go pick them up on Friday and it turns out that they had another solo kitten about the same size as Darby that needed a friend. They put them together and they’ve been best friends since. So now I just have two kittens. Katelyn helped name the new kitten as she really liked the name “Spot,” but since it was another girl, we decided to name her “Dot.” It is the perfect name as she actually has a little dot on the top of her head. So now I have Darby and Dot! Dot’s face is a bit swollen due to the fact that when she was alone she would bang her head on the crate door. It is getting a little better and she has stopped beating herself up since she got paired up with Darby. She is an adventuresome spirit and kinda crazy too! She jumped off my lap right on to Zoey’s back yesterday. She couldn’t hold on and so she slid down Zoey’s side claws out. Zoey just stood there and stared at her like she was crazy. The two kittens play and play, it is very cute! You can see pictures of both of them. Darby is the black one and Dot is the gray one.
Okay, back to work stuff. I ended up getting released on Tuesday! Although, I was on my own most of the week, I really didn’t do any calls all week except for Wednesday. Tuesday and Friday I had to go into Phoenix and take care of things there for work. Friday worked out though because I just stopped by the AAWL (foster shelter) to pick up my kittens on the way back. Then Thursday they had me do a clinic and kennel inspection in Apache Junction. Those activities pretty much took up most of the day. Wednesday I actually went out on 7 calls by myself. I had huge butterflies in my stomach when I went out that day, but I think I did okay. The calls were mostly just stray animals or dogs getting loose. Hopefully I will have more exciting news next time, but so far things are going great!

Good News or Bad News?

I’ll start with the good news, my little pit bull puppies, Spanky and Sparkle, were adopted!!! I’m kinda bummed because they were in and out before I got a chance to see them. Actually, I think I saw the girl, but didn’t realize it was her because she was so big. What a success story! Then today I rode with my supervisor and there is talk of being released as soon as Wednesday!!! That will be so exciting!
Now the bad, I am down to one foster kitten. I woke up Saturday morning to find that one of my kittens, the super social/playful boy couldn’t even hold his head up and could just lie on his side. He would move his paws and legs as if walking but was just moving them in the air. I got dressed and rushed him to the shelter along with the other kittens. On the way there he began a horrible meow, and you could tell he was miserable. They ended up euthanizing him on the spot. They checked out the other two kittens and both had lost a couple ounces in weight. Going from 12oz to 9.5oz is not good, especially when I am trying to get them to a 2lb mark. Anyway, the little gray tabby had a lot of nose and eye gook so they gave me some anti-biotic and eye ointment for her. She began her first dose Saturday night; she was eating and seemed to be doing ok. I borrowed a humidifier for the room to help loosen things up and everything. Well at 2am when I got home, she was lying on her side and couldn’t hold her head up. I ended up staying up with her all night, using a syringe to give her water and a little wet food. Then she began the same horrible meow as her brother. It was awful. Thank goodness for knowing people that work overnights, I was able to talk to Mike and regain some sanity (Thank You!). I took her in and they were able to get her stable. Although, I found out this afternoon that she was euthanized. I guess the two kittens were littermates and born with no thymus, which is important in youngsters to help fight infection. I also found out that the third is not related to them and, for some good news, is doing great! Earlier last week she appeared to have a limp and I almost took her in, but she looked like she was doing better by the time I had gotten off work.
Today she is pouncing on everything that moves, like Zoey’s paw, or doesn’t move, like a toy on the floor. Zoey is absolutely infatuated with this kitten. Today I fed the animals when I got home and Zoey was pacing circles around the house. She wanted to see her baby! I opened the bedroom door so Zoey could see the kitten in the crate and put her food in the bedroom. Not good enough, Zoey paced circles around the room. I opened the crate door and she gave the kitten a big wet kiss! Then she began to eat her food. Well the kitten seemed to want to explore so I let her wander out of the room. Zoey would eat a couple bites, walk out of the room, lick the kitten, get a visual on Kahlua and Ally, lick the kitten, then go back in the room for a few more bites. This cycle went on for a few times until Zoey was done eating and the kitten went back in her room. As I walked in the room, the kitten was on her back and Zoey was licking her belly. Sooooo cute!!! Zoey is very protective of the kitten (who needs a name by the way). Yesterday, I was lying in bed watching a movie and had the kitten on the bed too. Well Ally didn’t like that very much and sat on the nightstand and groaned at the kitten, who was lying on my shoulder. Then she hissed and raised her paw like she was going to swat. She was too far away to get anything so I wasn’t too worried, but did tell her to stop. Well Zoey didn’t like it at all and jumped up from lying in her spot at the foot of the bed and scared Ally away. I had to tell her to stop too. Zoey didn’t like Ally making such a fuss toward the kitten.

Checking out San Diego

My mom was kind enough to get me a connection with San Diego County Animal Services. I was able to go for a tour this past Saturday and it was beautiful! It’s a gorgeous facility that is so well catered to the animals as well as the public. It is huge compared to the shelter I work. Although San Diego is much bigger than Pinal County and I love small town feel (including less traffic) out here. Anyway, after my tour of the modern and huge shelter, I got to go on a ride along in San Diego. We went on one call for a crow that wasn’t flying, but it ended up being just a baby crow that was getting ready to fly any day now. Then we went to go resolve a neighborly dispute. You’d be amazed at how many people call animal control to “get” their neighbors. It makes me feel lucky to have such wonderful neighbors! Then our last call was an abandoned crate with a dog in it. It was a small/medium sized crate with a large dog in it. Well it should have been large. It had a large head and paws, but a tiny emaciated body. The whole crate had an awful stench coming from it and you could tell it had been in there a while. When we returned to the shelter the dog was checked by the vet and they said the dog had parvo. They had to dismantle the crate in order to get to the dog, but he was too far gone, and they had to put the dog down. It was definitely a better place for such a sad doggy to go. It is such a shame that was how he had to end his life, and such a shame that someone could abandon him in a state like that.

On a positive note, I have foster kitties!!!! I picked them up on my way back in to Phoenix. They are so cute and pictures will be sure to follow! There are three of them and each one has his or her own distinct personality. One is a little skittish girl and then there is the super social boy. Zoey is super curious about them and Ally could care less. Kahlua falls somewhere in between the two.
Hope everyone had a fantastic Memorial Day Weekend! I know I did. Oh yeah, the picture narrative: This is the little boy with all the cactus needles we pulled out last week. How sad is that! He’s all better now and I heard that his owners came to get him today too.