cheerfulmonk.com

gocomics.com/bc

Summer (June, July, August) is half over now. How do you feel about that?

(For Catherine in New Zealand it’s winter, of course.)

July 16, 2024

It rained a bit yesterday afternoon. Enough to wet the basketball court.

But not enough to make a mud puddle.

And, this being in the arid Southwest, it was already drying an hour later.

July 15, 2024

is not necessarily the message received. Yesterday’s post is a good reminder.

Bored Panda

I just finished a memorial piece for my coworker’s cat. The recipient is an avid night sky photographer, so I hope it will suit his style nicely.
—Bored Panda

I had assumed that by linking to Bored Panda twice people would realize that I hadn’t done the cross stitch myself, but I was wrong. Not everyone understood, so next time I’ll be more explicit.

It reminds me of another miscommunication years ago at the shelter. Sally was a feisty pup and I mostly worked on having her tune into the human when she was walking on a leash. But when I came to her kennel I would first have her sit and I would give her a treat. Then Friends of the Shelter had a “mobile adoption”, where they would bring some of the pups to the front of a grocery or other store to remind people of the shelter and to show some pups ready for adoption. Sally was included and she was happy when she saw me. She came up to me, sat down and looked up expectantly. I showed her my empty hands, no treats. She started barking indignantly. In her mind the rule was (1) she sat, (2) I gave her a treat. I had reneged on my part of the deal. Fortunately she got adopted before I had to explain to her that wasn’t the way it was supposed to work.

July 14, 2024

Bored Panda

I just finished a memorial piece for my coworker’s cat. The recipient is an avid night sky photographer, so I hope it will suit his style nicely.
—Bored Panda

July 13, 2024

A woman wrote,

I had to say my final goodbye to my kitty earlier this week and took a last-minute day off during a really busy time. I was worried my coworkers would be annoyed that I was out.

When she got back to the office, they weren’t annoyed at her. Instead they gave her this card,

Bored Panda

What a great place to work.

July 12, 2024

Wikipedia

What happened was I got a phone call saying a rottweiler had come in and he was so stressed he was wagging his tail and beating it against the walls of his kennel. The tail was raw and bleeding. Could I come in and work with him? Of course.

He was easy to work with, completely cooperative, so I took him out of his kennel and did Ttouches with him for about an hour. Then I put him back in this kennel and thought I could leave for home. Umm. Not quite. I had forgotten about the tail, which left smears of blood on the floor and wall where I had taken him. It took me about an hour to clean it all up. That’s what sticks in my mind. I’m sure I went over again the next day, being more careful. I don’t even know if I went for a third day, but the tail beating stopped and he no longer acted stressed.

Who knows if Ttouch even helped? Maybe it would have happened with just time, but he not only stopped acting stressed, he got his confidence back. He showed me that himself. When I walked in that day he came to the front of the kennel and looked at me. Not a friendly, “happy to see you” look, but a “I’m an alpha male and don’t you forget it.” Yes, he was just fine. He was quickly adopted and went off to a new home. Another success story for the shelter.

July 11, 2024

When I think of Ttouch I think of Polly. She was a sweet pup and had no trouble getting adopted, but for the few days she was at the shelter she loved TTouch. I would take her out of her kennel and sit on a chair so she could bury her head in my lap. After a while I would ask her if that was about enough for now, and she would look up to show that she had heard me, then bury her head again. So we would do it for a while longer.

Some of the other volunteers would give us strange looks, and one even asked, “Are you still here?” Well, yeah. It’s like the fellow who contacted his boss and explained whey he couldn’t come to work that day. He was getting ready to come in, but he sat down for a minute. His cat came over and curled up on his lap, and, I mean, what could he do?

Polly was a love, a lot different than the rottweiler I’ll talk about tomorrow.

July 10, 2024

I find it hard to understand what this woman is saying, using closed captioning helps, but just watching it reminds me of using the TTouch techniques at the shelter. Both the pups and I got a lot out of it.

I went to the shelter twenty years ago, so I didn’t have access to videos then, but I bought the Ttouch book,

Amazon.com

It brought me, and presumably a lot of pups, many a happy moment.

July 9, 2024

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.
—Emily Dickinson

July 8, 2024

Baxter, one of the loves of my life. For a couple of years I went over to the local animal shelter almost every day to help socialize pups and help get them adopted. Baxter was a good-natured pup but, along with his sister, had always been an outside dog. His sister was quieter and less energetic, so she was adopted after a couple of days. Baxter was more of a handful, so it took a little longer.

As I said, he was good-natured, and he was also extremely food oriented. So it was fairly easy to teach him to sit and lie down, and to walk reasonably well on a leash. One day when I was bringing him back to the shelter after a walk the animal control person was feeding all of the pups. Food! So Baxter started pulling on the leash, trying to race to his food. But after a couple of steps I would stop him and say, “Sit.” He would sit, but as soon as I let him continue he would try to race again. So, another “Sit.” I’m sure he thought he would never get to eat, but we eventually made it, and we went into his kennel so he could start scarfing down his food. His leash was still on, so I reached over his bowl to unhook it so I could leave. He stopped eating and gave me the most pathetic look,

You’re not going to make me stop eating, are you?

How could you not fall in love with a pup like that?

Once he was socialized, our group, Friends of the Shelter, advertised in the Albuquerque Journal for an adopter. A woman in South Albuquerque (a two-hour drive) thought he would be an ideal companion for her pup. The woman who drove him down invited me to come along. When we went into the house Baxter was quiet and in awe. He looked around, taking it all in, and at one point he stood on his hind legs to look at what was on the counter. The woman went over and gently but firmly told him no, so he got down and continued looking. He clearly felt at home there and it was a great match. That was about 20 years ago, and it’s still one of the highlights of my life.

July 7, 2024