Crazy Week

It's been a wonderful, but stressful, week. For those of you who want to know more about rescue work, here's a summary of my life over the past week or so...

Tuesday - Took Marco, my foster cat, to the vet for his dental, then on to work. After work, picked up Marco and two shelter dogs (Jose and Renny) from the vet on my way home. Dropped Jose and Renny off at Angie's house (our newest volunteer) so she could take them back to the shelter. Went home to let Remi (my dog) and Noelle (my foster dog) out, then let Remi in and took Noelle with me to pick up foster dog Bella's paperwork from Angela (another volunteer). Then on to PetSmart with Noelle, to meet Rhonda (another volunteer) and her foster dog Bella. We had prearranged to meet some people who were interested in Bella. So we introduced Bella to her new family, and they all fell in love. We had Noelle and Riley (Rhonda's foster dog) with us, hoping one of them would be adopted since it was during the PetSmart Birthday Bash, but it was pretty slow at PetSmart so only Bella went home. Still a very successful day!

Wednesday - After work, some previous adopters came by with their cats - Luckee (who is my previous foster cat Artemis) and Louie (who they didn't get from Heartland but is still a very nice cat). :-) They were going out of town for a few days so I was happy to cat-sit while they were gone. The kids in the family came in so I had to introduce them to Ariel, Anastasia, Aurora and Aladdin, my four foster kittens, and we all had fun playing with them for a few minutes. Then they left, I got Luckee and Louie settled in, and began "foster chores" - feeding/cleaning up after/playing with/petting/etc.

Thursday - After work, I stopped by the vet to pick up three dogs from the shelter - Emma, Riley and Casey. Then I took them all home with me while I did a few foster chores - letting dogs in/out, feeding them, checking on cats, etc. Then an hour later Erica (another new volunteer) came over and we loaded up Casey and Riley. By that time I had introduced Emma to Noelle and Remi, and she did so well, I decided to keep her at my house. She claimed the other dogs at the shelter made fun of her because of how she looked, and I fell for it, so I told her she could stay for just a few days. Of course the other volunteers who work at the shelter have convinced me that she needs to stay longer - so I may end up keeping her until she's adopted - we'll see. Anyway, Erica and I took Riley and Casey back to the shelter with us, and spent several hours there taking care of the dogs and cleaning and so on. The shelter is indoors but has a lot of acerage that is fenced in and the dogs all get to go outside in play groups, so it takes awhile to give everyone a turn. Once we finished there, we took two more dogs home with us (Shawn and Degan) and then I was so happy that Erica took them home with her to spend the night at her house before she took them to the vet in the morning for their vet appointments. That was a long day!

Friday - I don't remember Friday - I think after work I must have just spent it with my dog (Remi) and foster animals (Noelle, Emma, Marco, Polo, Oliver, Aurora, Anastasia, Ariel and Alladin) and temporary visitors (Luckee and Louie), and then gone to bed early. Oh yes, on Thursday I also brought home Oliver, a new cat. I'll introduce him later. :-)

Saturday - I got up early to head to the shelter to pick up dogs. I left all my fosters at home, but filled up my van with shelter dogs Sadie, Taffy, JoJo, Indy, Kate and Bear. Then proceeded to leave the van running with the A/C on for the dogs while helping another volunteer to load up her car, and of course the only dog riding loose in my car stepped on the lock button and locked the doors. Oops. After the locksmith got there, we eventually got back in and made it to PetSmart only 30 minutes late. After adoptions on Saturday, I loaded back up the dogs that weren't adopted and took them back to the shelter, then headed home. Earlier I had snuck out of PetSmart for 45 minutes to go home and check on my animals and let the dogs out, so they didn't have to wait too long. So once I got home, I just had to feed them and do all the foster chores, and then had the evening free!

Sunday - I had planned to make it to church, but overslept so ended up missing it. I did make it to Lori's house (another volunteer) by 10:30am to meet her and pick up dogs. We went to the shelter and got Dash and Heidi, and then met Karen (another volunteer) to get her foster dog Wiggles. Then back to PetSmart where we adopted out Heidi, and did an adoption for Wiggles even though his new mom wasn't quite ready to take him home. Then we did a home visit and adoption for Dash, and after that I took Wiggles back home with me. The rest of Sunday was relaxing, filled with just foster chores and fun with the animals. I took my car in to the mechanic since the A/C wasn't working, and took Remi with me so he could have an extra-long walk home (the repair shop is a couple miles from my house).

Monday - After work, I just did foster chores, ran some errands, and tried to clean my house. I say tried, because I didn't get much done. Oh well. Later I took Wiggles and Emma for a walk back up to the repair shop so we could pick up my car that had been repaired. Wiggles walks really well on leash... Emma, not so much.

Tuesday - After work, I rushed home and got Wiggles and Luckee & Louie, and then took them all up to PetSmart to meet their respective families. While there, I bought more canned kitten food for the kittens, and visited my foster cats who are living in the cages at PetSmart (Whisper, Scribbles, Shiro and Una). Then I went home and did foster chores, and then I headed out to the shelter to take care of the dogs. When I left, I brought home Rocky, a cute little Pointer/Dachshund mix who is meeting some potential adopters tonight (Wednesday).

So that is a pretty typical week for me - maybe a little busier than usual, but there's so much that needs to be done! As you can see above, there are several volunteers who help out, and each one has their own story of things they do for homeless animals every day. There is still a need for more help though, so if you'd like to volunteer, please fill out a volunteer application here. Just think -- less than two years ago, I didn't even know what rescue groups were, had only one dog and no cats in my house, and didn't do much other than go to work, and go home and watch TV or play computer games. I'm so much happier now. :-)