Filbert

I am not an astronomer or astrologer or cosmologist, I don’t know how to read star charts or interpret the alignment of the planets, but I can tell you this much, the universe is not happy right now. I don’t know if some unsuspecting planet has stumbled into some unwelcoming house or something is in retrograde, but I would really like it if it could all just stop. Writing this on Thursday, I can say whole-heartedly, this week sucked (again). The day after we buried Diego, another one of the Lodge dogs died. Filbert was old and not in the best of health, but we had no idea he was on Death’s doorstep. His lymph nodes have been swollen for quite some time and the vets thought it was Lyme’s Disease, for which he was being treated, but his glands were still huge and there hadn’t been any change since he started the course of drugs. He was scheduled for a Lymph Node biopsy on Friday, but then on Tuesday night, he wouldn’t eat and didn’t want to move. The caregivers at the Lodges took him down to the clinic and it became very clear that he wasn’t doing well at all; by morning his lungs were filling with fluid. The vets suspected Lymphoma, but by then his condition was too unstable for him to be sedated for a biopsy. They were planning to just begin treatment for the Lymphoma without a confirmed diagnosis to see if his condition would improve, but by late afternoon, it was clear he wasn’t going to make it out of this. The decision was made then to euthanize him, so at a quarter to five everyone came up to the clinic to say their last good-byes and we were all there with him as he quietly passed. He was bundled up with two of his most favorite stuffed toys and will be buried sometime next week.
He was an ornery little old man, but we all loved him very much. He is known throughout the sanctuary for his tendency to hump anyone caught unawares in his run, sometimes even ripping off articles of clothing - dirty old man! He had surgery several months ago and had to be kept in the bathroom (off the sand) for a few weeks until his incision healed; we always joked that, given the option, he would certainly have chosen the bathroom as his permanent residence over a run because in the bathroom he need not rip people’s clothes off - they did it for him. However his expansive collection of toys would have made it difficult to even find the toilet; he loved his stuffed animals and you could often find him holding court from his bed, a selection of his most cherished toys arranged around the run for him to admire. He was a good man, dirty, but good and it is heartbreaking to know that he never got to find his forever home and a family of his own.
(Photo copyright Best Friends Animal Society.)

