Tuesday

I didn't sleep well last night due to a terrifying nightmare, so I thought I'd be lagging today but my schedule didn't allow for that.

I got to Old Friends this morning and starting separating the dogs for feeding and put ears drops in one of the dogs ears. One of our assignments with our project pets is to hand feed them so I dud just that with Sharkey. He was super gentle and it went well. After picking up everyone's food bowl, some of the volunteers and I walked dogs. I walked Benny, a cute chihuahua; Tagger, a lab/heeler mix who is nearly completely blind but is still sweet as can be; and Deja Vu, a golden retriever who does a cute little hop thing when putting her collar on.This is pretty much how I spent the rest of my morning...not bad at all.

At 11:00, the interns had a tour with Carissa, a caregiver at Jeffrey's. Jeffrey's isn't really a place volunteers or interns go because most of the dogs are red collar. Along with the lodges, you find some pretty extreme cases here and a lot of dogs who will be living at DogTown for the rest of their lives. There's one dog, I can't remember his name, but he is a German Shepard. When his owners decided they didn't want him anymore, they shot him a few times, including in the head. At first no one could go near him, but now he's at the point where his caregivers can be with him and new people can come fairly close to his kennel without him reacting. A few of the other dogs just don't know how to manage their excitement and start biting because they don't know where to put their energy. There are quite a few dogs who have been rehabbed to the point that now there seems to be nothing wrong with them, but given their dangerous backgrounds, will not be adopted out. But they can stay at Best Friends forever. Instead of putting these dogs who lack confidence  down, they have a nice life here.

It was a super interesting tour.

I spent the afternoon at the Fairway. There was a different caregiver there, Chris, but he was just as nice as Kathy. I took Thomas out for a potty break when I first got there. I don't know if I've mentioned Thomas before, but this is the third time I've worked with him. He's a chihuahua mix who lives in the kitchen at The Fairway because he hasn't gotten along with his past run mates. He's really cute and reminds me of Tucker, which is why I think I've taken to him so much. I miss Tucker an unbelievable amount so I guess I'm projecting that onto Thomas. I spent some time with Thomas in the single run at the Fairway (where he spends some days) and of course he just climbed into my lap and let me pet him. He's not like most chihuahuas - he's bigger and less yippy.

After that I helped feed the dogs and pick up their bowls. I also took a few dogs on walks and then it was time for dishes and cleaning out runs. They had a dog introduction today that Chris and Tim (the trainer) let me be in the run for. The dog they were introducing is named Owen and he some kind of hound. He'll be living with Cowgirl, Adam, Zeb, and Leon. The introduction went well, but I think Owen is a little overwhelmed. Every day for a week, they'll take the new dog out of the run at night in case there are problems. Chris gave me Owen to take out and I have never seen such a scared dog in person before! He walked so low to the ground and when I took him to one of the single runs, he was so cautious. I felt really, really bad for him. I know that it takes time to adjust, but seeing him that scared was really hard. I'm back at the Fairway tomorrow morning so I'll see how he's doing then.