Confetti is still flying over here for the release of Paw Prints on the Wall, my Christian Romance novel featuring an animal shelter. Thus far it is doing great and I am very pleased by the feedback I have been getting. I know it’s not my usual fantasy or science fiction novel, so those of you who branched out and supported the novel anyway — Thank you. I hope you enjoy it even though there aren’t spaceships or warmongering elves wandering the pages.
For those of you who were sitting back wondering when I would write a story more like this — Thank you! I hope this hits all the right spots for you. I promise it won’t be the last of its kind.
As I sitting back, waiting for reviews, anxiously praying at least a couple of you enjoy the story, I can’t help thinking back to my time at the shelter. It is a no-kill animal shelter and my time there was amazing. While I have a ton of pictures of the animals, most of them were adopted and therefore have new families, so I cannot share their pictures with you.
It’s alright, though. My animals are pretty and happy to be photographed for your viewing pleasure.
That said, I can tell you some of the funny stories that happened while I was there.
#1 – The Escape Artist
We had a black lab whose name we shall pretend was Shyla.
Now, Shyla was one of those neurotic messes – much like Molly from the novel. Shyla was terrified of thunderstorms to the point she needed CBD oil to calm her down. And one stormy Sunday afternoon when I came in to do animal care, Shyla was not in her kennel.
Normally if an animal has had issues and needed vet care, I would have been alerted via a text message to let me know not to expect her, but that day I had nothing. Confused, I turned to go back to the lobby, thinking maybe someone had left a hand written note on the desk instead. I took two steps away when I realized something funny about the kennel directly beside Shyla’s…
At the time, we had a pair of hounds living next to Shyla. They were sisters and they were very pretty.
I turned back to their kennel and saw not two pairs of eyes staring back at me, but three.
Shyla had managed to leap to the top of her kennel – which is a feat because those kennels are super high on purpose – and then hop down into the hound-twin’s kennel. They were cuddled up in a happy dogpile as though this were the normal living arrangement and I had to snap a picture to send to my boss.
#2 – The Giant Dog
There was some debate about this dog’s breed. He was either a Cane Corso or an English Mastiff or some mix between because he was enormous. He was so big, in fact, that rather than living in one of the kennels, we had to give him the entirety of the quarantine bay. We will call him Gus.
Gus loved people.
He also loved being outside and since we had already given him the whole of quarantine, this meant he often was able to have his back door open, allowing him to go outside into the quarantine yard as he pleased.
But above all, he loved being with people outside, so he would get stubborn. If you came inside quarantine to start shutting things down, he would rush outside and stay there, absolutely refusing to return to his bed. We managed to trick him a couple of times with treats, but he grew wise quickly. It normally took two of us to get him in for the night, with one person hiding outside to close the door while the other sat on his bed until he came in for some affection.
#3 – Cat on the Loose
We had a special room for cats that didn’t quite like others, or who were having a particularly rough time adjusting to the shelter. This room had cat towers and shelves, lots of places up high where they could go to relax. Well, one particular cat discovered that the shelves were just high enough they could push their way through and into the ceiling.
Somehow, he managed to skirt his way up into the attic, which was problematic because we had an attic cat who took care of any mice that happened up there.
A day or so later, I went up to the attic to take care of said Attic Cat and she was quite displeased. Instead of being near the back where her water and litter box were, she was up front and she was particularly hissy. There was rustling in the area where she normally liked to be and I was able to put two and two together. We were able to catch him once we knew where he was hiding and had to give him a different kennel space, but for a couple of days there we were listening to his thumping overhead in the ceiling.
AJMaguire 