Adrenaline!!!!
They begged me to come in today but I couldn't swing it because of all the animals I'm watching. And that's cool because I need a day off after all the
drama and
trauma of yesterday.
I'm probably not supposed to publicly publish behind-the-scenes stuff about our business, but it's a free country and this is my blog and i want to write about it... And you guys won't tell, right? ;)
THURSDAY 3 P.M. - A sweet dog was hurt pretty badly and it was extremely stressful. It was a freak accident. Another dog somehow got his collar caught on the crate she was in (at this point i am seeing this and running across the room toward him to free him and yelling for the girl who was closer to help). The dog freaked and yanked so hard he tore the crate apart. It collapsed around the other dog and she tried to jump out of the way and got her foot stuck through the bars and got a metal hook caught in her inner thigh/stomach area. She was flopping and screaming. Another girl got to her before me and restrained her, pinning her to the floor so she wouldn't make it worse by thrashing around. The dog's screams got all the other dogs riled up and they came swarming over to jump into the excitement (now i know where the term 'dog pile' comes from). I pushed and held them back and then with mock enthusiasm convinced most of them to run to the other side of the room with me and out the door to go outside (not an easy task with 30-plus big excited dogs), clearing out the room so all the people who had rushed in could tend to the hurt dog. My manager get her foot loose and then removed the offending piece of crate. One of my co-workers was about to take her to the vet next-door when the dog's owner happened to arrive to pick her up. So she was the one to take her to the vet. They patched her up and ordered rest. Poor doggie.
THURSDAY 4:30 P.M. - A dog gets his mouth stuck in another dog's collar. Both dogs freak out and scream and start writhing around and yanking backwards. My heart rate goes way up as I run to them because this happened a few months ago and was very scary when I couldn't get the collar loose for what felt like an eternity. Fortunately, they were able to free themselves just as I reached them.
THURSDAY 6:20 P.M. - I just happen to be heading into the bathroom at the exact moment that an owner runs into the lobby and cries out that sasha (one of her dogs) ran away from her and she can't catch her. My manager was the only employee in the lobby; I was further away. The dog-owner ran back out, my manager ran out, and I ran across the training room, through the lobby and out. A man I did not recognize (I know most of our customers) followed me out of the lobby. I was about to tell him not to 'help,' but since he wasn't running (chasing a scared dog makes it run), i let him follow me, thinking we might be able to use an extra body to form a visual blockade or an extra pair of arms to tackle her. When my manager saw him approach she was upset and told him he was the one who spooked her and he had to go away. Sasha was way down the parking lot, standing and looking at us, unsure of her next move. She didn't want to come back but she wasn't sure where to go. We called her. She bolted off sideways and up a grass hill toward the next parking lot and building, which was better than continuing to run down our lot toward the street. It was super frightening to see her running fast and scared and irrationally. We took the opportunity while she was in motion to run further down our parking lot to get closer to being able to get between her and the street. She stopped again and looked at us and we stopped and called her. Another dog's owner had been in the lobby and had gotten in his SUV and carefully drove past us and pulled sideways across the lot ahead of us to form a partial road block. I edged my way closer to the truck and since i wasn't moving toward Sasha, that didn't spook her. When she decided to bolt again, she tried to get past me and the truck. I ran as fast as i could toward the truck, quickly closing the gap she was trying to run through. I grabbed as much of her skin and hair as i could clench my fists around and held on tight. Crisis over.
