I worked in the office the other day and it had been a while since I had sat down and answered calls all day like I used to. When this rescue started I took calls on my personal phone and worked a regular job that in itself was demanding. But I did it because the dogs needed someone to help save them. I digress, back to the story.
To be fair, I was in the office because I was training a new person. Most days now I'm stuck in my own office with bookkeepers, accountants, ordering medications, paying vet bills, taking care of grants, schedules and all the other boring stuff behind the day to day exciting stuff. This particular day started at 9am as that is when the phone line opens up and we had no one else to train a new employee that was starting. We jumped right in and immediately started with someone calling with a litter of pups that needed our help and didn't stop until we physically just walked away from the phone at the end of the day and could still hear it ringing, but we just couldn't answer any more calls.
I honestly came back to my home and I felt like I had worked a shift back in the 911 call center on a Friday night, full moon, on a Holiday weekend. Exhausted! The amount of people who needed assistance was staggering. We must have taken calls for at least 5 litters of pups of varying ages. Parvo pups needing help, appointments for adoption, dogs needing fixing (which we scheduled), soooo many dogs needed to be surrendered for various reasons, stray dogs, dogs in traps, dogs dumped, dogs at vets for emergencies, people who don't have dog food (which we helped them with) and dogs injured and roaming. The list goes on. It didn't stop all day and the amount of work and multi-tasking that is involved is on par with what I did in HPD Dispatch, minus the human/officer life or death stress part of the job. For every call we took in we had to input the info into our database, make sure we had all the info on the human as well as the animals. The info for appointments need to be entered into a calendar so the kennel staff know what is happening each day with their dogs. The amount of coordination it takes to get it all done is beyond incredible. Hats off to the employees who work in the office.
As we walked from the office thru the dog yards to the parking area I asked the trainee if she was scared off. She looked exhausted but exhilarated at the same time. She said she felt like she helped so many people that she felt really good about it.
The day does not end....now I'm back in my office going thru emails and answering messages that I had ignored all day.. There is a lot of heart and soul that each and every rescue person gives every day to do this job. It drains you mentally but fills your heart up at the same time. It would seem to the animal lovers that we take photos of dogs and scoop poop all day. But the life within the walls of a rescue facility is far, FAR more complex than that. We didn't even touch what the foster coordinator does or the Kennel Team. At the end of the long days.........you are mentally drained but your heart is full knowing you did what you could for the ones that needed us. Tomorrow is another day.
Daylynn
