As I mentioned in a previous post, the Lodges is being divided into two separate areas. The original team of six staff has been split into two teams of three and the two-sided kitchen has been split down the middle - we are still waiting for the red tape to mark off our territory. When the division happened, we were termed Lodges A and Lodges B until better names could be thought up. As a joke, I, a member of Lodges A, started calling us “Lodges Awesome” while the other side was “Lodges Boring”. To a certain degree the “Lodges Awesome” is sticking around a bit, mostly in jest - and even more so after today . . . I think I may have spoken too soon.
Everything started out fine today, it is Sunday, which means it is our dog park day - we have a two acre dog park and each day of the week a different area has use of it. Sundays are Lodge day at the park, so we have decided to alternate mornings and afternoons between the two sides of the Lodges, since there aren’t enough days in the week to give both sides their own day. Lodges B had the park this morning and we would get it this afternoon. The morning went quite well and we got a pair of dogs out for a walk before it was time to start feedings. The meds got set up for the evening and tomorrow morning and then it was time to start delivering food. We even had enough time to start hand feeding some of the dogs in our area. Hand feeding is useful for a lot of different things, it can help to stop food aggressive dogs from guarding their bowl as they learn that the food comes from the people, not from the bowl and it can also be useful to socialize shy dogs. I was able to hand feed Dexter, a seemingly mild mannered dog that turns into a terror if you reach for his bowl before he is done with it or take too long to let go as you set it down.
We have been hand feeding him sporadically over the last several weeks and he is doing alright with it, but it will be nice to start doing it more consistently. After Dexter, I hand fed Quickdraw, a spunky little black ball of energy whose name fits him like you wouldn’t believe. 
He is very sweet and friendly, but get between him and food and you had better watch it. I have had him come at me twice, once leaving two small punctures in my hiking boot and a bruise on my foot. Both did really well and it was nice to have time to be able to start working on this issue.After lunch, we had to take care of a few things down at the clinic and then started poop scooping and changing water buckets. When we arrived at Lodge 10 we were a bit behind schedule, having only finished two lodges so far. When I walked in, I found a puddle of water in Ballsy’s run, it was in a strange spot, nowhere near his water bucket and I was concerned that he had either vomited a bunch of water or had peed a lot inside (very uncharacteristic of him), but it really just looked like water, not puked up water or pee. As I looked around I noticed some water in the adjoining run and went to investigate, only to find that the building was in fact slowly flooding from the melt water. I ended up spending the better part of the next hour heaving snow off the roof. Megan changed waters and then came up to join me on the roof and when we finished there, we began working on the giant puddle in Shelby ’s and Kasey’s run. The amount of water that was pooling into the building meant that we could not leave the dogs in the building over night. One of the residents of the building is a former feral that can not be leashed up right now, so we decided that, since their run was the least affected by the water, Dexter and Daphne could stay in their run and we could make a mini-flood wall for them with towels. We had three empty runs in the neighboring building (they are awaiting the arrival of the dogs from Texas, mentioned in a previous post), so we were going to put the dogs there overnight, but when we walked in, we found that at least one of the empty runs in the neighboring building was flooded as well, so it was onto plan B. A different area had three empty runs that they had offered if we needed them, so rather than walking dogs the thirty yards to the next building, we had to walk them all the way to the opposite end of Old Dogtown, but we were grateful for the space. I should mention here that while all of this was occupying Megan’s and my time, we should have been finishing water buckets in the remaining four lodges, preparing the afternoon feedings, delivering the afternoon feedings, and getting ready to deliver meds. Thankfully, our team leader was available to come and get the rest of the waters and the feedings done while Megan and I addressed the Lodge 10 issue. It should also be noted that as we were moving dogs to their overnight accommodations, it was about 5 pm and Megan should have been gone at 4. In the end, everybody should have a dry, warm place to sleep tonight and the flooding seems to have stopped in the building for now. The level of the puddle that is draining water into the building is, for now at least, below a small hole in the wood siding that seems to be the entry point; tomorrow we may be picking a trench from the puddle away from the building in an effort to stop the seepage until the siding can be patched or replaced. I was also able to investigate further the source of the water in the neighboring building - we weren’t able to check it our very well when we found it since we had two rather confused and excited dogs to contain. That leak seems to be a much easier fix (for now), a puddle has been accumulating outside the door of one of the runs and is seeping inside because the water has reached floor level.
The bigger issue here is that these building are built on hills of sand that don’t so much absorb water as just shuttle it further down hill and the buildings are in the way. They are also woefully lacking in proper roof drainage, meaning that virtually all of the snow melting off the roof is simply dropping to the ground eighteen inches from the building and it is a toss up as to whether the ground slopes down into the building or slopes out away from the building, which can make a big difference when it comes to wet feet or dry feet.
So, while Lodges Awesome didn’t exactly have an awesome day, there are always some kinks to be expected and Megan and I were able to rely on our co-workers to help pick up some of the slack. Tomorrow is a new day and I think we might just ask for a “do-over” on today to prove our awesomeness. I am proud of the fact that we were able to get the dogs taken care of and address the issue as much as possible today, but it was also a mentally and physically exhausting day that I really hope we don’t have to repeat tomorrow.
(All photos copyright Best Friends Animal Society.)
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