Long time no write...

...but at last I get around to blogging again.
"My" Jack has recently moved from the shelter to a new home with very nice people who adore him.
But unfortunately not all is well: Jack has problems to accept the rules of his new home and his owners are having troubles in conveying them to him.
If only I could tell him that he´s risking his place in dog paradise by behaving like a maniac...
Keep your fingers pushed, I´m sure he could have a wonderful life there, I was so happy for him when he was adopted.

Jack, enjoying a chewing-bone in "his" garden

Andrea, the "dog trainer" of the shelter has helped me with Jack and his people. As a "thank-you-gift" I made a DIY "dog-spinny" (yes, I´m broke once again) :
Lets hope it works, I´m quite proud of it to be honest :).
The top circle contains a wing-bold, with which one can adjust the "spinning-properties" of the toy. Treats can be placed in the countersinks and the dog has to move the middle circle to get to them.

F***!

Just received an email with the cost estimate for the repair of my camera: 193 Euro.
F***!
I haven´t got that money, and all just because a tiny pin broke off :(

Signs I made for the rat & snake "enclosures" at the shelter.

People annoying and feeding animals are a huge problem at "animal exhibitions" of any kind.

I´ve seen a couple of nice signs during the years, one at our local zoo says : "Finger ab ? Selber Schuld!" ("Finger bitten off? Blame yourself!").
One I saw in Hongkong zoo stated that visitors who fed or annoyed the anmials would have to face a fine of 500 Dollars or a jail sentence of 14 days.
And another one I dicovered on the net: "Please be safe. Do not sit, climb, stand or lean on zoo fences. If you fall, animals could eat you and that might make them sick. Thank you".

I guess those are working better than the usual "please do not feed" signs which are plastered all around zoos and do not seem to work at all. At least it seems to me after having had many a not-so-nice encounter with visitors...

Another unusual guest at the shelter

Yesterday a Cornsnake (Pantheropsis guttata) arrived at the shelter, a beautiful and rather friendly animal.
Since working at the reptile department of the DWCT ("Jersey Zoo") I´ve been fascinated by snakes, so I was glad to prepare her transitional home and to move her there.
Because - and not in spite- of that I think most of the reptile keepers would do those animals a great favour in abandoning their "hobby".
I´ve worked with hundreds of reptiles and amphibians for months, under the supervision of well-known specialists (one of them is now head keeper at London zoo...) - and I do still consider myself an absolute beginner in this field.
It makes me cringe to see - and ´specially read on internet platforms - which people consider themselves as "experts"...

Horses!

at the shelter. Today two beautiful horses were brought in as "lost pets". The black one is injured (a gash on the leg), the vet has already been to see to it.

I haven´t got any better pictures of them because my beloved camera is broken - I just hope it´s nothing too serious and/or costly. I sent it in for repair already and hopefully, but not probably, it´ll be back this weekend, when the shelter opens officially.
I seem to have a bad influence on technical gear...

Oh, and there´s been a burglary at the the shelter!
Those f*** idiots stole the transponder-scanner (a device with wich one can check the animals ID, once they´re microchipped) amongst other things.

Luckily one of the shelter keepers is also working at a vet. She can borrow theirs from time to time to check or chip new arrivals.

I wonder how antisocial you have to be to break into an animal shelter, a charity, a non-profit organisation?

Unfortunately it´s not possible to leave one of our more impressive dogs outside as a guard dog on the compound after closing time.
I´m not a violent person (honestly!) - but I´d love to imagine an encounter between the thieves (who btw broke a large window in addition) and our lovely Kuvasz ...

A fitting punishment for those guys would be to do all the shit-shovelling in the shelter for some months.
Of course reality interferes with that as we wouldn´t have enough personnel to do the supervising and noone would like to see them anyway - but it still feels good to imgagine it...

And, no - I´ve got no politically correct understanding/pity for those people...

There´s been a change to my own pet population as well.
Sandra and Marc from "pixels park" have come for a very nice (!) visit and took "my" two guinea pisgs away, as they´ve found them a real home.
Now the cavy enclosure in the living room ist empty and I´m wondering whether or not some other piglets should move in...

I do miss their squeaking and their funny faces and the munching noises I have to admit...
In addition to that I strongly believe what "Pixels Park" is doing should be supported...

On the other hand there´s a couple of stupid & rational reasons to stick with Pauline, my dwarf hamster, and "my" shelter pets only.

cheers, Anne

P.s: Nosy as I am I had a look at Sandras and Marcs professiona sites once again: illu-station.de/ and designstuebchen.de/. They make me green with envy...how unfair that so much talent and skill is wasted on them whereas I´m still stumbling from stick-figure drawing to "html for beginners" ! :)
Once I´ve finally won my million bucks I´m gonna employ them for redesigning the shelters web-page and we´ll soon be famous and out of animals :).