SO at the end of this month I will officially have worked at the Animal Shelter 1 whole year ! WOW right !? and if I could describe this year in three words they would be hectic, fun, and exciting ! I found this job in the local Impact paper that gets tossed in the mailbox on a weekly basis. Just was looking through it for the first time to see what it was about, saw the opportunity and went and applied the same day. I was hired as a Kennel Tech within the same week ( after one day of volunteer work and an interview ). I will say, Kennel Tech should be on dirty jobs ! you know, the show !
A Kennel Tech is the person who cleans up the messes the animals make. There is no poop fairy nor does it just disappear. The Kennels get cleaned daily so no, they don't just sit in dirty all day. We don't "shoot poop down the drain" either. We scoop that poop...its a lot of poop... and that's an understatement.. we soap, scrub, bleach, squeegee, dry, feed, water, socialize, assist adopters through adoption counseling, etc. anything direct dealing with an animal after it has been through the intake process a Kennel Tech does. It's like having a bunch of pets.. just not at home with you !
I enjoyed it then but not like I enjoy my new position as the cat lady ! or Cattery Tech to make it more clear of what I do.
Left field statement here : I work at a non-profit. I make minimum wage. I live paycheck to paycheck and sometimes the previous paycheck doesn't make it to the next. I clean up poop, vomit, deal with the sick, mangled, healthy, old, young, cute, ugly, mean, nice. I work on holidays and everyday in-between. You don't work here because you have to. you have to have the want. the drive to better. the heart to help to work at a place like an animal shelter..I mean think about it .. you would make more working at McDonalds.
I must say though, if it wasn't for me working here, I would never have met my second rescue, Gigi who is the one pictured. She is now 9 months, 2 lbs., and is the best Chihuahua you would ever meet in a gazillion years! and spoiled rotten !
BUT ANYWAYYY
Why I like being the cattery tech?
I clean the kitten and the cat cottage. It's a lot of work for one person and I work three times as hard as I did when I was a Kennel Tech because I work alone in both buildings. but I like it because it is my area. All mine. and you know, upon the switch, I wasn't asked and I didn't like cats; I was upset. But as time has progressed, I have grown a special little corner of space in my heart for the cats. I know I love them as I can look at two of the same cats and know their name, personality, and anything else you want to know. Also, my favorites (which have seemed to be black cats so far) get adopted brings me to literal tears [ I still think of you Spencer and I hope you new home is treating you very well ] and I know I love them because even at home I think of how tomorrow I can do something to get another into a loving forever home.
ENOUGH OF THE MUSHY AND ABOUT ME!
I work at a non-profit open admissions shelter. We are NOT a no kill but our live release rate is very high. We do our best to find homes for everyone who comes through our door. Through using donations and higher price adoption fees on pure breeds to sponsor animals ( making them free to better get them into a loving home and an opportunity outside of euthanasia ) and also using that money for treatment of medically challenged animals. We don't euthanize often; but when we do, it's a sad day for everyone and it is very humane. I won't go further into it from there.
We have a small staff who works together to get our goals of adoptions on the daily. We have Volunteer opportunities for children and adults, we work with other shelters, we do transports to no kill shelters up north, we have foster programs ( I FOSTER AND SO SHOULD YOU !! :D ) we have events that help adopters meet the animals of our community. We do facebooking to help reunite animals with their owners ( we are excellent at that ! ). We do ALOT of good and just this summer we participated in the Lisa Ray Challenge where we saved (almost) 1500 lives ! and we almost won overall but we saved more lives than previous years and increased our live release rate by significant amounts overall ! we do a lot of good ! and it feels great to see hard work and lots of physical and emotional effort pay off!
I feel like my overview just turned to a book. So I am going sign off for now. I will try to post very often and feel free to comment as I will always try respond!
*all donations and proceeds will be donated to my shelter*
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