WEEK THREE
*Be sure to click on our links as you read to view pictures.
Tuesday, June 18
Letitia's Day:
On Tuesday I worked in cats. Morgan and I worked together in
Kitty Motel with Frank that morning. We cleaned the rooms and
did dishes as usual. We got done with all the rooms before lunch
and got to spend the most of the afternoon in Morgaine's place.
Of course most of our time was spent in the shy kitty room, but I also
spent some time in one of the other rooms making sure one of the
kitties ate all her food and none of the others stole it. After a few
hours in the shy kitty room we went to Wild Cats Village where
many of the cats are feral. We played with the ones who would come and see us.
Some of them had respiratory problems so their purr sounded a little weird.
We finished the day by going down to Happy Landings and peaking in
at Sidda through the window. She looks great. She is learning how to
climb up her cage like a monkey. I'm so glad we found her.
Morgan's Day:
Today I worked with Letitia. We spent the morning in Kitty Motel with Frank. Working in the morning means cleaning time, so that is what we did. I worked on the leukemia rooms while Tisha cleaned in Geriatrics. By the time we had cleaned up the rooms, washed the dishes and cleaning tools, folded the laundry, and played with some cats, it was time for lunch. In the afternoon we just floated around in Cats. We spent some time with our favorite kitties in the Shy Kitty room, of course, but then we went around to the different Wildcats rooms to see the cats we don't normally get to work with. These guys don't usually get a whole lot of human contact time. Quite a few of them are feral, so they are the ones who are most in need of attention. Sometimes it is very hard for staff members to find time to socialize with the cats because they are so busy getting the cleaning and feeding done, so it is very important that interns and volunteers take the time to groom and talk to the cats. We also figured out a way to see Sidda without actually going into Happy Landings/ISO � we can peek through the sliding glass doors at her! Every time she sees us she goes crazy, climbing the cage and trying to get our attention. She is already known as the kitten with the loudest cry!
Wednesday, June 19
Letitia's Day:
Today I spent the morning in the clinic. Today was a public spay and neuter day
at Best Friends so I mostly got to see animals get fixed. Since I had never
watched this kind of thing before I though it was very interesting. I learned a lot.
For instance I did not know that cats and dogs have two uteruses.
This is so they can have litters rather than one offspring at a time like humans
and most larger animals. The animals that belong at Best Friends also get
microchipped. This means that a rice size microchip is inserted into the back
of each animals neck so that if it ever shows up at a shelter it will be sent
back to Best Friends. This microchip causes the animals no problems and is inserted while the animal
is still unconscious so that they don't even know it happened. This protective
measure allows for Best Friends to be sure their animals will always find their
way back to a home forever and not be left in a shelter where they might be euthanized.
After all the spay and neuter animals were done the doctor had to fix the ear of a feral cat.
This cat had an infestation of ear mites. Ear mites irritate that ears of animals and the animals
tend to shake their heads violently. This shaking had caused fluid to collect in one of the cat's ears.
The doctor cut the ear open to relieve the pressure. The was a lot of bloody fluid in the ear as well as a clot.
After the ear was drained the unconscious cat was treated for parasites and the doctor cleaned out his ears
as much as possible. The treatment should take care of the ear mites and the only thing that will come of this problem
might be a slightly thickened ear. After the ear problem was taken care of it was lunch time.
The afternoon was quite
a bit different from my morning. I worked in dogs, but the person I was working with left early. I checked
at the Garden to see if I was needed there, but the place was full of volunteers. So I headed to cats to find Morgan.
She was in Kitty Motel again. I helped her and Frank take care of everything that had to be done before it was time to leave.
Right after work Morgan and I headed to Zion National Park again. We went to the emerald pools, but unfortunately the
waterfalls that can usually be seen there were pretty much dried up because of the drought here in Utah.
There was some water coming over the rocks, but it is not what I would call much of a water fall.
We did get to see lots of wildlife and buy some souvenirs before it got dark. I am very excited about
tomorrow because I get to work with Vicki, the dog trainer.
