On Dasher, on Prancer, on Trixie and Pixie!

Wait, that's not right, but that's what the new Dachshund roll-call sounded like this month. Dasher and Prancer are two chiweenie pups that were abandoned at the local low-cost clinic, Trixie's from Purcell (brought to us from people that found her a week ago, shortly before a trip to the animal shelter), and Pixie hails from the OKC shelter stray room, complete with kennel cough! HO HO HO! *hack*snort*

Luckily adoptions have been up this month! Since we've been set up at Petsmart every weekend in December, we're down to 27 dogs in the program (and only 4 at my house plus the 2 puppies who've been adopted but I'm babysitting until christmas).

Last weekend at Petsmart, and probably one of the last good adoption weekends for about a month - wish us luck!

Female to Male Volunteer Ratio

I've often wondered why the ratio of male-to-female volunteers in animal rescue is so low. Is this common in other volunteer opportunities? Are women more philanthropic than men, or are women just more open animal loves?

Fortunately the lack of men in an organization is often not a problem, EXCEPT during Santa Photos! Petsmart refuses to let a woman dress as Santa (though I haven't tried stuffing a Santa belly and wearing the beard). So often the women trying to raise money via Petsmart Santa Photos are forced to pull in any and every favor owed to them by coercing a male in their life to dress up as the jolly fat man. Many times once they do it once, we have to find someone else for next year. Hmph.

Adoptions and Santa Photos - Rescue never stops

This weekend was rainy and cold, not the ideal situation to draw shoppers to Petsmart. But somehow we still managed to find adoptive homes for Flash (my fawn mutt-puppy), Ben (red Altus death-row doxie), and Candy (senior long-hair).

Hopefully next are my other pups (no one wants the black ones - UGH) and Classy the 14-16 week old pibble (pit bull for those of you unfamiliar with the term).

This month brings Santa photos every Saturday and Sunday. I was hoping to have enough volunteers to take a day off, but it doesn't look like that will happen. *sigh* Luckily I have some awesome friends who will be accompanying me and handing me an Amp when the going gets rough and the yorkies get snippy.

HAPPY HOWLIDAYS!

My morning routine...

I AM SICK OF PUPPIES! Dogs in general really, but especially puppies.

Just in case I forget (which I tend to do when PetHarbor faces are staring back at me), here is what I do in the morning:

- My 3 dogs outside
- Puppies released and put into outside pen
- Momma dog and pittie pup allowed to roam
- Water and feed puppies
- Medicate puppies (i.e. pill in back of mouth, they don't like treats much yet)
- Check/fill water in q-pen and doxie pen
- My dogs back inside
- Wrap Ro's tail
- Feed my dogs & check water
- Put in Suzy's eye drops
- Momma dog and pittie pup in back yard
- Feed and water momma dog and pittie pup
- Scoop puppy x-pen in the garage
- Give Henry the doxie his pill

This is just a little ridiculous.

Sometimes there's a happy "middle"

A couple of red doxies ended up on death row in Altus - spared the needle by a mere 24 hours, a rescuer from down there contacts me about them. Everything's always last minute.

Luckily we have a Dachshund meetup group set up by one of our wonderful donors, so I put the word out. One blind senior boy, one scared younger boy. No idea if they're neutered, vaccinated, or heartworm positive.

Thankfully I had a few people contact me, including one fabulous foster home who offered to be the "emergency backup." One said they would only be temporary (a week or two) and another was interested in adopting (let's hope they're willing to help out with medical expenses).

So Chuck the Beagle rescuer bring them to Norman, foster home meets me in Norman to pick them up, and Old Man saw the vet today. Fortunately he's heartworm negative, unfortunately he's erlichia positive (30 day dose of antibiotics should take care if it though). For some reason neither a fecal nor his shots were done. Guess I'll figure that out later.