This week I was actually able to work at the shelter for four
hours on Saturday morning. I suppose I
could have stayed all day, but at around twelve o’clock, they ran out of things
for us to do. Seeing as my friend and I
were tired and hungry, we left to grab some lunch and head back to the dorms to
get to work on homework. My friend is
going to be volunteering with me at the shelter for the next few weekends, as
he severely miscalculated how many service hours he would have done after
participating in Relay for Life.
As far
as the volunteering is concerned, this week was relatively uneventful. There
were a lot of volunteers, and we each walked a few dogs while their cages were
being cleaned. Once again, all the dogs
I walked had diarrhea, and we are still required to pick up all waste from the
dogs in order to avoid the shelter being fined by the city. Armed with only plastic grocery bags, I used
the bag as a glove as I scooped up the watery mess. I like to tell myself that bacteria are
unable to permeate the hair-thin plastic separating my fingers from fecal matter,
but picking up diarrhea feels pretty awful regardless of this
consideration. It’s not like I have an
issue picking up poop; I always pickup after my dog whenever I walk him, and I
held a volunteer position where work was comprised primarily of picking up
poop. After cleaning up a heap of
cheetah diarrhea at the zoo one summer, I thought I had seen everything; that
nothing could ever gross me out ever again.
Nonetheless, I still have to hold my breath and lean away when picking
up the steamy heaps left for me by the dogs at Natalie’s Second Chance.
Moving
away from talking about poop, a new dog was dropped off at the shelter! A black, female Rottweiler, her owners
dropped her off saying that they were moving and could not take her with them,
casually mentioning that they had bred her for two litters of puppies. Natalie scrambled to find room to house the
massive dog and set up to have the dog fixed and her apparent flaking-skin
condition addressed. Another man
wandered in, and, visibly intoxicated, was told he could not be at the
shelter. He apologized and left,
although it seemed that he knew the people who worked there and had some
history with them. The day went on, and
I continued to play with my favorite dog, a Chihuahua puppy named Pablo who was
confiscated from some girls’ dorm room on Purdue’s campus.
Wow! It sounds like you had a very interesting experience this weekend. I am not going to go into the dog poop topic too much, but that just sounds horribly disgusting. I highly doubt that the paper-thin plastic back is shielding you hands from being infected! Why don't the volunteers use gloves? You would think the shelter would require it. That is really interesting that you used to work at the zoo though. I can't imagine picking up after the cheetahs. That has got to be some big waste! At least it prepared you for the dog shelter though. As for the Rottweiler, I find that pretty sad. I cannot even imagine just dropping my dog off at a shelter because I was moving. If I absolutely had to leave my dog behind, then I would definitely give it to a friend before sending it to a shelter. What do they do with the dogs if nobody adopts them? Do they have to euthanize them?
ReplyDeleteWorking with dogs for many years both at work and at shelters i can say you may eventually get used to the poop thing but it will never be something enjoyable, that is for sure. And I will say that the main reason those dogs have diarrhea is probably the food or type of food they are fed. It sounds quiet outrageous and crazy but cheap food does not sit well in many dogs stomachs. Plus there is also the fact that they have been changing food throughout there time in and out of the shelter, which also causes some pretty nasty stomach upsets. Its amazing that they hide the pain of an upset stomach. If we had something like that most of use wouldn't even attempt to get out of bed for anything more than the necessary. Keep working hard, those animals love it more than any of us could ever imagine.
ReplyDeleteI can definitely sympathize with you on the ugly poop mess and the heavy fines associated with not picking up after your dog no matter what the scenario. I live at an apartment complex that has signs posted up everywhere about the hefty fines that will ensue if you don't pick up after diarrhea, vomit, etc. I have also had to use plastic grocery bags and the feeling of picking up diarrhea is something that just can't be described. When my dog was a puppy he would go weeks with diarrhea because I had to keep changing his dog food until we found a brand he liked. Ok, I admit, I spoiled him, but it still wasn't a pleasant experience. On another note, I love how the shelter took in the new dog even if there may have not been space to fit him in initially. That is what I love about dog shelters and why I would like to volunteer at one in the future.
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