A Day at the Lodges

While I still can’t see myself staying at Amra’s long term, things did improve this past week a bit. I wasn’t spending as much time working alone this week, partially because I was being trained for the 2-11 shift for a couple of days. It is completely different that the day shift; we move the dogs inside to their crates and then let them out for a potty break between 9 and 10:30. The dogs are different at night and it is fun to see a different side of them. Debo is quickly becoming one of my favorite dogs at the sanctuary, he is just about the most fun dog I have worked with and at night it really comes out. He and I spent about ten minutes chasing each other around the run the other night on his potty break, he is just a hoot when he gets the zoomies, I love it! Debo was hit by a semi and then his owner watched as another truck hit him before he bothered to go get him out of the road. The vets had to put Debo completely back together and it is amazing that he is even alive, let alone able to run and play like nothing ever happened - he isn’t even on any medications! He does walk kind of funny and his back is arched up in a strange way, kind of like a Halloween cat, and he sort of bounces when he walks, but it all just adds to his cheery nature. You can’t hang with Debo and not have a smile on your face, he is a great dog. He does have his issues, he can be rather wary of strangers, particularly men, though, I know of at least one woman that he really seems to not like. Kathy, one of the other caregivers at Amra’s was telling me that they spent a week coming up with each dog’s profession and they decided that Debo was a construction worker. It is rather fitting for him, though I have decided to refine his title a little more, because really, he isn’t so much the hammers-and-nails type, he is an Excavation Specialist (like Astronomy up at the Lodges, they should go into business together). While he lives in a 10x20 run, he has probably doubled the surface area of his run simply by digging an intricate network of trenches and holes. I did have to fill in one of his trenches this week because he was starting to tunnel under his dog house and it looked like within another day or two of digging, it would collapse in on him. He always gets a little miffed and pouty when we fill in his holes, but really, I think deep down he likes it because it gives him a chance to start a new project. He is a purple collar (nobody under 18), but I think with a little more work, in his free time and on his weekends away from the construction sites he would probably be dressing up as a clown and hanging out at the local Children’s Hospitals providing much needed entertainment for the sick kiddos. He is a great dog.
My week ended on an high note; somebody called in sick, so I got to spend the day Friday working back up at the Lodges. It was great to get to hang out with some of my kids up there, I spent about ten minutes just sitting in Ballsy’s run while he tried to make himself into a seventy pound lap dog and still maintain his dignity.Brenda, my project dog, and I went on a walk and spent some time working on her off leash recall at Tara’s Run, she did fantastic! Even if I was hiding, as soon as I started calling her, she would stop what she was doing and immediately start looking for me, she would get so happy and wiggly when she found me. She is doing really well with her training and I really hope we can find her a home soon. She got her first bath since she has been at BF this week, too. I think they had always avoided it because they thought she wouldn’t take it very well, so Molly, the groomer, asked if I could come over to assist her on Thursday, just in case there were any issues. Brenda was muzzled, but she did great the entire time, not a single freak out - she was just standing there wagging her tail completely relaxed, even when Molly cut her nails!!! It is funny how the dogs they think are going to be a nightmare for grooming are sometimes just so chill and relaxed and other that seem like they should be a piece of cake turn out to be Tasmanian devils in the bath tub. While I was working at the Lodges on Friday, I also made sure to spend some time with Ursa Bear; it is sad to see her all alone and without her Diegers to play, but the trainers and caregivers are talking about finding a new friend for her. I hope it goes well, we don’t really know that much about how she handles dog intros, she came to us already living with Diego and the managers decided to keep them together because they can be difficult with other dogs. I have seen her get reactive on leash with other dogs, but that isn’t really a good indicator of what she will do off leash. Hopefully we can find someone for Ursa, she loved to play with Diego and it would be very sad for her not to have anybody to play with anymore.
And finally, we found out this week that a BF staffer has decided to adopt Timmy, an adorable but very shy dog that lives at Amra’s. I haven’t really gotten to know him that well because she takes him to her office three or four days a week and usually on the days that she doesn’t take him, another staffer takes him. I don’t know if he is at the octagon on the weekends, but usually the only time I would see him was first thing in the morning before Lori picked him up and for a few minutes in the evening when she would drop him off at the end of her day, there has only been one day that he was in the octagon with me the entire day. I think he is going to be very happy with them, they already have six dogs and Timmy absolutely loves other dogs, he is completely different around them than he is with people. And, on top of that, on Monday, there is somebody coming to meet Maisy, another of our adorable but very shy dogs at Amra’s. If she gets adopted, too, we are only going to be left with one shy dog and he is right on the brink of getting over his issues. Kathy has been working with him a lot and he is almost there.
I hope you all have a great week!
(Photos copyright Best Friends Animal Society.)

The Worst Kind

Today was, simply put, a shitty, shitty day (sorry for the language but this is a censored as I can get right now). We very suddenly and very unexpectedly lost a great dog today to a cancer that we never knew he had. Diego was one of my kids up at the Lodges and he and his best buddy Ursa (aka Ursa Bear) were two of my favorite dogs to just hang with when I had a few minutes. They loved each other's company and they played and "wrassled" and always seemed to be loving life - even when Ursa would run up to Diegers and bite his head to get him to play. They were an adorable pair, Ursa, a very sweet Rottie and Diego, a cartoon character of a shepherd mix. He was constantly up to some mischievous thing or another and she would always take the opportunity to get some undivided love while he was distracted. My team leader was taking him to basic manners class and he was making so much progress, it was just a matter of finding the right home.

Diego was nine years old, too young. I sat on the floor with my friends and cried at the thought of losing him when he went into surgery, I made the phone calls to those not present when we were told the vets hadn't even opened him up before he crashed on the table. They spent fifteen minutes doing CPR to no avail. When they did open him up, they found that he was full of blood, somewhere around two liters inside his abdomen, and a ruptured splenetic tumor that went all the way past his pelvis. In spite of a huge tumor, at 1:15 this afternoon, Diego was still up and bouncing around and playing with his Ursa Bear. By 2:00 he was curled up on his bed and wouldn't move or take treats, his gums were snow white. By 6:00, he was gone. We never saw it coming. It is, by far, the worst kind of loss we experience at the sanctuary - he never found his forever home and a family to call his own.

He will be missed dearly and his loss will be felt deeply.

(Photo copyright Best Friends Animal Society.)

