Working it out

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I've been a busy bee today with Wow being down.

I created a Blog Frog Community page, a Facebook Fan Page, set up an RSS feed, made buttons and did some moving around.  I'm really starting to like the way my blog looks.

I know all the awesome bloggers out there say that you shouldn't have a dark colored blog, but I like it, it suits me and my personality, and I think that's all that really matters!

I also had a busy day yesterday.  No, the taxes haven't come in yet (I wish!), but I did go to the Orientation class I've been talking about with the local Humane Society.

Last night's orientation was basically a "pick your part" kind of deal.  They had different groups for people that wanted to go to nursing homes and take puppies in to visit the residents, people to work the clinic, people to work in the kitty room and the puppy room (and more I can't remember) and then they had the dog walkers.

Dog walking is the group Man-Hide and I signed up for.  Why?  Well, it's actually more involved than you would think.

We will be attending a 4 week class in April to learn about dog training, coached by a very experienced professional behavioral trainer.  We will be working with adult dogs, which just don't get as much attention, or as many prospective adopters, as puppies and kittens.

Adult dogs that do get adopted, are often returned for behavioral issues because most of them have never known much companionship or been exposed to much beyond the end of a chain.

As Dog Walkers, we will be not only walking the dogs, but working with them on their behavior, such as not jumping on people, calmly exiting the kennel, sitting and staying, and taking the time to just sit and relax with them and allow them to relax.

Originally, I was thinking I might like to work with the puppies (and I'm thinking about giving an extra day to the clinic since I want to be a vet tech anyway), but now that I have signed on for the Dog Walkers, I'm really glad I did.  That's what Man-Hide seemed to be the most interested in and to start with, I wanted it to be a "together" kind of deal anyway.

I feel like working with the adult dogs, we are truly giving something to them.  Allowing them to see that there are good people out there that care about what happens to them.

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I did get to have one of my warm and fuzzy moments last night.  When we first got there, there was an American Pit Bull mix in one of the kennels.  He was beautiful, but you could tell looking at him that he was stressed out and unhappy.  We spent a few minutes there with him before orientation started.

We went out at the end of orientation to the kennel area where he was to get a demonstration from the lady in charge of the Dog Walking volunteers on some of the basic behavior stuff, just enough to get us started until our 4 week class in April (we'll start volunteering in March) and I saw a big sign on his kennel that said "ADOPTED" in big red letters.  I was so happy for him!  Bull dogs in general have such a bad wrap and they often don't get adopted from shelters.  Many of them live out the remainder of their lives there until they become sick or so stressed out that their behavior no longer qualifies them for adoption, so I was thrilled to see this beautiful guy get a home and I even got to watch him walk out with his new owner to go to his furever home.

The hard part was that while we were waiting, we also saw owners come in to surrender their dogs.  That's going to be the part that makes my heart break, but at least I know that we will be there to give them some love while they wait for their furever home.

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A quick update on Mom.  They got the liver biopsy results back and the spots on her liver are benign.  Looks like the cancer is confined to her colon and whatever is going on with her blood.  She has hopes of getting to come home Friday sometime, and I truly hope she does.  She has been missed.  She will still need to get an appointment to have the cancer removed from her colon and she will have to undergo chemo after that, but at least there is progress.

Love, light and happiness...until next time.