Step 7: Shadow

I love any dog named Shadow because of my very first puppy.

Ok, not a puppy in this picture, but her and I did grow up together, and she was the best dog that I ever had. I actually named her Shadow (well, technically I guess Santa named her Shadow) because of my favorite movie when I was five years old - Homeward Bound. There was an awesome old golden retriever who's name was Shadow, and I really wanted my own Shadow because of that movie.

Now, I didn't get a golden retriever, but that turned out alright because let's be honest - it makes more sense to name a black animal Shadow than it does a golden animal. BUT I did meet an old golden retriever named Shadow at work the other day, and I felt like my life was complete. If only there had been a pit bull named Chance there too... and somehow a cat named Sassy... :3

Step 6: Love the Names of Dogs

As any dog lover knows (or any animal lover, for that matter), each dog has his or her own unique personality. And let me tell you, working with a bunch of different dogs 30 hours a week, I come across some really interesting characters.

My favorites, though, are the ones with names that I like. And I like each name because it reminds me of someone from my life. Granted... most of those someones are from television shows or movies... but it's still fun to picture them as dogs!!!

For example:

• Every time I called across the room to Jack the golden retriever, I kept catching myself sounding like Jack Frost's little sister from the movie Rise of the Guardians.
• I say Toby's name the same way they say his name in The Great Mouse Detective. Too bad my Toby's a golden retriever and not a basset hound.
•  Max the German Shepard Mix is just as spastic as the boy in Parenthood.
• I keep calling Brunie the German Shepard either Bruno or Brony. She is neither an awesome singer nor a crazed My Little Pony fan-boy.
• I can never play Kingdom Hearts again without picturing Axel as a little corgi with different colored eyes.
• And Kevin. This one's legitly based on one of my friends. Kevin is no longer my roommate's sexy-mexy, but rather a gigantic black Newfoundland.

I can't wait to see how many more friends become dogs. :)

Step 5: Get a Job Working with Dogs

My first day on the job, Maxward the German Shepard was already there by the time I clocked in (at seven in the morning, I might add). And there was diarrhea all over the floor.

I'm not going to lie - my first day working in dog daycare was pretty rough, but it actually had nothing to do with cleaning up after all the dogs (I've got pets of my own, so I'm used to it). It was more that I was anxiously bored.

First off, I'd never done anything like this before. Sure, I've watched wolves, but with the wolves I knew their fights were about dominance and they wouldn't actually hurt one another. And if things did get a little rough, I knew the wolves could handle it. Dogs aren't like that, and I don't know these dogs well enough yet to be able to tell when they're legitimately fighting too hard or getting too worked up and are about to snap at another dog. So I hover.

But there's only so much hovering you can do (intermixed with some pee clean-up here and there) before you get bored. I wanted so badly to turn my attention to something else instead of just standing there and watching everything (because the previous jobs I've had, you didn't just stand there - you were always doing different things), but I was afraid to. And, technically, that's my job to stand there - I watch the room and the dogs and make sure that everything and everyone is friendly and clean.

But that first day I forgot about the best part of working with dogs - I'm working with dogs! I shouldn't just be hovering over them - I should be interacting with them. My second two days went a lot smoother once I adjusted my mindset about the job and started playing with the fuzzy little guys (well, I guess I shouldn't say "little," because there are some huge dogs who come to daycare!). And now me and Maxward are pretty good buds. ;)

Step 4: Write a Blog with a Kitten in Your Lap

My sister's kitten, Radon (who I mentioned in Step 2), is staying at my house for a little while, and as I typed the post on my main page (Step 19: Feel Like a True Professional) he fell asleep on a pillow in my lap with his head tucked into the crook of my left arm. Good thing it wasn't my right because writing these blogs have been hard enough (but well worth it ^-^)

Step 3: Donate Old Towels to the Humane Society (Or at Least Try)

My mom and I have a BUNCH of old towels that we don't use anymore, and we thought it might be nice to donate them to the humane society. Our own cats thought differently.

