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I love my job very much. Sometimes, I wonder what the hell is wrong with me that I do.
HAY!
In the kennel, we use hay to keep our doggies warm. They all have their own little barrell filled with nice, dry hay. We check these barrells as often as we can and change the hay when it gets wet. The problem is sometimes we do not have the chance to check for a day or two when it is super busy (like a weekend when we have all our sled tours fully booked). Also, some of our workers are not too fond of the dogs (why they work with them is beyond me) and just don't care to deal with the pee hay.
So...we did an ubder clean up this week. This meant I was down on my knees on the kennel floor (fairly gross, but at least cleaned often) with my entire upper torso in the dogs' barrells pulling out the semi-frozen pee-tainted hay with my hands. *shudder* The smell is horrific...I think my work gloves are ruined. My co-workers and I were very disappointed no one had a camera because seeings someone's butt sticking out of the doggie barrels was pretty funny.
The Scoop
One of the main jobs at the kennel is scooping up poop. With 135 dogs, that is a lot of poop. A co-worker and I had a rather surreal moment when he remarked to me that it was excellent poo-scooping conditions that day. I agreed, and we discussed ideal scooping conditions for a while. It all has to doo with temperature, humidity, the texture of...well. No need to go too far into it. I have become rather desensitized really. I imagine it is like doctors who can discuss surgery over lunch.
And yours dosen't?
A customer asked me today what we feed our dogs. I explained the mix of foods we use and our reasoning behind it. She replied that whatever it was, it made the dog's poop stink. Well lady...it *is* poop.
You're trying to hard
We have a few dogs who are really tiny but think they are huge. This means that they try to pull harder than they should when we put them on a sled. This leads to a fairly common injury in sled dogs where they rupture blood vessels in their butt. We put them on rest for a few days and they recover nicely. The problem is that when they get the ruptures in means that they get really bad, bloody diarhea. The worst culprit is an adorable little girl named French. Cleaning her up is terrible. It would not be so bad if she did not look so proud of herself.
Where?
One of our dogs got a mysterious cut on her bumm. To help it heal we had to apply polysporin to it twice daily. It took two of us...one to hold the dog while the other smeared the cream under her tail. Unfortunately she has another mysterious wound now. (Seriously, no one can figure out where they come from, they are not fighting type cuts or anything we recognize) so it is time for her to go see the vet to figure out what is up.
Blood
The weather has been warming up so the dogs are in a foul mood. This means they fight more. It is horrible. The past few days I have ended up liberally splashed in blood from doggy first aid. I am happy to report no real injuries, the dogs just tend to bleed heavily from even a small cut. The bloodstains on my clothes are fun to explain.
On the plus side, lots of snow on the way, and the clients have all been very nice so far.
HAY!
In the kennel, we use hay to keep our doggies warm. They all have their own little barrell filled with nice, dry hay. We check these barrells as often as we can and change the hay when it gets wet. The problem is sometimes we do not have the chance to check for a day or two when it is super busy (like a weekend when we have all our sled tours fully booked). Also, some of our workers are not too fond of the dogs (why they work with them is beyond me) and just don't care to deal with the pee hay.
So...we did an ubder clean up this week. This meant I was down on my knees on the kennel floor (fairly gross, but at least cleaned often) with my entire upper torso in the dogs' barrells pulling out the semi-frozen pee-tainted hay with my hands. *shudder* The smell is horrific...I think my work gloves are ruined. My co-workers and I were very disappointed no one had a camera because seeings someone's butt sticking out of the doggie barrels was pretty funny.
The Scoop
One of the main jobs at the kennel is scooping up poop. With 135 dogs, that is a lot of poop. A co-worker and I had a rather surreal moment when he remarked to me that it was excellent poo-scooping conditions that day. I agreed, and we discussed ideal scooping conditions for a while. It all has to doo with temperature, humidity, the texture of...well. No need to go too far into it. I have become rather desensitized really. I imagine it is like doctors who can discuss surgery over lunch.
And yours dosen't?
A customer asked me today what we feed our dogs. I explained the mix of foods we use and our reasoning behind it. She replied that whatever it was, it made the dog's poop stink. Well lady...it *is* poop.
You're trying to hard
We have a few dogs who are really tiny but think they are huge. This means that they try to pull harder than they should when we put them on a sled. This leads to a fairly common injury in sled dogs where they rupture blood vessels in their butt. We put them on rest for a few days and they recover nicely. The problem is that when they get the ruptures in means that they get really bad, bloody diarhea. The worst culprit is an adorable little girl named French. Cleaning her up is terrible. It would not be so bad if she did not look so proud of herself.
Where?
One of our dogs got a mysterious cut on her bumm. To help it heal we had to apply polysporin to it twice daily. It took two of us...one to hold the dog while the other smeared the cream under her tail. Unfortunately she has another mysterious wound now. (Seriously, no one can figure out where they come from, they are not fighting type cuts or anything we recognize) so it is time for her to go see the vet to figure out what is up.
Blood
The weather has been warming up so the dogs are in a foul mood. This means they fight more. It is horrible. The past few days I have ended up liberally splashed in blood from doggy first aid. I am happy to report no real injuries, the dogs just tend to bleed heavily from even a small cut. The bloodstains on my clothes are fun to explain.
On the plus side, lots of snow on the way, and the clients have all been very nice so far.
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