Chaos

Today was the day Princess was going to be going home with her new Mom and the other two were going to have their first outing at Petco, looking for new homes.

The occasion called for baths for all, with Lester's very capable assistance. These are very easy puppies to bathe. When they had no hair, I think they liked being in a nice warm bath because it felt good on their skin.

Now they have fur so cold isn't really a factor, but they all just had surgery and I'm sure that a nice sitz bath felt good on their incisions.

They each stood quietly in the little tub while I scrubbed them, then took them into the bathroom to help get most of the "wet" off with a blow dryer.

When they were all clean, we had our last cuddle session. I do love cuddling those little guys. And they are always on me immediately the second I sit in the chair, so we sat there for 20 minutes or so, me and the one big puppy and the three little puppies.

Before we took off for Petco, I tried to get one last "family portrait" done, since I knew that at least Princess would not be returning. It took several shots, but I am thrilled with the result I got.

We got in the car and drove to Petco where we got the puppies ensconced in a cage. Bob and their friend Lois arrived and it was a lot more complicated than I expected...well, it was a lot more complicated than they expected.

I guess if you're not familiar with the Yolo SPCA, you expect to come to "a place," where you have an appointment, you sit down, you fill out paperwork, then you take your dog and go home. Well, not so here. For one thing, the SPCA has no facility. Every animal fostered by the SPCA is in somebody's home. They set up adoption events on Saturdays in front of Petco, which is so very supportive of the SPCA.

Cages are set up, foster families bring their dogs, the dogs go into the cage. Each cage has a volunteer who sits with the dog(s) and many of those volunteers are grammar school kids--or they might be college kids. Some of them are old timers, others are brand new and helping out for the first time.

Harry and William were a huge hit

There are people coming to view the dogs, forty bazillion little kids whining "I want a dog," as their parents try to drag them past the cages, and people (like Lois) who submitted paperwork during the week and are ready to be interviewed before taking the dog. Some of the dogs may be trying to fight with other dogs. There are usually three or four volunteers who are in charge of all this melee. Usually Ashley is there, but she was at an all-day workshop today. And in addition to everything else, today was "volunteer appreciation day" and they had ordered pizza. All volunteers, whether they were working at Petco today or not, were invited to stop by for pizza and a soft drink.

I don't know if I told Peach that things got started at noon, or if the person Lois talked to said that, but they showed up on the dot of noon--and actually adoptions aren't scheduled to begin until 1 (and the woman doing the interviewing is usually late, we were told--and didn't get there until after 1:30).

Peach had called me early in the day to say she had a hair appointment at 2 p.m. and did I think she would be home in time, or should she just not accompany Bob and Lois. I tried to tactfully explain that I didn't think there was a snowball's chance in Hell that she would be back at her house, 40 minutes away, by 2 p.m.

Bob is, by nature, an organizer and disorganization drives him crazy. I could just imagine what he was thinking watching all this chaos and waiting and waiting for someone to finally talk with Lois, and then someone else to microchip Princess, and someone else to talk with her about shots, and someone else to take her money and finalize the paperwork.

The longer it went on, the more exasperated he became, though he never said anything outright--but he sighed a lot (and I have a feeling I will hear about it later, perhaps for months to come, about how it could have been handled more efficiently!). But it DID give Princess and Lois a time to start getting to know each other. When the puppy started shivering, Lois wrapped her in the new green blanket she had bought for her.

(this is going to be one very spoiled puppy!)

There was also a volunteer photographer there, taking pictures of all the dogs who needed photos for the PetFinder web page. I went with William and Harry to watch their photo shoot.

"I'm ready for my close up, Mr. DeMille..."

Finally...finally all of Lois' official stuff was finished and she was given her booklet of Petco coupons, did some shopping for puppy chow, and the three of them -- Bob, Lois and Princess -- got in the car and headed back to Sacramento, while Walt and I came home for an hour or so before returning to Petco to see if either William or Harry had been adopted. There had been so much interest in both puppies that I was really cringing, fearing that I wouldn't have a proper "goodbye" with those babies--especially Harry, with whom I had created a special bond.

We got to Petco and a woman who had been there since Bob and Lois got to Petco was holding Harry. She had just adopted him. But I was able to sit and hold him and say my goodbyes while she was in buying dog food. She's going to be perfect for him. She's a small woman, a teacher who is about to retire and what she's looking for is a small breed, calm lap dog. Harry certainly fits THAT bill.

But Willliam didn't get adopted, so we've brought him home for another week. I may try letting him and Lester sleep together tonight; I'm not sure about that.

I guess it's time to start thinking about new puppies.....