A Quick Hello and Scavenger Hunt Linky Reminder

Hi all!!!

I've been super busy here with the end of our summer break and beginning of the school year for me and for my daughter Clara. I wanted to pop in to remind everyone, though, that I will be hosting the end of the August linky for the 2014 Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt this weekend (I'll put it up to start Friday night, August 29, California time). Please check in with your latest finds. I've really enjoyed seeing what everyone has been up to on instagram and facebook. I apologize for not getting around to my feedly reader to catch up on blog posts, but, as I said, I've been super busy!

Doing what?

Well, helping Clara finish her summer reading for school:

Taking her shopping and then sending her off for her first day of her junior year. She looks very grown up for 16, doesn't she?

We've also been spending time volunteering at Guide Dogs for the Blind in San Rafeal.  It will be our regular Sunday volunteer gig this year.

We're working in the boarding/neo natal kennels. That's Clara doing health checks, which includes cleaning ears and brushing teeth. We also give baths, clean kennels and feed the dogs. We don't work with the puppies, but do get to see them occasionally:

And that's your dose of cute for today!
Hope to see you back this weekend for the linky.

ZIZO #27: Rubber Chicken!

Aria can be tough on toys, so it's nice when we find one that will last. She loves her rubber chicken! Sharing with Helena's Zoom in Zoom Out meme  and proud of myself for keeping up for the whole year so far! Also happy to rediscover snapseed for editing photos on my iphone. Instagram changed their processing steps and confused me (where did the frames go?), so I decided to retry snapseed, and I sure do love it!
Also, thanks to those of you who linked up to the June linky for the 2014 Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt or stopped by to see what everyone was up to. The linky is here and will be open for the rest of the summer. There will be another linky at the end of July. 

A Peek Inside the Kitten Nursery

Clara and I hustle up the stairs at the Peninsula Humane Society to the second floor Kitten Nursery for our 5:00 p.m. dinner shift. Seven years ago, the PHS started this all-volunteer effort as a way to save the hundred-plus kittens between 2 and 6 weeks that would arrive at the shelter without a mom during "kitten season" (spring - early fall). Without special feeding arrangements and veterinary care, these kittens would surely perish. 

We head into the front room to check the boards and see what needs to be done. There are four cages  nurseries with a litter of kittens in each nursery that need tending. There's also a note on the board "There are 16 kittens in the back nursery!"  Clara and I decide to split up. She'll work with the volunteers up front, and I head into the back to help the volunteer there.
I walk into the back nursery, and the kittens are hungry! I am greeted by their crying chorus: "mew, mew, mew!" Some are climbing up their front doors. Time to get to work. Nursery 1 has four kittens. Each one needs to be weighed, fed and have its paper work updated. Most of the kittens need to be fed with a syringe. 

I grab a kitten by the scruff of its neck, settle him on his back feet, wiggle the syringe into the corner of his mouth, and say some encouraging words while I squirt the food in. I'm learning how much each kitten can eat and how fast. Inevitably some ends up on their face, on the towel, on the outside of the syringe and on me. It's a messy process. But very fulfilling! 

Before we put the kittens back, we quickly check their nursery, making sure the towels and litter box are clean. We leave some food because the goal is to get them to eat on their own. We shape a towel into a donut and place it onto the warm spot created by the heating pad under the towels. The kittens, with full tummies, are all warm and sleepy. The picture of contentment; no mewling now.

After a very busy three hour shift, we mop the floors and make sure everything looks good. I snap a quick picture from the public viewing area of the front nursery. Tomorrow morning a new shift of volunteers will arrive for the morning feeding. I hope they all got a good night's sleep!

Thinking about dogs . . .

The other day, I was watching The Dog Whisperer . The sound of the dogs being trained by Cesar Millan attracted Aria's attention, and she sat up to watch the show with me. In fact, Aria likes to watch TV, in general, as long as there are dogs on (like the National Dog Show).

Our dogs, Aria and Gypsy, are a surprisingly big and happy part of our lives. They are constantly underfoot, greeting us when we return home and hanging out with us while we work. 
I've been thinking about dogs a lot lately.  Deb wrote recently about her Lucky dog, and Amy's family is mourning the too-short time spent with her pup.  For most of our kids' lives, we had a beagle terrier mix named Buster. When he passed away, it was hard. We eventually held a ceremony to say good-bye to him and that did make everything easier. I blogged about it here and made this scrapbook page.

And now we share our lives with two more dogs. Both of them rescued - one from a shelter in Southern California and one of them from the local humane society where Clara and I volunteer. They bring so much comfort and joy to our lives that I often reflect on the question "Who rescued who?"

If you plan to add a furry friend to your family, please consider visiting your local animal shelter. There are so many awesome dogs, cats, bunnies, birds, turtles, lizards and more looking for a new home. If you already share your life with an animal, I'd love to hear about it in the comments today.