Morgan's Day:
I worked in Kitty Motel all day today. In the morning I cleaned rooms; in the afternoon I cleaned some more! Today was a very busy day, and everyone was running late, putting us continually behind schedule. The interns had a meeting after lunch with the Internship Coordination staff so that we could discuss possible changes to the internship program for the future (such as extending the length of internships to three or six months). This meant that I couldn't get back to Kitty Motel at the usual time. To make everything more hectic, Frank had to pick up supplies after lunch, making him late as well. On top of all of this, there were a lot of volunteers that showed up in the afternoon, which takes up a bit of staff time explaining things to them. As a result, we had a lot of cleaning to do in the afternoon, especially in the incontinent room, so there was little time for socializing. However, I think the cats may have appreciated clean surroundings, even if we didn't get to play!
Thursday, June 20
Letitia's Day:
This morning I got to work with Vicki. It was awesome. She explained
a lot about training to us and then took us to actually work with some dogs from the hill.
I worked with a dog named Duke and Morgan worked with Loopy. The first thing
that must be done in clicker trained is to help the dog form the association
between that clicker noise and something good. We used treats for this.
We would drop some treats down and click the clicker each time the dog ate a treat.
Loopy was very food motivated, but it took Duke a while to warm up to the idea.
Eventually he got it and we started asking the dog to do something for the treat.
We started with sit. We didn't really know what we were doing as it was our first
time, but it seems to be working. We are going to work with these dogs
every day right after lunch until we go home. Vicki says that soon these
dogs will do almost anything for us. After the dogs were tired of treats,
we put them back in their run and went to a room in the clinic to watch a video on
helping train dogs not to start fights with other dogs. The video was really
good. I learned so much this morning. I am very excited about working with
Duke every day and I can't wait to get home to try it on my own dogs.
After lunch Vicki had to work with other dogs so we headed to the Garden to
condition some other dogs to the clicker. I'm hoping that I'll get to work with these dogs
next week also whenever I get to work in the Garden. After we had conditioned a few more dogs we
just helped with cleaning the runs. We poop scooped and cleaned off the doggie door flaps.
By the time that was done it was time to feed again. Three dogs from the garden get fed twice a day
because they have trouble keeping weight on. Also there are certain dogs who get a treat of a little food with
medicine hidden in it. After we were done with this it was time to go home. Tomorrow I work in dogs in
the morning and go to the library in the afternoon to work on this webpage. However,
right after lunch, Morgan and I are going to work with Duke and Loopy again.
Morgan's Day:
Letitia and I worked with Vicki, the dog trainer, today. It was a blast! Before we began training we helped feed and water some dogs. After this we cut up dog food shaped like sausage into small, bite-sized treats for the dogs that we would be working with. We then decided to take some dogs from the Hill -- Loopy, who I'd played with before, and Duke. We took dogs from the same run to avoid any extra problems, such as aggression. We started out by placing treats on the ground and clicking the clickers every time they ate a treat. This was to get the clicker/treat connection going in the dogs' minds. After doing this for a bit, we started to give the dogs simple commands, such as "sit" or "come." Every time they successfully completed the task, we would click and then they would be rewarded with a treat. Loopy turned out to be an excellent learner; very food motivated and eager. However, she does get bored after a little while and wants more than anything to play ball, which she brings to you and drops at your feet if you don't get the hint quickly enough! After we had finished with this beginning training lesson, Vicki sat us down to watch a video on dog training. I learned some very valuable information. For instance, I learned that yelling at a dog after the "bad" action is over is the wrong thing to do; instead, you must praise the dog as soon as he ceases the behavior. At first glance this seems like rewarding the dog for doing something wrong, but this is not how the dog sees it. I think this information will turn out to be very useful. We both have dogs at home that we'd like to train, either to do certain things or to stop doing others, and we learned a lot about how to do that today.
Our dog page includes a few pictures of the training.
