she's gone

My 30 days were up as of last Thursday and I had to decide whether to adopt or not. It was a very difficult one to make. In the end I decided to let her go. Ultimately I wanted her to have a home, a real home, and not the vagabond home I'd brought her into. I know intellectually that she doesn't care where she lives, but I couldn't come to terms with it. What got to me was that I knew I could still make a choice for her, so I did. We loved each other to no end. Bridgette even put on her best behavior while she was here. I learned today, after Pippi went to her forever home, that B was on her best behavior. I don't know if it was for me or her, but I'm glad that she had enough sense to even do it. B did pin her once but P was acting like a little cunt so it was deserved.

I do and will miss the munchkin, but know that she's getting a better life. Turns out another staff worker was looking for a small dog and P was a perfect fit. We had another intro but the two of them got along just fine. I am sad that this didn't work out for us, but I do believe that (in the future) I'll be meeting a dog that I simply cannot live without. I love Pippi dearly but didn't feel the attachment with her that I have with my current and past dogs. And so this chapter ends and another one begins.

four seconds

The organization I work for and I Thanking everyone for all of their donations and adoptions. Oh and you can see Miss Magnolia and myself at time index 1:39-42. This means I've used up about 6-7 seconds of my 15 minutes of fame so far.

filmed

So on the second day of training in my new area, I and one of our dogs were filmed for an upcoming documentary. I asked about and learned that it's a follow up story about the Michael Vick dogs which will premiere at the next Sundance. Even though I already know what's been happening with them, it should be fun to see it on screen. Keystone (the dog) and I were filmed during her feeding and doing a couple of tricks together. She's an adorable big brown furry dog with floppy ears, and I'll skip me since most of you already know what I look like. It'll be about three months to see if I made the final cut or not. Whatever the case, it was fun for the both of us. Keystone loved eating like a queen and getting a ton of treats that morning. I simply love getting to do what I do for a living now.

lateral promotion

Last week my team lead informed me that she volunteered me to move to a different area in Dogtown. Technically this is a step up even though I'll be doing the same job. The step up is that I'll get to work with multi color collared dogs. The area I currently work in has only green collared dogs. Green signifying that they're good dogs. The other colors are purple and red, which means there are deeper issues in varying degrees with the dogs. Additional trade offs is that I'll be working with less volunteers in the new versus old area. The big plus is that this satisfies one of the requirements for me to make Dog Caregiver Tier 2 which ultimately equates to more pay. Not that I'm doing this for the money, but the starting pay was a considerable cut from what I used to make. Anything more makes life a bit easier.

This kind of move is not unheard of but unexpected since people aren't normally moved from one area to another until they've worked approx. nine months to a year at least. I've been on board for five to date. I've got to assume that they either think I'm doing a great job and beating the learning curve, or are out to get me bit to where I quit. I'm going with the more positive assessment. My move is set to take place sometime next week. My journey into the world of animal welfare is taking another step. Good times!

wintertime

... and the livin is freezie. The temps have been gradually dropping over the last few months up until two weeks ago when we got a nasty cold snap. We were relying on the furnace to thaw us out for those first couple of weeks in the mornings. I had just refilled my propane tank about 2 weeks prior when we ran out again. Normally my propane lasts about a month which made the furnace the obvious culprit, and underscored the need for an alternative heat source. My neighbors turned me onto a popular space heater w/thermostat made by Lasko. I ordered mine thru Amazon, and can't say enough good things about it. The furnace and Lasko are on par in every way except that the Lasko is much quieter and uses less of it's required fuel to operate. This unit isn't ideal for boondocking since you'd be required to run your generator all night to power it, but it has it's advantages for those on shore power.

There is one other thing that came out of this experience. My sister learned that she, as an Amazon Prime member, can invite family members to share in some of the Prime benefits. Basically she sent me an invite from her account which grants me free two day shipping and prime early access to deals (30 minutes) for one year. So if any of you out there have family member with Prime (that doesn't hate you) they can sign you up so you can get the free two day shipping. Granted most of the time I'm not in a rush and use super saver shipping instead. However not all items qualify even for that whereas I see these items listed under prime. For example. I've been wanting to make spam musubi for a while now, but kept avoiding it because my spam cuts were always uneven. And yes, I'm aware of how trivial this is but I like my spam cut evenly. It was possible to now order and not have to pay equal or more than the price of the item in shipping costs. 

Things at work are progressing very well for me. And just for fun I even made it into one of our success story adoption videos (40 seconds in).

intro

We had to postpone it, but only by an hour. In the end I was more worried about it than Bridgette and Gigi were. B could care less, and didn't even care to react when G growled at her while sitting in my lap. The remedy for that is simply pushing the growler off your lap. The girls are getting along and no fights have broken out to date. We're all taking baby steps together for the next few weeks.

A week later G turned out to be a bit destructive when I had to leave her/them alone. She's now crated during those times. The casualties were a pair of throw pillows that were coming apart at the seams already, two collars, and a cheap dish washing brush. She also was a bit of a yapper during my absences, but the behavior has subsided with time. She gains confidence with each of my returns. 

The adoption coordinator astutely sized me up and called this a long term "foster to adopt". After bringing her home I started to wonder if I did the right thing. I know this is normal for any adoption/foster situation. Here's what I mean though. B has been with me for almost a decade in a variety of living situations. She & I wouldn't dream of being anywhere without each other. However G still has a choice, at least as far as I can make for the time being. I feel she deserves a proper home, and am wrestling with submitting her to the mobile lifestyle. Intellectually I understand that it makes no difference to G where she lives. She's just happy to be with me. My reasons against are purely emotional, and I get that. 

I feel the kid deserves the best, and as you can see from the pictures she won't have any trouble being adopted. The time she's spending with us is benefiting her. So, if anything we're teaching her some good manners and skills that she'll be able to take with her to her forever home should I decided not to adopt. Whatever the outcome there have been no major catastrophes and we're starting week two together. More baby steps ...