Another day at the office

It's been a long week. Our staff of five was down to three, which is a pretty big downsize. I've worked every day this week; I haven't had a single day off.

This day has been especially crazy; here's a bit of what happened today:

• One of our wonderful fosters brought in her days old foster kitten to "go to sleep."
• Cinderooni escaped and the rescue coordinator and I chased her through the woods around to the back of the building and had to check her for cat debris.
• A dog that had been hit by a car was reclaimed by the owner's brother, except he changed his mind when he went around back to pick up the dog, so we had to do some legal paperwork magic to get that junk straight in the computer. They have until 6 PM tomorrow to reclaim him and take him to the vet. The owner has a history with animal control.
• A dog that was adopted today after having neuter surgery was brought in hours later for biting a child, then the adopter tried to yell, "Just kidding!" once it sank in that the dog would not be an adoption candidate if she left him with us, after she got a refund, after she signed the dog over and he went into quarantine. Raleigh animal control basically said, "Nope, not dealing with this. Good luck guys." and I stayed until 7:15 sorting it out. I was at work for 11 hours. And I have to follow up tomorrow.
• The owners of a different dog that had been hit by a car came in looking for him. They had signed him over to animal control instead of taking him to the vet, and now they wanted him back after getting "free" vet care. They couldn't locate the dog, who was in vet treatment. We didn't know until hours later that it was the dog they were searching for.
• I was berated by an old woman whose sister had died. The deceased had adopted a cat from us and the surviving sister wanted the cat, but she was in New Jersey and wanted us to provide a health certificate so the cat could travel out of the state and also provide the transport. I told her that we could not do either of those things and suggested she contact local rescues to help her. She did not like that answer and proceeded to personally insult me, then refuse to give me her name, refuse to take the phone number of my supervisor, who she requested to speak with but who was not in the office today, then flat out refused to speak with me. She hung up while holding for my coworker, who had stepped out for a moment.
• A woman came to reclaim her dog, who was being kept by her brother but was brought in by the brother's landlord, without warning. The brother was late paying rent, but had a written agreement to pay a few days late, plus late fees. Despite agreeing, the landlord had changed the locks without warning and brought the dog to the shelter, claiming that his tenants had been gone for weeks and had abandoned the dog with no food. Turns out, the couple had only lived there for one month and had no idea they were being evicted, since they had a written agreement to pay late. They'll be going to court.
• Quite a few people turned in puppies today-- not allowed to have pets, moving, too much energy, not enough space, etc etc. One got irate because I explained that we wouldn't call if her puppy was going to be put down. "The only way to ensure the safety of your puppy is to not leave her here." She left the puppy. The puppy tried to bite everyone on intake, before even starting the vaccination process. I did call the owner and informed her that she had until 6 PM to take her puppy home (at no charge) or she would be euthanized. "Okay." She didn't come back.
• Another adopter returned a puppy after one month because he kept "biting" the adopter's little brother. It was gently explained that there is a difference between aggressive biting and being mouthy during play, and that if "bite" or "aggressive" were written on the surrender form, the 3 month old puppy would likely be euthanized because we cannot place pets known to be biters up for adoption. 10 minutes later, the surrender form was turned in, with the box checked next to "Has bitten in the last 10 days." After further clarification, he redid the form.
• A litter of five fat, healthy kittens were brought in by animal control. Honey had a great time licking the kittens, who made it into foster or rescue.

Many of those scenarios played out simultaneously. I need a break.