Monday, November 23, 2009

First and last day of Volunteering at The Animal Shelter




So it was a nice thought, but in reality, I am allergic to dogs and cats. I did think of that before I started. I just imagined I would be outside in the fresh air with all these dogs running around, playing catch, petting them all, being sure to give equal amounts of attention to each one, just giving them all I had for approximately 2-3 hours max.
What REALLY happened, was this:
1) Get all the dogs outside (this is what they do first when they open) sounds easy, but not all of them want to go outside so they hide and you try to entice them with treats to get them out. This process took about 20 minutes.
2) Get all the newspaper that they lay on the bottom of each kennel, and throw it away. (most of the newspaper was wet with urine)
3) Take all the towels from each kennel that have poop on it and throw it in the washer. ( that was pretty much all the towels)
4) Scrape all the poop that DIDN'T land on the towel or newspaper off of the bottom of the kennel. (that's when things started to sink in, this is not what I had in mind)
5) Sweep all the dog and cat rooms and prepare to mop. (this is where my asthma started to kick in and my eye was beginning to itch)
6) After not really sweeping that much, I grab a mop and start mopping, 15 minutes of mopping and depriving myself of the necessary amount of oxygen, I start to plan my escape.
7) While the owner was talking on the phone I tell her Im done mopping and feel a little sick but will come back next Friday and thank her as I grab my purse and walk out the door, ( Not sure why I thanked her or why I told her I would be back next Friday)
So on the drive home, I look in the mirror, lots of red hives, eye swollen shut, hit my inhaler a few times, go home, take a Benadryl, take a bath, and try to forget the whole thing happened.
Fast forward to Sunday, In the urgent care, still cant breathe, on steroids. Poor Tom had to shell out 170$ total, and deal with my attitude (I'm a bitch when I cant breathe) So today, I can breathe much better, have 6 more days of steroids, and am already dealing with the side effects (puffy face, insomnia, sweating, increased appetite)
So now Im just going to take it easy and just love the animals in my immediate family.

2 comments:

amy said...

Poor Prednisoned out Steph! I'm sorry but I think Tom gets the Karma points for this one.

Steph said...

I think you are right, I was pretty cranky and rude.