Trapping Adventures

So, I’ll start this blog with some animal control adventures. The Friday before last I was assigned to patrol the city of Coolidge. As I was driving along I saw a very thin pit bull walking along the road in a better area of the town (something I wouldn’t be as surprised to see on the other half of town). The poor thing was incredibly skittish, but fortunately for me very hungry and thirsty. Hoping I could gain his trust I set out some water and walked away. He slowly walked up and drank the water. I had to move my entire body very slowly, as even the slowest movements would make him jump. Well we played the game for a while of me giving water and then him jumping back as I approached. Finally I decided to set my dog trap, hoping that the dry food and water would lure him in. Usually I use wet food, but I forgot to put my can opener back in my truck and couldn’t open any of the cans! Well it worked and within minutes he was in the trap.
Later in the day I received a call for two dogs in a school playground. Well the field was quite large and all fenced in. I found the two dogs taking a nap and they woke up as I walked up to them. I had two leashes in my hand and my truck was probably about a football field away as they were on the far end of the playground. I kept saying “please be friendly…please be friendly” as it was late in the day and I was ready to head back to the shelter and take lunch. Unfortunately the dogs woke up and began barking at me. They were willing to eat the treats I had, but unwilling to get close enough and stay in one spot long enough to get the leash on them. Not to mention that even if I got them on the leash they would probably freak out and not be fun to walk back to the truck with. So then I had to go back to the office so someone could open the vehicle gate so I could bring the truck in closer. I attempted my trapping skills once again and placed some dry food along with pieces of my nectarine in the trap to help lure them in (as yet again I couldn’t open my can of wet food). Well the more timid one went in and was checking out the food and the more dominant one was standing in the opening of the trap. All I could see was the trap being set off by the first one and the trap door falling on and spooking the other one. If that happened I doubt I could get that dog to become interested in the trap again. Then my second fear, the first dog was in the trap, but it wasn’t closing. I guess in my rush to want to get back to the shelter I set the trap in a way that it didn’t get set off as easily. Well it actually worked to my advantage as the second dog moved in more and together their weight pressed down on the lever to set off the trap, catching both! By now I had one of the teachers as a spectator asking me the same question I was asking myself, “How do you get the dog out without the other escaping?” Well I somehow managed to get one out and close the door before the second could escape, impressing the teacher, as well as myself.
Also, I’m still looking for homes for Baby (accepting ideas for a better name), Jack, Jill, Jake, and Tonka! So please keep an eye out for possible homes, possibly even yours!!

New Arrivers!