Amra's: Week Two

I wish I had better things to report, like I've had a massive change of heart and now love it at Amra's and that I have developed the ability to talk to dogs and explain to them the problematic nature of certain behaviors, but alas, no such luck. The mental and emotional drain of being at Amra's means that I have come home each night this week and honestly thought about crawling into bed at 6:30. Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, I was working the building by myself for the most part from 8 am - 2 pm, which I have found to be incredibly frustrating and surprisingly irritating. I feel like I can't take time to enjoy the dogs or the job, because I am running around like a nutter trying to get everything done before lunch. A fair number of our dogs are the hyperactive type and you either neglect their training protocol to get your job done or get behind on your job to follow their training protocol and neither option is a good solution in my world. At feeding and poop scooping times, you either walk into the run in spite of the fact that they are jumping all over the place (including on you) and get the job done and get out, or you stand at the door and wait for them to chill out and then you walk in, which usually means five minutes of opening the door and walking incrementally further into the run and walking right back out as soon as they start their pogo routine. Some dogs get it pretty quickly, others, not so much. In addition, when you are scrambling to get the chores done in the designated time frame and have decided to by-pass the in-out game at the door and just ignore the dog from inside the run when they exhibit undesirable behaviors, the runs are so small (relatively speaking here, of course) that there are several dogs that just jump in their own poo and then jump on you - then it's time to go enjoy your lunch with crap smeared on your pants . . . delightful. Admittedly, poop is a fact of life here, but I can recall only once in the five months that I was at the Lodges that I actually got a noticeable amount of poop smeared on me by a dog and that was only one smear on the bottom of my pant leg. Twice in two weeks at Amra's I have walked out of a run with poop on me - and not just the bottom of my pant leg.
On the bright side, I am getting some more direction from at least one of the caregivers over there about what sorts of things the dogs like to do and where they need work. I have also decided that, while I am at Amra's, I am going to start working on getting the hyperactive kids in our crew to chill out when going out for walks and stop trying to kill people on the stairs. There are some stairs leading up to the building and you have to go up and down them to get to and from the walking trail, problem is, many of the dogs are so excited to get out for a walk that they make a really good effort at dislocating your shoulder as they drag you out of the run and then try to finish you off by taking you head-first down the stairs. So a couple of us have starting asking the dogs for sits and waits at the top and bottom of the stairs, for the most part all the dogs already know sit/wait because they have to wait five seconds for their food, so it is just a matter of translating that command into a new environment and getting them to stop and think.
I like some things about Amra's, but the problem that I am having right now is that the things I don't like, don't really seem likely to change all that much. I don't like being alone in the mornings, but I don't know how much that will really change. I don't like the set up of the facility or the size of the runs, which, again, is not going to change any time soon. On the bright side, as I get to know some of the dogs, I am starting to really like some of them, Debo can always make me smileand Beans is still showing off how smart he is (we are working on "High Five"), Ivy is cute and perplexing as ever, and Chowta is right on the cusp of becoming a confident and comfortable dog.I don't know what will happen over the next few weeks, but I have spoken with one of my managers to let her know that I am not entirely happy with my new area. I told her I would give it some more time but that if there is someone else on staff that they think would fit at Amra's and that would really like to be over there, to just keep that in mind. During the meeting, I was also told that if I decided that I no longer wanted to be at Amra's there was no guarantee that I would be sent back to the Lodges. I will give it a few more weeks, but I spent so much time waiting things out up at the Lodges, questioning why I had come to BF in the first place and thinking about leaving, before things finally got really good up there, that I don't want to do that to myself again. For the better part of three months, thoughts of leaving and doing something else were regularly rolling around in my head and I am back at that point again at Amra's. I am just not willing to spend another three months here being unhappy and flat out miserable at times, so if after a few more weeks, things haven't really improved with my mood and feelings about Amra's, then I will go back to my managers and see if we can find a solution that will make everybody happy.
(All photos copyright Best Friends Animal Society.)

