The Human Assistant says this is routine stuff. It won't be interesting to people who do animal adoptions.
But it's too early for him to go to bed. So I want to tell about
Sequoia's week. Thursday was exciting, anyway!
Monday the Human Assistant went to the
Maxfund shelter. He found out two things and figured out a third.
➀ Ringo's new dad had tried to have him meet Sequoia. Someone at the shelter refused because "Ringo doesn't get along with other dogs." So no meet 'n' greet with Sequoia. So no adopting Sequoia.
In fact, no adopting of
any MaxFund dog!
H.A. said a bad word. It was something like
horse hockey but different. He pointed out that
I had spent time with Ringo!
➁ There were two applications on Sequoia from other people. Both had 4-foot fences. MaxFund's adoption people had picked up on this. But they hadn't ruled them out completely.
One had said they would always supervise Sequoia while she was in the yard. Could they do that however many times a day for 15 or more years? Besides, H.A. said, they'd be supervising her going right over the fence because she's young and faster than they are.
They wanted a dog to guard the house while they were away. One that was loyal and fun to walk.
::groan::
The other guy is moving someplace that has a 4-foot fence. But he'll extend it to 6 feet. (When?) No mention of dig-proofing the fence. And this will be his first dog.
➂ H.A. figured out that the adoption people
still hadn't read the info he gave them about Siberian Huskies. Not the first time, when he gave it to one person who says she passed it around. Not the second time, when he left it right on the front desk in the office and also with the director.
Tuesday he printed out more copies. He put one in each application file. And he put the rest in Sequoia's file for the next people who are interested in her.
And he put a note on the one application that said ➊ we're not guard dogs; ➋ we're not loyal (
::hmph::); and ➌ we're more challenging to walk than fun.
Wednesday he went back. He realized he hadn't come right out and
said, don't adopt to these people. Call Ringo's dad.
When he got there he saw a man and a woman with
an adult polar bear and small cub! Except that they were Siberian Huskies. They all had taken Sequoia for a walk. And they'd be taking her over the weekend to get a better idea of how everydoggy got along.
The bear turned out to be
Sakic. A big 4-year-old boy that was
down to 110 pounds since he started thyroid supplements.
(H.A. thinks the other one might have been
Avalanche. He doesn't remember. But she's a small, senior girl.)
Sakic knows he's top dawg. They said he had to tell Sequoia about it a few times. H.A. told them he thought she was acting out puppy stuff when I spent time with her. But they were sure that they saw her testing rank.
Anyway. They know lots about Sibes. Didn't feel they had to read H.A.'s sheet. Didn't sound like they knew anything about online resources. Didn't sound like they would look into them, either. Well, no huge deal.
Thursday MaxFund called H.A.'s cell phone while he was in a dead zone. An hour and a half later he got their voice mail: Should they approve the bear family?
H.A. listened to the voicemail. Didn't recognize the number. Erased the voicemail. Forgot the number. Decided he didn't want to do laundry and pay bills. Went to MaxFund.
He was confused. The bears were okayed to take Sequoia before their application was approved?
The lady at MaxFund harassed him about not returning her call. (She was teasing.) Then she said that the
other lady at MaxFund had said that
he had said he liked the family. So they had approved the application. They had called the family. The family said, oh, we've changed our mind.
Sequoia wouldn't be good with our cats.
MaxFund people were left scratching their heads. But the H.A. says they've stopped trying to figure people out. Stuff like this just happens. Sometimes people are even telling the truth about it.
Then he finds out that Sequoia was on TV earlier in the day. And on her way back to the vehicle ... she
escaped!
The TV station put out an alert. She was found. H.A. didn't get more details like how long it took and how far away she was. He started the day tired and he was still tired. Too much excitement.
MaxFund had denied the applicants that wanted a loyal, fun-to-walk guard dog. The other guy had called and also
promised Sequoia would be supervised while outside until the fence was extended.
MaxFund put a note on their file:
Ed! Help!
He wrote back saying to mention dig-proofing. And that 6-foot fences aren't guarantees. Suggest they get an adult dog when the fence is ready. And the guy
can make it work if he learns, learns, learns.
For some reason he thought he'd had enough thinking about Sibes for the day. Or for his time at the shelter, anyway.
So he sat in Caesers kennel for a while and gave him a Milk-Bone. Caeser didn't just give him a kiss, he cleaned mr_ed's face! Which it probably needed.
Okay. He was right. This did take longer to tell than I thought. But Sequoia's had such an exciting week! I can't wait to hear about what happens on Friday!
December 7th, 1941 -
a date which will live in infamy
♫♪♬
... And we promise, that we'll remember
The Seventh of December;
We're the Seabees of the Navy;
Bees of the Seven Seas!
Remember Pearl Harbor!
mr_ed's dad (also Mister Ed) left his Swedish-immigrant father's construction business to go to war as one of the
Fighting Seabees as
portrayed by
John Wayne. He led a crew of heavy-equipment operators (running bulldozers and the like) ... came home with a bullet hole in his cap (that he wasn't wearing when it was shot) ... and supervised construction work for thirty-some years.
ⓣⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ
-- dog photos by Nicole Howard