Peri's the little black baby of the bunch, and he initiated the basket take-over. Arlo (the grey tabby) and Chrissy (the grey calico) followed Peri's lead, and by the time we were ready to take the basket my baby Olivar (the orange tabby) was all comfy cozy. We managed to slip a few towels out from under him and decided to leave the rest as a donation to our crazy cat ladies fund. :3

Step 2: Take Your Sister's Kitten to the Vet

Don't worry, Atisha the dog isn't hurting Raydon the kitten - they love to play with each other! Sometimes, the kitten will actually wear-out this pup, and that's saying something for Atisha!

Just a little background on Raydon - he's one of the rescued kittens that I talked about on my main blog site way back in May. Yup, my sister was a foster failure. My mom and I have already been foster failures once, so we couldn't afford to be foster failures again, but my sister had been interested in getting a kitten for some time now, and of the five kittens that stayed at her house she grew a deep attachment to Raydon, the smallest and sickest of the bunch.

Now he's one of the biggest and pretty healthy (though he still has goopy eyes), and it's time for his vaccinations! We took him to this awesome veterinary clinic, West Michigan Street Veterinary Clinic. The prices are amazing (only $25 for the office visit, and this fee's waved if you're just getting vaccinations like Raydon was), the staff is nice, and the vet is a really knowledgeable man. This is actually the same clinic that we brought the original three litters to, and they've been great ever since that first visit. I highly recommend taking your pets to this clinic.

Oh, and if you're wondering what happened to the rest of the kittens and the two mamas that we had - the five older kittens (Raydon included) have all found their forever homes, the two other litters went to the humane society after they started looking a little healthier, and one of the moms has already been adopted (the other mom and the babies are actually still in foster care - they were still too young to be put up for adoption). So everyone's being taken care of and being loved. <3

Step 1: Get Your Dog to Like People

This is my dog Lexi. She's about 7 years old and is a very... special dog. Sweet as can be towards me and my mom and my sister's boyfriend. Yup. Not my sister, but her boyfriend. And this is because of om mani peme hume (see Step 7 in How to Survive Life After College).

When we first got Lexi from the humane society, she was a very timid dog (we think she was abused before the humane society found her on the streets). She hardly got out of her dog bed, she'd flinch whenever we reached to pet her, and she didn't make a sound for over a month. Finally, we heard her bark, and when we did, it was terrifying.

My friend (who's known Lexi since she first came to our house yet is still avidly hated by her) describes her bark as sounding as though she had been shot and was wailing out in pain. If you're not expecting the bark, it'll make you jump.

My mom and I have gotten to the point where we know when she's going to bark, so it's not as scary to us anymore. She never barks at my mom and only barks at me occasionally (though it's not her terrified bark that everyone else has come to know - it's more of a "Hey! I see you! What are you doing! You're leaving the house!") Besides the two of us, though, Lexi would bark anytime ANYONE came into our house. The mailman, one of my little cousins, my grandma, my friend who Lexi's grown up with, my sister, doesn't matter. If we could manage to get her to calm down, then she would grumble at the people in the room, maybe quieting down completely after a few minutes. But the minute somebody moved out of the room and then came back in - off she'd go again. Even when my sister lived with us for a couple months (she's thirteen years older than me and doesn't normally live with my mom), she couldn't get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night without setting Lexi off.

Then Lexi met my sister's boyfriend. Oh, she tried her hardest to scare the tall man away when he walked in the door (that's the reason we think she barks so ferociously - she's afraid of people and barks to warn them to keep away - she's never bitten anyone and will usually run if you get too close to her). But he ignored her and plopped right down on the couch next to her. He started petting her and leaned over her head and chanted "om mani peme hum" a couple times. She quieted down and has loved him ever since.

We're still working on getting her to love everyone (or at least tolerate them) and she's calmed down a lot since she's met my sister's boyfriend. She still barks at people, even sometimes my sister, but if they're people that she recognizes she tends to quiet down a lot faster than she used to. If you have any tips on how to make a scared dog sociable, we'd love to hear them!