Week One

All in all, it hasn't been a great week, both at work and in the outside world. This was my first week at Amra's and all week long I couldn't stop thinking about my kids up at the Lodges and how much I miss them. I almost starting crying on Tuesday as I pulled into the sanctuary and drove past the clinic parking lot to head across the street to the Heights. I have taken a few trips up to the Lodges to visit and work with one of my project dogs, Brenda, but it just isn't the same.I miss being up there, and while they do very interesting work at Amra's, I just keep wishing I was up at the Lodges. The differences between the Lodges and Amra's are like night and day. Amra's is a single building that houses 22 dogs; it wasn't really designed to operate in the way it is being used, so instead of having free indoor outdoor access at all times, the dogs are kept in smaller runs (probably about 10x30 feet) outside during the day and then they are moved inside into crates over night. In the summer, it stays warm enough that the dogs stay outside all the time, but in winter, they come in at night and on really cold days they will rotate the dogs into the building throughout the day so they can warm up. All the outside runs have corrugated tin roofs over half and a dog house for the dogs to get out of the sun or rain. The staff to dog ratio is better than at the Lodges and the goal each day is for each dog to get at least a half hour of individual attention from a staff member or volunteer. I like the idea of having a lot of time to actually work with the dogs, but I was rather frustrated this week when there were four staff members working in Amra's from 2-5 pm one afternoon - four staff for twenty two dogs - up at the Lodges, save for two days a week when there are five, there are four staff for the entire population of both sides of the Lodges which is currently in the vicinity of 75 dogs. It made me want to walk out the door and head up to the Lodges for the afternoon. Granted, the event of four staff isn't that frequent at Amra's, but honestly, I feel like I would be of more use up at the Lodges.

I will say, there are some really cool dogs at Amra's. We have a little guy named Beans and he will sneeze on command. It's hysterical, and when you take him out for a walk, he will sit at the door and wait for you to open it (something they teach all the dogs to do at Amra's - in theory anyway) and if you are taking too long to open it, he will start sneezing in an effort to get you to open it faster. It is one of those "Is this what you want?" moments when a dog isn't entirely sure what you are waiting for so they will start doing everything in their repertoire to get the reward.

I know that I need to give it a little more time, but as of right now, my heart really isn't in it. I am back to dragging myself out of bed for work each morning and I can't stand feeling like that. I have to give it some time, but then there is that part of me that keeps saying what if you never start liking it and after a month you go to management and ask to be moved back, then the staff at Amra's will have to go through the entire training process again with someone new and I feel guilty at the idea of that, too. I am sure everything will eventually work itself out, and hopefully next week will be better, but I just miss the Lodges so much right now, that I can't get past the sadness of not being up there.

Sorry for the downer post, hopefully the next one will be lighter. I probably won't get around to a post tomorrow, but I will be pet sitting starting on Wednesday and will have Internet access at the house, so perhaps, if you are all really good there might be a mid-week post or two. I hope everyone else's week was better than mine and that this coming week is just fantastic!

(All photos copyright Best Friends Animal Society.)

Mr. Bones

On a bit of a sad note, we received word on Tuesday that the legendary Mr Bones passed away with his family by his side. A Puerto Rican street dog, he was adopted in October after spending about twelve years living at BF. It is comforting to know that he got to spend his final months living in a loving home with a wonderful family. Remembering Mr. Bones

(Photo courtesy of the BF Network.)

