Zoinks

I know many of you may find me crazy but I don't feel I do enough for animals, particularly those that are currently homeless.  That being said, I am volunteering three hours once a week to one of the shelters near me.  The only reason I haven't volunteered at this shelter before was, well, I was pissed at how many hoops I had to jump through to adopt a dog from them.  I knew the dog was special and it turns out, I was right.  The family that adopted her had a fire in their house, and that same dog is the one that woke them up and alerted them to it.  For that, I am glad I backed out of the adoption.  If I hadn't, who knows what would have happened to them.  I believe this to be the best shelter in our area.  They do everything and I mean everything in their power to take care of the animals that come in to them.  They currently have minimum six month waiting list to get your dog into them, as people know their dogs will be well taken care of and receive good homes.  If a dog comes to them and has an illness or a genetic problem, they fix it unless it absolutely can't be fixed.  They use water therapy, treadmills, you name it.  Therefore, I think I can learn a little as well as help out.  I have only volunteered for one other shelter in the past year and that was just for a bake sale.  I watch too much animal planet.  Every time I watch one of the animal cops shows, I feel the need to run out and save everything, at least this way I'll feel like I'm still making a difference, even if I can't take anymore animals in.  (and I'm completely at my limit now, the ferrets were the last of my animals for a while)  Besides, while I stay at home and play mommy, I still need to keep up with shelters/vets to put on my resume for when I'm done having kids and they're all in at least elementary school.  It's hard to get into a vet's office if you haven't had any prior experience for ten years, at least none that can be accounted for. 

No sooner did I finish my application to volunteer, than did Jasmine say 'Mommy, Jasmine peed.'  She had a diaper on but I knew if she was telling me, then I was not about to be a happy mommy.  She had managed to open the side of her diaper and then proceed to pee on my bed, inchesfrom my pillow.  Did I mention that all my sheets are in the dirty clothes?  So at 4am I was washing my whole three sheets and any blankets that were dirty, as well as flipping my mattress.  While I was filling up the washer, I let the dogs go out.  Cash, the doberman is still only allowed outside on a tie out and now must wear a choker (only when he goes out, I take it off when he comes in) as he had figured out how to slip out of his collar.  When I went to let everyone back inside, my 80lb dog looked at me from under the awning and refused to move.  He thinks he'll melt or maybe be swallowed whole by the lake outside my door.  I ended up going out in the pouring rain to try and drag him in the house, no such luck.  I tried treats, again, he wouldn't budge.  Finally, I got him riled up and ready to play, grab his collar, got a running start so he wouldn't have time to stop when we got to the large "puddle" and got him to the backdoor.  I couldn't be mad at him because while I was out there, he was cowering as if it really would kill him to cross that water.  Not that I was happy to be out in the pouring rain in my underwear at 4 in the morning but at least it was in the fifties and not the teens. 

On another note, am I the only aol blogger out there that is really annoyed with the lack of customizing options that we have?  Would it kill them to give us as many font/color options as we have in our email?  I don't know about you all but I get rather bored with the 70 or so bland colors we have to choose from. (half of which aren't even readable once on a white background)  I'd also like to see some more options on the layout of our journals as well as the colors that go along with those layouts.  I don't want to do hours of research to figure out how to do the stuff myself, that's what I pay them for.