the mellow tigger's musings

It's been such a very long time since I last made a Furry Friday post.

Animals:

Wrigley is a natural lap cat.  He has very long, white hair.  It develops quite a bit of static when you pet him, but he does like petting.  During the times that I have visited him, he eventually crawled up into my lap for more contact.  Being a large cat, he makes for a very warm cover in cold weather.  He tolerates another cat in the room with him, so he might make a good choice for a multi-cat home.

Paris shares the same colony room with Wrigley.  She isn't aggressive, but she does get hissy if another cat comes too close.  By herself, however, she's extremely friendly.  She pursues people for friendly attention, and she especially likes getting rubbed along her neck.  She appears to have some sort of eye condition that keeps her right eye partly closed.  I don't know the details on it, but it doesn't seem to affect her health in any noticeable way.  If Paris is kept as an only cat in the household, I think her demeanor would fit well with persons of any age, young or old.

Corky is also very friendly.  His brindle coloration is very pretty, and it doesn't show up well at all in this photograph.  While I was petting Corky, even the volunteer came up to me and mentioned his coloration.  Corky didn't join in the barking while other dogs in the kennel were worked up about something, so he seems to have a laid-back personality.  That personality trait might make him suitable as a companion for persons of any age.  I thought he was adorable, so I'm surprised that he hasn't already found his new home.

At the time of this writing, all three of these animals were available for visitation and adoption at the Golden Valley facility.

While bicycle commuters may be familiar with delays caused by weather or construction, I think maybe I've found a new and interesting obstruction.  I've worked at AHS for 3.5 years, and this occasion is my first encounter with solo dog exercise.  Normally they take animals outdoors for a run around the park area.  This animal must have been a special needs case because of either health or temperament.

I park my bicycle indoors at the corporate garage and dock area.  It's a very large space that can accommodate large vehicles, several trailers, and many pallets of animal food.  During humane investigations cases that involve seizure of large numbers of animals, we keep the overflow in temporary cages set up in this area too.

I finished work for the day, changed clothes in the locker room, then went down to the garage to get my bike for the commute home.  I ended up having to wait another 10-15 minutes until the garage space was free.  I'm not complaining.  Animals get the right-of-way in the shelter.  I'm amused more than anything else.  :)

I've still been neglecting Furry Friday posts.  Sorry about that oversight.  My stress level has gone down a bit, but animals are still moving through our shelter to adoption so fast that I don't have time to learn their personalities very well before they're already out to a new home.

Here's a rabbit that I met about 4 weeks ago.  I noticed the remarkable fur right away.  When I found time for a quick visit, I also discovered a very friendly personality.  Of course, this animal got adopted a day or two later.

It's a little hard to see in this photo, but maybe you can notice the sunburn on my forearm?  That's from my early days of commuting by bicycle.  I never did burn badly enough to peel skin, but I do have a nice dark tone now that I'm unaccustomed to having.  Most people in this cold climate have typical pasty pale skin.  *laugh*

I can't even remember the last time I did a Furry Friday post.  I have two reasons for that oversight.  First, the bad reason is that I've been burned out (see other recent posts).  Second, however, the very good reason is because animals have been adopted so quickly that I simply haven't had time to get to know them before they find homes!  At a recent employee meeting, they shared with us some year-to-year comparisons for the month.  Last year, the average cat spent a whole month under our roof before finding a home.  This year, that average time is already down to just one week.  The improvement has really been that dramatic.

We've reduced prices to help get more potential adopters matched up with new pets.  We've gone to intake only by appointment to help keep animals in homes before coming here.  We've changed to doing initial health and behavior exams during the intake appointment, so animals can be immediately approved for placement on the adoption floor rather than waiting in stressful crowded cages for their turn.

All of these changes have reduced both length-of-stay and also euthanasia rates by large amounts.  It's all very good for the animals.  It means that our cat rooms are no longer filled with animals waiting long times for a new home.  It means that my initial reason for spotlighting some lingering animals is now gone.  That's a good thing.  :)

(Totally unrelated, but a patch to one of our databases didn't go well tonight.  A few minutes ago, I filed an urgent bug report with the developers so we can get a quick fix made.  I can't remember right now if previous patches ever went bad.  Here's hoping that it's not something I did wrong.  Argh!  Time for some sleep before getting up at dawn to face another day.)