Cat and Mouse in the Cosmos

It has been a strange week full of unexpected twists and turns, one of those weeks when you get the overwhelming sense that the cosmos is just toying with you for its own simple pleasure.
We had a dog arrive last Saturday, Goose, and we had been hearing about him for more than week before his arrival. He was rescued in NoLa during the Hurricane Gustav rescue efforts last summer and a shelter in St Louis took him up to their facility. He has not been doing so great up there, he has cornered numerous people and has bitten several of them - there is a strong sense that this dog, when inclined to go at somebody, would not stop unless there is a second person there to stop him. He is a 65 lbs pittie with a head almost as big as a bowling ball (lots of jaw muscles) and for the most part he is a great big dork. I met him just after his arrival at the Lodges, along with some other staff members (because of his history, anytime somebody needs to enter his run, there must be at least two people present) and he was mostly interested in galloping around his run being a great big Goober (that was his name, but we already have a Goober, so it was changed to Goose). Because of his odd behaviors, the management decided that it would be best if the three most experienced staff at the Lodges - Terry, Jorge, and Megan - would be Goose's primary caregivers initially. However, on the day of his arrival, I spent more time in with him than any of the other caregivers, so we went down the following day to speak with John (manager) about making me one of his primaries, since I had been around him more than any of the designated three. John, seemingly unwilling to even listen to reason, quashed the idea rather abruptly and told us if we had any more concerns about the matter we could come to speak with him individually. I was so flabbergasted, so over the moon angry at his apparently irrational ability to see something so very obvious laid out right in front of him that I wanted to kick him. I was curious about the whole "Come speak to me individually" thing, but I was so irritated and frustrated by the situation that I couldn't really see myself going to talk to him and still having my job at the end of the meeting, so I just avoided him the rest of the day and fumed. That night, I got home to my neighbors having a party, not an unusual occurrence with them and I usually don't mind at all, they are very nice to me, but I was in such a mood that all the little screaming children in the front "yard" were perilously close to getting kicked themselves. Since I hadn't showered the day before, and also to drown out the racket the kids were making, I decided to take a shower before going to Megan's house to play cards. However, my stupid water heater decided to arbitrarily stop working for the day, so I had no hot water for a shower. Because I keep my house fairly cold most of the time, I couldn't see myself taking a lukewarm shower for fear that I may never feel warm again, so I did the whole bend over the side of the tub and wash my hair thing, which prompted a muscle spasm and pinched nerve in my neck. It was really just a delightful day all the way around.
The following morning on my drive up to work, I couldn't decide if I wanted to go talk to John before heading up to the Lodges and try to reason with him or not. I decided that I didn't want to start my day off on a bad foot, so opted not to go talk to him. After lunch, inexplicably, my mood had improved greatly, and when John arrived for his team meeting with the Deja crew, he told Megan and I that he also needed to talk to us when he was done. All afternoon, we kept crossing paths with him on his way here or there and he kept saying he would catch up with us before 4:00 (when Megan is done for the day). At 4:10 he flagged me down on my golf cart and asked if we could chat a bit, Megan wasn't around, but he seemed to be okay just talking with me about whatever it is that he wanted to discuss with us - presumably Goose. This was the point when he informed me that there was more to the story that we hadn't yet been told with regard to the plan for Goose's care and his primary caregivers. They have been watching me - rather ominous sounding, right? - and he had some things to discuss with me. When he saw the panicked look on my face, he said, "Don't worry, it's all good! Really good!" He then proceeded to explain to me that there was going to be an opening at Amra's and they wanted me to take it. Amra's is over in Dogtown Heights, next door to the building where most of the Vicktory dogs are housed (dogs from the Michael Vick case). At Amra's, they spend the morning doing all the "chores" and once those are done, the rest of the day is primarily spent doing enrichments - walking dogs, taking them for car rides, going to the creek in the summer, all kinds of really cool training and socialization activities. It would be a place where I could learn so much more about training techniques and really be working very intensively with the dogs. We have finally gotten to a place at the Lodges where we are able to be working with the dogs in more consistent ways, but it isn't all of the dogs, we have to pick and choose which ones will get the more intensive work. At Amra's, there is no picking and choosing, there are 22 dogs currently, and the goal is to work with each one everyday. I decided to take it, though I did so with a very heavy heart. Thinking about leaving the Lodges makes me really sad, but I have been assured by management that this won't be the last time I work at the Lodges - when they need help covering shifts, and things like that, I will be first up to help cover. I will continue taking Brenda to the reactive dog class that we started last week, which means I will be up to the Lodges at least every Tuesday for a bit of a visit. It is a weird time for me, I am very excited for this new change, but very sad about it too. I will say though, the timing really couldn't be better, with Tasha having left two weeks ago, I haven't started to seek out a new personal project dog, yet, which I think will make the transition much easier. With this change, my schedule will be changing again, too. I have the day off today (Sunday), before I start at Amra's tomorrow; yesterday was my last day at the Lodges. I will now be working Monday - Friday, so look for posts on Saturdays and Sundays (and with all the pet sitting I am doing in the coming months, sometimes maybe even during the week).
All in all, I think this is going to be a good change for me. I will learn new things at Amra's and still be connected to the Lodges. It will be weird to go into work tomorrow morning and not hop in a cart to head up the Lodges, but this is a chance for me to grow and learn and I can't pass that up. If I hate it at Amra's - doubtful - I can always go to John and Michelle and ask to be moved back over to the Lodges, but it will be nice to do more intensive work, like I did with Tasha, on a daily basis with more than just one dog. Change is usually good, even if it is very sad and a little bit scary at times. I just keep reminding myself that it is going to take patience, something I am not always good at, but I will make my very best effort to give it time and let myself settle in some before I let myself get frustrated. Truly, I think it is going to be really good, and I am fretting for no reason, but it is hard to say good bye to the Lodges, I have grown to love it up there more than I ever would have expected when I started.