Oberon

And this is why I love my job.

Mammilian Biology

So we had two black kittens for adoption, one male, one female. Siblings. Someone wished to adopt the male, and did so. Took him home. Called later. "I got the wrong kitten, I wanted the male. I seem to have gotten the female instead." We check remaining kitten in cage, verify that the female is still here. Reassure her that she did indeed get the male. She is quite insistent that she has a female kitten. What makes her so sure that the kitten is female? "Well, this kitten has nipples!"

A Day in the Life...

... starts out with a guinea pig left in a small pet carrier by the front door when I arrive at work. Note on carrier says she knows she's supposed to give a cage and food and supplies when surrendering a small animal, but "she can't afford to do that" so she's dumping it there when nobody's around instead. So does that mean she didn't have a cage and food for the animal? Was he living in that tiny carrier with no food or water his whole life? That doesn't even make sense! Unless she sold the cage and stuff for money... hmm. Maybe I should check craigslist....

Next comes the near-daily "I know you're not open, but can I get some dog food" request. At least this guy was polite and apologetic, which is a nice contrast to the usual rude, demanding, and entitled folks that usually come around looking for handouts. So I went ahead and got it for him.

Stray dog we got it yesterday turns out to be an escape artist. Come back after lunch to discover her missing. She didn't get far, just down to Les Schwabs on the corner, where she was brought into the lobby to await collection. Even better, one of the employees is interested in adopting her if she goes unclaimed.

Lady that brought in two horribly sickly kittens yesterday returns with 4 more equally sickly kittens today.

Another lady is moving and can't take her Norwegian Forest cats with her. I show her the only cages we have available, which are pretty small. So they won't be able to be caged together. Or even see each other. Best we can do is side by side. "Oh, that's fine," she says, "they'll fit in there just fine!" Get the cats in.... holy dear god, you'd need a shoehorn to get one of those cats in a small cage, and he'd never fit in it with a litter box and bowls! The smaller one is a respectable 17.5 lbs, the large one is 24.5 lbs. So they're stuck in the intake room where we had a large double cage open until something bigger opens up front.
 

Next lady brings in a stray cat with a HUGE abscess behind it's left ear. In the lobby, I open the carrier, pet the cat, and attempt to remove the cat gently from the carrier. He's politely refusing to cooperate. "I'll need to take the carrier into the back to get him out," I say. "Oh just a minute, I need to say goodbye," she says, while shoving me away, which is the same thing she says every time she brings us a stray cat. So I let her reach into the carrier to pet him and whatever. To my surprise, she drags him kicking and screaming out of the carrier into her arms! He flails and begins to leap out of her arms, I attempt to catch and control him, fail miserably, and get scratched to hell and bitten to boot. Luckily, he chooses to run through the office to the intake room, where he can be confined. So he's under the cages. If he doesn't come out tomorrow, I'll have to set a trap. Meanwhile, lady is whining and blustering that if we'd just let her in the back, she could talk him out of there, she just KNOWS he'd come to her... then in the next breath tells us that she can only pet him while he's eating, and to get him in the carrier she put in food, then shut the door behind him. And begging us to let her in the back, and PLEASE have Katze come out and talk to her (because for some reason, in our long history of dealing with her, she's decided I'm the awesome one.) I hear another employee say "she's busy right now CLEANING HER WOUNDS! And no you can't go back, you've done quite enough already thank you very much!

 Then the guy who we had courtesy listed his dogs a while back, they all found homes. Well, today he comes back in, saying that he got two of the three returned, because these two dogs, who had lived together all their lives (they're littermates) stopped eating when sent to separate homes. So after two weeks, now he has them back, and can't have them where he lives now, and has to be rid of them TODAY so we have to take them. "I can put you back on the wait list, but we're bursting at the seams right now, I simply don't have a kennel to put them in." "Well I guess I'll just have to take them out and SHOOT them then! <dramatic pause with hand on doorknob...>" "Gee that's a shame, I'm sorry to hear that. <Turn and head back to the laundry room>" "Well what am I supposed to DOOOOOO" he fairly wails. I mention waitlist. Again. Or, since the two dogs seem prepared to die rather than be separated, and it's pretty much an impossibility to adopt out two large dogs together, and we don't have room at the shelter for them right now anyway, perhaps he may be forced to consider euthanasia. "Well that's a damn waste, they're good dogs!" he says. (umm, but shooting's not?)

And that all interspersed with the usual strays in, strays out, people in, people out, bottle babies, etc. Ugg. Is it the weekend yet?