Friday's Follies

Hello Dear Friends

 

Today was pretty stressful.  I worked at the desk where the calls come in for people looking for their pets, or wishing to have them rescued, or need information about every conceivable thing in the universe.  It’s hard to talk to these people without almost crying because they are so desperate to find their pets.  I try to give them hope.  Thanks to petfinder.com, I do believe that there is hope.

 

If you go on petfinder.com, you can search all the animals in the database who have been rescued.  You can also put in information about a missing pet who might be found one day and hopefully matched up with it’s owner.  And finally, you can request a search of your home or last place you left your animal.  It is by far the best resource out there.

 

I made some great strides in organizing the desk area and will work tomorrow to do more to streamline the operation.  It is a very difficult task indeed, but with time and a few more people answering the phone I am confident it can be done.  I’m hoping to have more volunteers over the weekend because the locals might be off work. 

 

Three dogs came in late tonight to be checked in.  It was after hours and I got clearance to bring them in.   A man who was displaced from his own home and a reporter found two dogs on a ledge.  They brought them to us in their pick up truck.  They were a little skinny but seemed in good health otherwise.  One had a collar with a phone number and we did a reverse phone number look up on the internet and got the name of the owners.  We would have just called them, but this number was not working as the area it’s from is under water.  The other dog had a microchip registered to the Humane Society of New Orleans, where he was adopted.  If  there is any way to get through to them tomorrow, I’ll check to see if they have the new owner on record.  So these two dogs might be the first of an owner finding their dog and actually reuniting.  It will be amazing and I pray it happens.   A good reason to tag and microchip your dogs.  The other dog was a biter and he had to go to the area where the biters stay.  Their accommodations are just as nice as everyone else, but they just don’t get as much petting for obvious reasons.

 

Early in the day I got a call from the police officer who I asked to check my friend’s house in New Orleans to find her 2 dogs and 15 cats.  He said the house was empty of pets, and there were no animals that had perished.  What a relief.  Now the process of finding them begins. 

 

After the all nighter we pulled last night loading pets to go back to the animal hospital from which they were evacuated and brought to us, I’m pretty tired now and I think I’m going to turn it.

 

Tomorrow I’m going to try to work a solid 8am-8pm shift and get back on a more even keel.   12 hour days are not bad, either are 16 hour days if you can keep a consistent number of sleep hours between them.  Hopefully tomorrow will be the start of this.

 

Thanks for your good thoughts and prayers.

Keep them coming!

 

Carol & Gabby

 

PS  The wonderful black kitty I want to bring to live with us for two weeks before we leave and hopefully foster or adopt will not be allowed to come and stay with us for now.  They are afraid that if he got away they would be responsible.  Here there is a little too much “doing things right” vs “doing the right thing”.   But we will see how far I get once I start begging.