Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Yo, Homies
Yeah, I'm lame. I ignore you for weeks on end and then I expect you to check in and see if I've said anything remotely interesting. But then again, it's all about me. So there.

I've been busy with something new at the shelter. I'm working with the mobile adoptions now. Now don't get all "what about the kitties?!" because I'm still all about the cats. But now, on Saturdays, I'm going out into the community and helping doggies find homes. It's great fun to be around dogs again and I love actually seeing them get adopted. You don't often get to see the cats go home with their new best friends. But with the mobile adoptions people can fall in love and go home that day with the pup of their choice.

Mostly we take small dogs (Chihuahuas, terrier mixes, etc.) but we also take bigger dogs at times too. I've learned how to work with pit bulls and saw one of our longest-term pits go home a few weeks ago. It's been quite an education -- and sometimes quite exhausting too.

Most of the time we set up in a mall or a local pet food store. But I've also been working at our "Second Chance Adoption Shop." This is a very cool place, and buckets of fun. A local mall had an empty store and they gave it to us. At first it was only supposed to be for a few months but since they haven't found a tenant yet, we get to keep it on a month-to-month basis. We have kennel space for about 8 cats or dogs and we're only open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. But we get a huge amount of foot traffic and a great deal of interest. We're almost always busy and have had a good rate of adoptions. Last Saturday I we had two dogs go home. One, an adorable Dachshund, went home with this sweet family with two kids who fell instantly in love. The funny part is that dad fell in love first. He came in, saw this pup, and melted. He came in reluctantly with one of those "kids, we're just here to look" expressions and walked out proudly leading the latest addition to the family.

I love the process of watching people fall in love. When our pit bull was adopted this couple walked up and Penny (the dog) started wagging her tail as if she recognized them. Thirty minutes later the threesome were officially a family. I watched each of the people melt and we knew before they did that it was a done deal.

It's great fun doing something new and I love the chance of working with the public a bit more. Being able to talk to people about the dogs and helping them (the dogs, not the people) to find homes is a total joy. For me, for the dogs, and for the people. It's like when Husband and I adopted Cipher. Total happiness.

2 comments:

Kittie Howard said...

What a great program, Decca. We don't have a program like that in Virginia (that I've heard of.)

I'm a cat lady but we've owned dogs thru the years. I especially like Sheps. I wish I could feel warm fuzzes about pitts but I just can't. I kinda freeze when I see one. Think it's from all the publicity. Not fair, I know.

The Calico Quilter said...

Good for you! And good for the doggies. There was an adoption fair going on at the Petco when I went in today for supplies. These events usually break my heart, but there was one ray of light today - while I was petting a puggle that was so ugly it was cute, a lady and two teenagers were filling out the adoption papers for an adorable beagle mix puppy. Lucky dog indeed. (I just hope they know what they're getting into with a hound dog.)