Here is an updated picture of me in my uniform, along with my babies Zoey and Kahlua. Then you can see little Jack off to the right, but he’s not so little anymore. He’s becoming a cat. He is all done with his medication and I found him some friends. There were two kitties that were about the same size as him and it is really important for kittens to socialize with other kittens at an early age. Jack always had Oscar to play with, but Oscar has always been twice as big. Jack immediately loved playing with the little ones his size! Oscar enjoys having all the highly energetic playmates around too. I even think Ally is getting used to having other animals around as she seems to be more tolerable of the new arrivers. The two new kitties definitely have a spunky personality. The first day I had them they had figured out how to climb on the furniture and to the top of the cat crate. Jack will sometimes look up at them, but has yet to figure out how to join them. The two kitties can also climb to the top of the cat condo pictured. Jack has begun to try and climb. He makes it about halfway up the bottom post and then falls down and he has figured out how to get to the first shelf in the cat crate. So now I am trying to fatten up the new kitties as they are pretty thin, but they should be on their way to getting adopted very soon. The little gray one is Jill and I think she knows her name already. Every time I call it, she comes out of wherever she is hiding. Then there is my foster puppy! I picked her up a couple weeks ago when she had been dumped in someone else’s backyard. I let her ride in my truck until we got to the shelter where I cleaned her up (she had several ticks on her body and in her ears) and tried to figure out where her scars on the side of her body came from. Well the days counted down to her euthanasia date and finally on the last day I broke down and asked to foster her. I couldn’t say that final goodbye to her. I knew it was a risk bringing her home as Zoey can be very particular about dogs, but I knew I had to try. Last Friday I brought her home and introduced to Kahlua, who I wasn’t too worried about, but Kahlua explained very vocally that she wasn’t a big fan of the visitor. So I separated Kahlua and decided to let Zoey meet her. I put the baby girl into my outside kennel and brought out Zoey on a leash. Zoey ran up to the kennel and just started wagging her tail like crazy. I let them out together and they just played and ran and played… Kahlua continued to share her disgust with the visitor by yapping/barking, which I think was in part to jealousy that Zoey had someone new to play with. Well they played all night and then it was time for bed. I placed the baby girl’s crate in my bedroom so she didn’t have to be too far away. I placed her in there, talked on the phone for a bit and watched TV for a bit. Then when I turned the TV off she began to whine and whine. I squirted her with the squirt bottle a few times, but then…the the smell began to seep into my nose. She pooped in her crate. Yuk! I turned on the light and realized that she did not just go in her crate, but had diarrhea in and outside the crate, yes, on my carpet. I got her out cleaned her, the crate, and my floor. I then moved her out to the hallway where there was tile; put her back in the crate and settled back into bed. I turned the TV back on so I could settle down from the commotion. The baby girl was being quiet and I figured she had fallen asleep. I turned off the TV and she began whining immediately. I turned the TV back on and she stopped. Needless to say I fell asleep with the TV on that night, but by morning time she had more diarrhea. At least it was on the tile. That next day all my carpet got steam cleaned and the tile was mopped! Fortunately that was the last of those incidences. Unfortunately she did get sick on Sunday and had to spend most of the week back at the shelter to get treated for kennel cough. She is making a full recovery though and is back at home with me this weekend!! So far she is crate trained (even without the TV on), housebroken (no accidents in the last 3 days here) and while at the shelter she only peed in her kennel once (the first day when she was too sick to go on a walk), walks great on a leash, comes when called (most of the time) and knows “sit”. We are even working on lie “down” now. She is great with other dogs, cats, and kids. We have labeled her as a Labrador/Whippet Mix, and it is my prediction that she will only be about 30-40lb. She is 20lb now and about 4-5mo. She loves to cuddle and her favorite way to be held is upright just like a baby, she’ll even rest her head on your shoulder. Any takers???

Holly even came over for a brief visit last weekend!

Just a quick update...

Not too much going on in the work end of things, but fostering is going great! Holly, one of the pups got adopted by my neighbor so now I still get to see her (and how spoiled she is)!! Then you can see Molly, playing with a guinea pig that was left in the stray pen. It's kinda the season for random animals, we have an iguana too. Jake, the kitty, also got to play with the guinea pig, but that didn't last as long as apparently the guinea pig is a boy and took quite a liking to my little guy. Speaking of Jake, he is doing well, he is eating on his own now and as soon as he is done with his medication he should be ready for adoption! Then there is Penny, one of my old foster kitties, and she just got over a bout with ringworm and got adopted the first weekend she was available!

And last but not least...my kitty, OSCAR! Yes, that was the winning name and he got his id tag this past weekend. He's an official member of the family now. Well that among spending money on his shots and neuter (which he got today). He seems to be doing well, definitely had his appetite back. He wasn't too happy he didn't get to eat breakfast this morning with the others.

Also, here is a video that has a little blurb about Pinal County in it that was on the local news. A gentleman was complaining that we had taken his dog, but the story pretty much backs us up.

And just for clarification, I was not the officer that went out on this call :)

http://www.azfamily.com/video/?z=y&nvid=278240&shu=1

Maybe someone saw it and will get their dog vaccinated and be sure they know where the records are! I certainly don't like telling people that I have to quarantine their dog at the shelter. It's no place for a dog and the fees are no fun either.

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!