Awesome Adoptions & Farmers Market
Thursday--What a day!
Ann, and Edith were both there so we started out walking dogs right away. When we walk the dogs, it's a good time to discuss things.
I'd been thinking of ways to increase the spay/neuter surgeries with a couple of local vets so we wouldn't have to take them to the one who seemed to have more infections and complications after surgeries. I ran my idea by Ann and Edith and they liked it.
After walking the dogs, I asked Officer Jim if we could pre-schedule neuters on a couple of highly adoptable dogs so that they could be fixed and ready to go to a new home right away. I'd done some price comparisons with other vets and our local favorite was pretty competitive with neuter prices, but much more expensive with spay prices. However they usually needed more lead time for appointments that the vet we had been using. I introduce the idea that we might consider subsidizing the cost of the spays since we had plenty of money in the City's spay/neuter fund. Once we've developed a track record of a spay/neuter program, we might be able to get a grant to keep the subsidizing program going. It's got possibilities that we can explore further.
Officer Jim approved the pre-scheduling and we picked out the 2 dogs to send first--Shiloh the mellow yellow lab, and Higgins, the easygoing cocker spaniel. We figured they were the most adoptable and would go before anyone else. Boy, were we wrong.
Tracy came by and took the Wishes and Magic to her house. She will foster them until they are big enough to spay/neuter and get adopted. Tracy brought one of her other foster kittens, Flash, by. He had a couple of suspicious spots and we used the Woods Lamp (black light) on the spots. The spot on Flash's nose flouresced green which indicates ringworm. Darn. I'm new at using the Woods Lamp so we'll confirm at the vet on Monday. We'll also need to have one of her other foster kittnes checked over because she and Flash are playmates. Trinket hasn't shown any symptoms, but she has been exposed. We want to nip and problems in the bud. Ringworm isn't life threatening like Panleuk (feline dystemper) but it is contagious to other animals including humans. both kittens will need to be kept separate. We'll investigate more on how to treat and keep the risk of infection to a minimum.
It was another non-stop day. A young man came out to look at Little Charlie, the rottie/shepherd mix who is recovering from a severe allergy and will need a few weeks for his hair to grow back before he looks like the handsome dog he really is. The young man took Little Charlie out for a walk and loved him. He also said he would be willing to continue giving him his antibiotics if he could take him home now. Called the vet again, and squeezed L. Charlie in for a neuter on Wednesday. What a nice surprise.
While the young man was still making arrangements for his new best friend, a family came by looking for a small dog. They were immediately attracted to Smarty, a yippy but darling fluffy white terrier mix. Smarty had a couple of strikes against him: He was an older dog at least 8 years old. He needed his teeth cleaned. He had a lump in the corner of his eye, that might be "cherry eye" and could mean surgery. It didn't take long for them to decide that Smarty was the dog for them. Their vet was our local vet, and they were prepared to pay the extra cost for whatever it was going to take to get Smarty all fixed up. Woo hoo! Oh happy day. The woman said, "We want to adopt a dog that might not have as much chance as a younger dog." I love that attitude.
The family wanted to get Smarty home as soon a possible and the next available appointment was Thursday. Oh dear, what can we do about that? Let's let Smarty take Higgins' spot on Tuesday and we'll delay Higgins until Thursday.
We're on an adoption roll now, but Shiloh were not the first to go as we expected.
Time to wrap up at the shelter ,and get home so we can clean up and then come back down to get ready for Farmers' Market. But no, wait---Nancy, the woman who adopted Chica, the little shy chihuahua, stopped by with 7-Ups on ice for our refreshments, and to get more acquainted with Chica.
Edith needed to leave, and so did Ann. Once Nancy left, I finished up a few minutes later and zipped home.
At 4PM we were all back at the shelter to load up crates, adoption supplies, water, kittie litter and animals. I took Higgins, the cocker and the 2 five month old brothers, Jason and Marmalade. Ann had the tables and chairs in the back of her Blazer, so she said she would let Shiloh ride up front in the passenger seat. Shilow wasn't too keen on hopping up into the car, so Ann and I did some lifting and shoving to get him in. Edith took the crate containing the 4 two month old black/gray tabbies.
When we got to 3rd Avenue, there had been some juggling around of the spaces so we were now in another spot which was 2 doors down from the Elegant Pantry. It just meant I had to walk a few steps further to get my Cherry Italian Soda when I got thirsty. No big deal.
As soon as we pulled up, the kids started gathering. Who did we bring tonight? Where are the dogs? Do you have any puppies? Are the kittens here yet? We've got a system now for setting up so we can do it now in about 15 minutes.
The Farmers Market is new for Oakdale and this is the 5th week. Vendors have been increasing and foot traffic is also increasing. Shiloh, the mellow yellow lab, got plenty of attention. No surprise there since labrador retrievers are the most popular breed in the US. It wasn't long before he got adopted by a nice lady who had a high energy female lab at home who could use a companion and playmate.
The 4 tabbies provided entertainment by climbing like monkeys all over the crate sides and hanging upside down. Smudge would "attack" Pudge's waving tail, and Hillary and Ashley wrestled each other. I lost count of how many times we heard, "Oooooh, aren't they soooooo cute." and "Mom, can we get one?" Marmalade would lie with his head resting across the back of his brother Jason's neck. More, "Oooooh, isn't that so cute?" Sooooo cute, is what attracted one family to adopt both brothers. After all, you just couldn't separate those two, who were obviously so fond of each other, right?
As usual at Farmers, we see lots of people we know. I met a nice woman from Southern California who was in Oakdale visiting relatives. She is a huge animal lover and big proponent of adopting animals from a shelter rather than buying pets from a breeder. She also helps small businesses build their websites. I told her about our website under construction, and my blog. She thought it was a great idea.
So I've lost count of all the adoption today. Let's see--Little Charlie, Smarty, Shiloh, Marmalade, and Jason. What a great day.
Farmers Market is really a great thing for us. It allows us to showcase the animals in a more festive, friendly environment.
When it was time to go back to the shelter we counted the money in our donation jar. Only 11.00 tonight but that's okay. Every little bit helps. We just spent $115.00 on more vaccines. Donation amounts have varied from a high of $39.00 to tonight's $11.00. Next Thursday starts the big Oakdale Centennial Celebration. It might be a very big night for us.
Save a life. Adopt your next pet from a shelter.