disaster relief

Recently, I travelled to Atlanta Georgia to help with some disaster animal sheltering. It was quite the experience.

I always have conflicting emotions when I go do disaster relief for animals. Because I really do believe that human take precedence. But this was a help to people in need as well. Atlanta was taking animals from shelters in Florida. From areas affected by the hurricanes. That freed up spaces in those shelters for owned animals whose people might be homeless. Most emergency shelters don't allow pets, so it's up to either relief shelters or local shelters to house the pets.

the shelter. rows of crated dogs. 

My job in Atlanta was similar to my previous job at my shelter. Namely: animal care. I walked and cleaned several hundred dogs each day with a team of around 10 people. The dogs were mainly pit bull types and all very sweet and patient. The animals were rotating through every few days. And one evening we took in a bunch of cats. Not a few cats. Over 50 cats, I can't remember the exact number. They had all been up for adoption in Florida, so they were mostly very nice and even pretty unperturbed at being transported and housed in a warehouse filled with dogs. Right, the warehouse: the animals were housed in an old Home Depot-- a warehouse without any air conditioning, only large fans.

comfy

these cats don't care.

my makeshift bed for the night shift. 

We worked 12 hour shifts. After the first two days, my coworker and I were asked to take the night shift. This was possibly an "easier" task, as the dogs didn't need cleaned or walked at night. But we got very little sleep due to the sporadic barking.




This did free up some time during the day for an outing or two. I was able to take a nice run along the Chattahoochee river. The humidity nearly killed me, but the lower altitude was a nice change on my stamina.

morning run on the Chattahoochee

30 ft. whale shark. coolest thing ever. 

My coworker and I went to the Georgia Aquarium. It was amazing. I can't begin to describe it all. We watched a dolphin show and saw the four huge whale sharks. I am still in awe.

jellies!

 On the last day, we switched back to help in the afternoon and then I took a lyft into town to meet a friend. He works at a fairly posh restaurant and I got a fancy drink and had to choose between a dozen fancy cheesecakes. It was a good send off.

best. 

Over all, it was a good experience. There was a lot of frustration involved with the organizing and communication, but I'm glad my job allows me such opportunities.

oh, did I mention we brought one home on the plane?

(I'm terrible at formatting!)

Nostalgia: A weekend with the Parents

I had a good weekend with my parents. I went back to help them butcher turkeys. They've raised them most every year since I was quite young and it was as much for nostalgia that I went as to actually help (and of course score a nice juicy turkey.)  I know it's probably odd for me to feel happy about plucking bloodied feathers off poultry, and yet.

There were nine all told. The biggest tom weighed in at 30 pounds. I remember one Thanksgiving we had a 35 pounder and had to rig two roasting pans together. Good thing my mom has a restaurant size oven. The hens were all in the upper teens.

We ate one for dinner of course. Nothing like eating meat so fresh it was breathing hours ago and never frozen. The meal was accompanied by all sorts of home grown veggies too.

And the company was nice too. For years I sort of avoided visiting. I always mostly blamed it on the distance or the unpredictable weather. But really, I was just unsure of myself. I hate confrontation. I know that many of my choices have disappointed my parents and I simply didn't want to face that. Over the years, I've come out of it a bit. Perhaps because my parents are getting more used to seeing me with a beard. Or they maybe just miss me. And probably also because I'm more confident in myself. I don't pretend to be anything I am not and I am so far past most of my transition that I can endure the wrong name and pronouns without undue cringing and absolutely no confrontation.

We all seem to know enough not to talk about points of contention: my transition, religion, politics. However, some politics came up. We talked about GMOs a bit. I am not as worried as my mom is, apparently. And we discussed Trump or "The Donald" as my parents dub him. We agree he's full of shit and also scary. This is a relief to know that they don't side with him.

On Sunday we went on a very small, but very pretty hike. I had Zorro with me and he and my mom's dog loved playing in the water and running around off-leash. There aren't many places around Denver that Zorro is able to do such things.

I will spare the audience any photos from the day before. Only the hike.

Happily swimming Zorro and Blaze. If it were summer, I may have swum there too!

My parents.

