Rescue Journal

in my defence

Carol  ·  Apr. 12, 2008

i would like to gather up the crew and go and watch tv but mrs p has parked herself in the middle of the couch so we all have to wait for her to leave. she has the top of a crate, she has a cat tree, she has a bed behind the tv...i am not happy she has taken the couch.

there was some discussion at the meeting today about how hard it is to get a hold of me. it is only hard because i make it hard and i make it hard because i don't want to spend 18 hours a day returning phone calls or emails. i hope no one takes it personally, i don't have call alert so i have no idea who is calling, but if i am busy with the animals, whether working or just spending time, then they have my attention. and if i answer the phone each time it rings and return each message as it comes in, quite frankly i will never even see the animals anymore, i will just be hearing them scream cuz i am ignoring them and i won't be able to hear who is on the phone anyway. i don't think people realize how many emails come in and how many times that phone rings. sometimes i forget the cell in the house but someone usually brings it out to me cuz the house phone rings and then the cell phone rings and then the house phone rings and the cell phone rings...it drives the people cleaning the house nutz so they bring the GD thing out to me. have you ever tried to sift thru shavings for big piles of poop and successfully get into the wheelbarrow with one hand on the fork and the other hand holding a phone to your ear?....and once that wheelbarrow is full, you need two hands to go and dump it so there it sits til you are off the phone and then you hope the phone doesn't ring again. some days it takes alot longer to clean the barn or wash a floor or fold a pile of laundry than it needs to. the pounds manage to find me and so do the vets and the phone numbers are exactly the same, so it is possible to reach me but if you leave a message and it is not about life and death, i may not return it for a while, and if it was an info. message vs a question message, i may not think to return it at all.
i don't think people know that at night when the animals are quiet and resting, they only stay resting if i stay put cuz the second i get up to answer the phone, they all get up and go with me. if this was a private home, you would expect that the person might be working during the day, eating dinner at night and maybe out for a movie in the evening. you would expect that they might sleep about 8 hours if they are working the next day too. if this was a business, you would expect that someone would answer the phone during normal business hours but early in the morning or late at night, you would expect that maybe no one was working.

saints is neither a business or a private home...it is a care facility for 90 multi-species senior and special needs animals. from 1 pm until 9 am the next morning, no one is providing care but me. and if i happen to be working at my paid job til 5 pm or 9 pm depending on my schedule, you could expect that there would be alot for me to do when i finally did get home from work. and when i am finally done doing everything, maybe i don't want to answer the phone....maybe i like a couple of poodles, a pug, and a husky all watching tv while laying on top of me, and maybe it is too much hassle to make them move to jump up and answer the phone.
i could answer the phone more, i could return messages faster...i could do that instead of the other stuff i do which i do happen to like doing better. bluntly and honestly, the problem is... i don't see myself at everyone in the world's beck and call except those with 3 or four legs or fur or feathers and wings. i figure humans can wait, the animals have waited for long enough, most of them for their entire lives.

i do realize that this is an utterly crappy attitude and not a great one to have. but when i get burnt out, i get burnt out with phone calls and emails and countless problems looking to me for the solutions. i can't afford to get burnt out by the animals so sometimes the humans are stuck when i fall short. it may not be right, it may not be good, but right now it is a fact of my life.

i ask that people have patience, unless i forget, i will eventually get back to them if it is important. and if i have forgotten, and it truly is important, please feel free to try me again. but i need folks to know again this is not personal...my kids complain about the exact same thing, they can't reach me either and i don't always return their calls. they call when i am buried beneath poodles too. until saints can afford an office and a receptionist to answer the phone and respond to all the emails, i wouldn't expect it to change all that much...and then no one will answer the phone after 5 pm anyway.

there is only one of me and 90 of them plus everyone else who wants to reach me. it is bound to not work all that well and i am sorry that it doesn't work better but it doesn't.

Comments

Bridget

i do know what you mean, carol, since answering/replying/making phone calls is one of the worst jobs i have to do in my home- i just don't LIKE it, for some reason.
but, when contacting you, i didn't see this as a problem, carol. when we lost louis, so suddenly and violently, the second phone call we made after the fact was to you. we weren't asking for advice, or anything- we just left a message, and you called back the same night. and, for us, it meant a LOT, because we knew you'd understand what we were going through. it was like this with Louis, and it was like this with Freddie, too.

if i was cheekier, i would suggest one of those earphone thingies to attach to your ear WHILE you shovel the hay and the poop... but when dealing with poop on that scale, i think it would be better to focus on IT, and not five things at once, if possible.

Carol

lol...you can come in francesca...trina and rene are here to give you the scoop on the new guys!

Francesca Wilson

Great attitude is exactly what you have always Carol. Marie and I are headed to you on Wednesday. With some special dogs at the moment should we stay in the parking area, clean the ameri-cat room and rabbit room? We of course can walk whoever can go. Perhaps Trina can let us know what helps best.
Take care
francesca
ps we usually can be there by 10:30 am.

Laura

FEEL for your your frustration! It's good to get things off your chest....did you "HIT YOUR BUTTON"

Stan

((((((((((carol))))))))))) I got to get out there and give you real hug. If you need a hand with anything just email I need a break from all this web site and get my hands of some fur, or fence or a shovel. cheers Stan

Yvette~Turtle Gardens

Amen to that. I totally agree with you. Yvette and the Topley crew.