I have been waiting for the “perfect” time to do my “perfect” first blog post. I have been putting it off for a week now because I kept thinking the first post must be “perfect”. Silly me…I decided to throw that thinking out and just do it!
So here I go – it is 10:30pm and I just got back from the shelter and clinic I figure why don’t I talk about my night and some of our staff. Hope that is ok with you! 🙂
We are gearing up for the Chico Chamber of Commerce Ribbon cutting tomorrow night to celebrate the opening of the new Spay & Neuter Clinic and Cat Adoption Center. We still have to get all the food and a few miscellaneous items, but we are almost ready. I spent the majority of the night with the volunteer marketing committee decorating the garage at the clinic so that it looks nice for our visitors tomorrow. When I was there, I got a chance to spend about 20 minutes with the cats and kittens up for adoption. It always feels great when you can take a few minutes to breathe and be with the animals you work hard to save every day.
When I was about to leave at around 8:45…Dustin (one of our dedicated staff members who works in our fundraising department) and I realized that we didn’t have a key to lock up the clinic OOPS, so we called on Shannon (another dedicated staff member) who works weekday adoptions and weekday morning transport – she has a key! She said she “would be happy to come and lock up for us”. She apparently was headed to the clinic anyway to pull food for an kitten that was going for spay/neuter in the morning. So I am sitting there thinking “WOW what dedicated staff we have…she is going to come back off the clock to pull food so an animal can go for spay and neuter in the morning“. “How lucky are we to have this kind of staff member?”
After the lock up, I left Dustin working back at the admin office – he was working on the artwork for our Holiday fundraising campaign. I told him to “go home” as I left, but he insisted that he still had too much to do. (Dustin typically puts in a 70-80 hr week – I know this because I work closely with him and work many of those wee hours with him via phone and internet – he is an amazing dedicated staff member.)
I know that these are only two examples of staff working extra hard and there are so many others – I hope to tell more about them as I post more on this blog.
Anyway – I thought this was a “perfect” post for my first blog entry because one of the things we have always struggled with is telling our public how hard we all work, and truly what it takes to run a shelter and get our animals adopted. It really does take that extra “off the clock” time and lots of staff and volunteers to get it all done.
I am very PROUD to be a part of this organization and I am very proud of our staff….how hard they work and their dedication to their job – on or off the clock. I guess what drives them is the very same thing that drives me to do what I do for the shelter; when I am at the shelter and I watch someone leave with their new best friend – it makes the early mornings, late nights and the occasional heartache all go away. I feel lucky to be a part of making that connection happen for that person and that animal.
So for my first post – I want to thank the staff and let them know I see how hard they work, I know the effort they put in and what they deal with. I am there with you and I appreciate what you do. Thank you for being there for the animals and thank you for being there for BHS – we could not do it without you!
xoxo
Kristen
P.S. Trent – you rock!!!