Sunday, July 31, 2005
The most important part of my job
May just be maintaining a sense of humor.It's easy to get caught up in the little (or not so little) things that go wrong at the shelter: the returned dog who panics on the stranger portion of her behavioral evaluation. Or the frustrated family that really, really wants to adopt the seriously food possessive dog and doesn't want to understand the safety risks the dog may pose to their small child.
But some days, it's also easy to find the funny things that happen at the shelter.
Today, and I'll admit, this happens to me often, I couldn't find my leash. I asked my coworkers if they had seen it. They had seen my leash. In the fridge, with my gentle leader. Apparently, I put it there before I went on vacation. I don't know why I thought my leash would be better chilled, but I must have been thinking something!
We visited the shelter next door today, to try and fill up some of our kennels left empty by our recent adoption event. It was about 100 degrees in Dublin, and TT and I didn' t feel we could move fast enough in that heat to safely temperament test outside. So we moved into the only available indoor area in that shelter- the food storage room- which smelled so potently of mouse pee that we had to move back outside again!
By the end of the day, I had also joked with a client about his newly adopted dog's bad breath, outfitted the same dog with a fabulous faux leather jacket (donated by the Girl Scouts), and whacked my head so hard on a cat cage that I have a nice lump on the back of my head. And with over 96 adoptions in the last few days, I think I'll go to bed smiling.
