Week 3, Day 5: Puppies, kittens, and a baby stroller

If you read yesterday's post, you know I was feeling really sick most of the day. I got a really good night's sleep, but still didn't wake up feeling well. I nearly called in sick today, but decided to at least give it a shot and I'm really glad I did. It turned out to be a day that didn't require much exertion, but was rewarding and full of adorable baby animals!

My morning shift was in Puppy Pre-School. I got to do another puppy socialization class and this time I worked with a 10-week old puppy named Pebbles. He's a sharpai/pug. He's pretty much the cutest thing ever and is absolutely covered in wrinkles. Unfortunately, he's a product of a puppy mill momma, and the breeding was terrible. All the puppies from the litter, and the mom herself, have health problems or will get them down the road. Best Friends had to make sure the forever families knew that they weren't just getting an adorable puppy, but one who might need expensive surgeries down the line. Here's Pebbles:

After puppy class, I helped socialize some of the younger puppies with older dogs for the first time. These puppies are raised so well at the sanctuary! They're exposed to so many situations. One of the puppies, Tweety, decided to take refuge in my lap for a bit during his playtime with the big dogs:

During my shift, I also took a dog out to the puppy dog park, socialized a few dogs, did some doggie laundry, and held puppies while they got their rabies shots. 

After lunch, I worked in CatWorld Headquarters. I was excited for this shift because I knew I would meet Dr. Frank, who is an amazing animal behaviorist. I had been in e-mail contact with him to see if I could help him with any of his research, and he spent some time with me today talking about the research and what I could do to help. I'm really excited to have that as a project. Dr. Frank is so smart and highly regarded, and it was a privilege to get to see him at work with some of the cats. One thing we did together was take cats on walks in a baby stroller! It is a great way for cats to get out if they can't be outside much and don't do well on walks. Here I am walking a sweetheart named Zeb:

The rest of my afternoon was spent socializing with cats who need a little extra help. Sometimes they're very shy, other times they are scared of humans and tend to lash out by swatting at caregivers. One cat would hardly come out of his little soft enclosure in his run, but some baby food on my finger got him to come to me eventually, even if only for a minute. In one of the runs, there were three cats: two kittens and an older cat. The older cat can't be touched because he will swat with claws. He's just too scared right now. But the caregiver had me go in there anyway and play with the two friendly kittens with the older cat watching so that he could see that people are good and don't hurt cats. It was really fun to play with the kittens; I couldn't tell the two apart for the life of me, but here's one of them:

I finished up my shift doing some cat laundry, and then headed over to my intern meeting. You know you work at Best Friends when you head to a meeting with cat poop on your pants and it's no big deal.

I'm really glad the weekend is here so that, depending on how I feel, I can either explore and do some more hiking, or rest and relax. I'm hoping for a little of both!