Just before heading homeward, my parents loaded me up with meat and veggies and fruit and jams. I got a cooler full of turkey, chicken, beef and lamb. Several homemade jams. Fresh green beans, carrots, zucchini, apples, plums, and grapes.

So despite driving 350 miles in two days, and not feeling 100%. It was a good weekend.

July Adventures

There's been a lot of action in the past few weeks. Since July 1 I've climbed 5 14ers, camped, hiked, trailrun, wrestled hoarded dogs, drove (rode) all around Colorado and got a promotion at work.

I've yet to see the increase in pay on that last one, but the fitness is making me happy. And having gone to seize dogs was quite the experience.

I probably am not able to provide a whole lot of details, but it was intense. I've seen the show "Hoarders" and its animal counterpart, but that didn't prepare me for the smell. Twentyish dogs inside a house for however long. The house was stuffed full of all sorts of junk as well as the dogs. The fences were covered in old, rotting clothes. The dogs were all terribly thin and mostly unsocial. And they were all unusually quiet. Even on the 3 hour drive back to the shelter there wasn't so much as a whine out of them. It made for a long day. I had no prior warning that I was accompanying Colorado Humane on this trip. I was told to go and so I did. But we didn't go right away. I waited around for about an hour. Then the 3ish hours driving. Then more waiting as it rained and the officers assessed things. My coworker and I were told to wait at the truck until they made sure the resident of the house wasn't home. They all wore bullet-proof vests. More waiting. Then we put together a bunch of crates as they broke into the house and started bringing dogs out on control sticks. There were a few in the yard that we baited with cat food and trapped pretty easily. Then after we caught and kenneled about 15 of them we waited some more. Then more dogs were found in various closets and barricaded nooks and crannies. The total came closer to 20.

All this waiting added up to a 14 hour day. Because my day wasn't over when we arrived back at work. Instead of being able to pass the dogs off to another team, we remained to complete their intake because most everyone else was gone for the night. So I got even more sweaty and stinky while holding the dogs as others vaccinated and photographed. It was all quite fun really besides all the waiting. Perhaps I'll apply for a position in that department.

As for hiking, after the two on Tuesday, my boyfriend and I have hiked 3 fourteeners in as many weeks. We've basically run out of "easy" mountains and I can certainly feel the steepness of the last few. They haven't given me any trouble while actually climbing, but the next day my calves are so sore I have trouble walking down stairs. But our 14er total is 10, only 42 or so more to go! Hahah.

Holiday Weeked

I had a glorious long weekend.

The Fourth of July is a particular favorite of my boyfriend's so we planned an epic day. We invited a handful of people to a nice beach along Clear Creek outside of Golden. One of my best friends from Kansas even came for the weekend. We grilled hot dogs and hamburgers on a shiny new grill. We played in the creek. We sat in the shade. We lay in the sun. We chatted with friends old and new. We stayed by the creek for about 10 hours, then went in search of fireworks. I neglected to bring my camera so I have no photo evidence of this day.

On Saturday we packed up and drove to Buena Vista to camp near the trailhead of our planned 14ers. My Kansan friend agreed to watch the extra little dog we acquired for the month, while we hiked with the other one.

first light of morning

So we got up well before dawn and she stayed snug and warm in the tent. We hiked practically straight up for 4.5 miles, and reached the summit of Mt. Belford by 9:30 am. It was a very good morning for a hike, the temperature at the trailhead was much too warm, but as we hiked, the air became cooler.

sunlight finds the summit of Mt. Belford

When we reached the summit, the clouds began to form and we decided not to press our luck along the ridge to Mt. Oxford, only a mile away. Good thing too, as it began to rain as we descended.

So many flowers.

Oxford from Belford's peak.

summit selfie

It was a very beautiful hike, if gruelingly steep. We saw marmots and pikas and more wildflowers than I've ever seen above treeline before.

My hiking biddies with Missouri Mountain in the background

.

state flower

I was sad to bid farewell to my out-of-state friend, but overjoyed when she mentioned she may become an in-state friend. 

It was a perfect weekend.

you'd think the little one did a 9 mile hike also.