Friday, June 21
Letitia's Day:
Today I worked in dogs again, but in a new place. I was in a building called Maggie's Mercantile. I did the usual: feeding, water buckets, and socializing with the dogs. The only difference was that I could not go in some of the runs because they have red collar dogs in them. These are dogs that only the staff are allowed to be near because they have something in their past that makes them a possible danger. Most have bitten a person before or are very aggressive with other dogs. Any dog that only staff can work with is identified by its red collar. Right before lunch I took two dogs, one at a time, down to Tara's Run. This is a large building in which the dogs can have some time off leash to run around and play. I took some treats with me. Most of the time there I just spent playing with or petting the dog. After lunch Morgan and I headed up to the Hill to get Loopy and Duke. Loopy did well today, but Duke has a hard time concentrating. He is not very food motivated and is therefore not doing so well with the training. After our time was up with Loopy and Duke, we came to the library to work on this page. We plan to go to the Grand Canyon this weekend and go camping.
Morgan's Day:
This morning, for the first time, I had the chance to observe some spays and neuters in progress, for it was my day in the Clinic. I have to admit I was pretty nervous about going; if I couldn't handle it, there would be no way I could become a vet. Essentially, it was the make-you/break-you day that I had been worried about for a long time. However, I am ecstatically happy to report that I did not pass out or do any other number of embarrassing things I am prone to do. It was fascinating to watch Dr. Virg at work. The staff performed twelve spays and neuters on various puppies, kittens, and feral cats before lunch! I had no idea that this kind of surgery could be so fast, which is especially true for the males. Today was another public day, where citizens can bring their animals in to be spayed or neutered for the outstanding bargain of $25 (the cheapest I can find it at home, and this is a real deal, is about $40). In addition, a dog was brought in who had been spayed several days before. She had a bulge around her stitches that could be anything from an infection to protruding intestines. Dr. Virg put the dog out so that she could determine the source of the problem. After much examination, she discovered that thorny seeds from a species of local plant had worked their way up between the stitches to lodge themselves in the dog's tissue, causing an infection! This was an unexpected development, to say the least. Before lunch the staff decided that six puppies up in New Friends had to be spayed and neutered because a group of people were going to adopt them this weekend. The four females that were brought down remained quiet, but the two males caused such a riot that it was hard for anyone to speak over the din! Needless to say, the guys were put under first:) I also had the chance to watch Bambi put microchips between the shoulder blades of the Sanctuary Animals so that they could be traced back to Best Friends if they ever ended up in a shelter somewhere. However, I learned that unfortunately there are a lot of smaller animal shelters around the country (such as the ones in Arkansas) that are not supplied with the necessary equipment to read the microchips.
After lunch Letitia and I continued our work with Loopy and Duke. Loopy is so food motivated and such a quick learner that I suspect that she has had this kind of training before. She has no problem with the commands "come," "sit," or "shake," and she is getting pretty good at "lay down." After dog training it was time to head to the library to work on our web page some more.
Weekend, June 22-23
This weekend was pretty cool. We started out Saturday morning headed for the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Most people visit the South Rim, but the North Rim is closer to Kanab so that is where we went. We had a good time taking pictures and walking around on some of the trails there. When we left the North Rim we headed toward Lee's Ferry to see the Colorado River.
We loved it there. Is was so good to see flowing water again. We spent an hour or so there and then went toward Page to camp at Lake Powell. That was quite an adventure. I'm pretty sure we would have ended up sleeping in the car at our campsite if the nice man at the next site hadn't came over to help us put up our tent. We usually take my tent, but this time we were using a new tent that belongs to Morgan's dad. Anyway we finally got the tent up and cooked supper. After we ate we read by lantern until it was time to go to bed. The next day we packed up everything again and decided to spend the afternoon at Lee's Ferry. It was a wonderful afternoon. We played in the river and laid on a big flat rock in the sun to read or nap. Finally we had to leave. We ate at a Mexican restaurant for supper and finally went back to Harold's. It was a great way to spend out last weekend here.
Read about week four