Wow. The morning routine here is intense. There is the initial hustle to get all the animals looked at before they get picked up so any weirdness can be checked by a vet before going home. Then it’s the critter shuffle, transferring cats to crates to be ready to go and then cleaning cages to be ready for the new arrivals.

At 7:30 the doors open and there is a group review session of the post operative instructions, which saves tons of time in the discharge process. Then individual animals are checked out. I loved the army of staff ready behind the counter to tackle the crowd and get animals dispersed as quickly as possible.

Then as the last animals are leaving, the new arrivals begin pouring in the doors. We checked in 64 animals across the front counter within ONE hour this morning. Wow. These folks certainly have this down to an art.

Then we pick the day up where we began yesterday’s schedule… vet exams in the back to begin the surgery day, and dealing with the mountain of paperwork we just finished generating from check in.

Right now our surgery team is on their last of eight dog surgeries for the day, then we’ll break for lunch. After that Jenny and I will continue working with the software developer to finish configuring our database and continue our training while our surgery team will finish the day with their 11 cat surgeries.

It was a light surgery day today since the weather here wasn’t very cooperative. It is still way below freezing and it was barely snowy here, but outlying areas weren’t as lucky. Today’s transport only had seven animals, so everyone should be getting done early today.

Wow! I can’t quite believe today is over already – it flew by faster than I thought possible. A huge thank you to everyone at Humane Alliance for making our staff feel welcome and for everyone’s willingness to explain everything to us. We can’t wait to do it all again tomorrow!

Here are some highlights from the day:

Prepping our group's first dog, the first surgery of the day.

We're ready to get started!

Around 10am the transport truck arrived with more animals for today's surgery schedule

About 50 animals from humane societies around the region came in today.

Jenny, the computer whiz, logging today's surgeries

Ok, puppy, time to close your eyes...

That worked nicely!

Intubating our sleepy puppy

Expressing bladders is oh so fun

Beth attempting the tricky upside down intubation technique

Watching the pro to learn his secrets...

Our surgery team did about 20 spays/neuters today and over 100 were done at the clinic today. Tomorrow we get to go in at 7:00am to help with discharge, so we can see those same animals go back home. And then check in the next day’s and do it all over again. Can’t wait!

“Welcome to Asheville, where the temperature is not even close to warm.” I don’t think that’s exactly how the flight attendant phrased it, but that was the gist of the weather report we got upon arriving in sunny North Carolina this afternoon. It was 22 degrees when we left the airport and is now around 16 degrees.

After our flights had landed and everyone arriving by plane had gathered luggage and assembled, we headed to the hotel to meet up with Dr Holt who had arrived shortly before. Her holiday vacation had already brought her to the region, so she was able to meet us without adding extra flights to her trip.

The other six of us had to get here on two different flights since our tickets were booked at different times and the holiday weekend had filled up plane seats. Thankfully neither of our layover cities (Chicago and Houston) had difficult weather and we ended up where we were supposed to be, when we were scheduled to be there.

After settling in at the hotel briefly, we headed out for dinner. Wanting to make it an early night and save exploring for another evening, we opted for the restaurant across the street so we wouldn’t even have to drive.

The frigid wind didn’t deter us. We were however, momentarily stymied by the lack of any crosswalks to guide us through the massive six lane intersection. Thankfully traffic was light and we could just run for it when the lights were cooperative. Running also had the side benefit of getting us out of the cold sooner.

Here we all are after dinner, having survived our return trip across the street, back at the hotel and ready to call it a night.

WHS's clinic crew, finally all together! (and able to smile after a full day of travel) From left to right: Dawn, Beth, Jenny, me, Marissa, Dr Holt, Dr H

Looking forward to our first day at Humane Alliance tomorrow!

In the morning we head to the airport on our way to visit Humane Alliance’s spay/neuter clinic. A full day of cross county travel isn’t always the most fun, but hopefully the day will be relatively uneventful and we’ll all make it where we’re supposed to go, about when we’re supposed to be there.

Thankfully the weather looks cooperative in Asheville. Their high tomorrow is only supposed to be 30 degrees, but at least it’s not snowy. Glad I packed my scarf!

I can’t wait to see Humane Alliance in action and spend four great days with the staff. Our list of questions is lengthy, but we’re ready with notebooks, cameras and eager minds to soak up as much as we can. The alarm goes off in less than 5 hours, so it’s time to rest.

I’m glad to welcome 2010 for a bunch of reasons, but one that I had to be reminded of yesterday was that January 1st brings with it the implementation of Oregon’s House Bill 2470, the Puppy Mill Bill.  Signed into law in June, this bill placed a cap on the number of breeding dogs people can own and more clearly defined standards of care for those dogs.

Last spring I was able to testify in front of the house and senate committees who worked on this bill.  This was my first time getting involved with any kind of legislation, so when I was invited to participate, I was happy to speak up.

I was able to share the experiences I had while working at Heartland Humane Society when in 2007 we worked on a neglect case eventually involving over 100 dogs.  Unfortunately this breeder had been in operation for years, during which time hundreds of dogs suffered in her care.  Had this law been in place at the time, law enforcement would have been able to act much sooner to stop her and help the dogs.

This case is where we first met a scrappy little puppy who later became known as Julio, and even later, became a permanent part of our family.

Julio at about 10 weeks old, snuggling up with Romeo, also rescued from irresponsible breeders. Photo courtesy Trent B. Bingham

My puppy mill dogs are happy it is 2010 in Oregon!