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Current diary entries    I    Past diary entries Doll's Diary Account by Doll Stanley, June 5th, 2006 June 5th, 2006 We are running at full capacity here and cannot keep up. Calls for help are far exceeding our ability to respond, and we have taken in as many animals as we possibly can. We can barely handle all the calls let alone respond to them as we wish to. As our name and reputation has grown, both law enforcement and members of the public tell anyone with an animal issue to call us for help. I wish it were that easy. While it's true that Sonya gets some help from her family with animal care and maintenance, this just doesn't cut the mustard in the summer. There is just way too much to do. I wake up between 6:00 and 7:00 a.m. every day and hit the ground running. I lay my work clothes out at night, shoes beside them, and stay up late preparing medicines, feeding portions and fresh bedding. I usually go to bed sometime between 1:00 and 2:00 in the morning, but have stayed up as late as 5:00 a.m. in order to finish laundry and complete the second shift of medications. We are caring for a number of pups, kittens, and ailing dogs, as well as a new rabbit family. It's tough, no exaggeration, but it's worth it and this ritual will take place each summer until we get the help we need.  We're working cases as time allows, but the animals at the sanctuary must come first. Paperwork, emails, and other communications are also taxing us. The truth is, we are getting a huge amount of work done for only two people with a bit of part-time and volunteer help. We have just got to have a maintenance person who can aid us with animal care, running for supplies, and any other assistance we may need.We’re really hoping to get a third person working here full-time to ease our overtaxing workload. I'll just say that we are engulfed in the mission we were given: we're going beyond what seems rational to most folks and we'll keep it up. But if we are to meet the expectations our image and word of mouth have created we will need additional resources. Some sad news: we lost three pups to parvo, and a juvenile to distemper. At least they died in caring hands knowing that their lives meant something, and that we struggled to save them.  Some good news: we hope to make a trip to Pennsylvania at the end of the month with the pups that have pulled through from their horrid beginnings so that they can start over again in loving homes. We're working with a few other groups to form a coalition to look into complaints of problems at shelters: we’ll see what can be done to alleviate the problems at these facilities. We have placed a few dogs, cats, and pups. Leo, who had been left behind when his guardians were evicted from their home, was one of the adopted dogs. . It's really a blessing in disguise, as he had suffered severe trauma to his left front leg when struck by a car. He endured months of agony as the bones in his foot and leg rubbed together before the limb was amputated. He may be minus a leg, but his zeal for life has returned and he has an awesome guardian. The SPAN (Spay & Neuter Mississippi) organization arranged for Humane Alliance to bring in their "Big Fix" cat neuter van. We aided for a week in Cleveland, Miss. and took a number of cats from our area to the Oxford Shelter. I've reported a grooming/"pet" shop in town to authorities for negligence, horrid sanitation, and leaving a suffering cat lying in his waste "to die." I took the cat to Doc's for a humane death. A woman who took her dog there for grooming decided not to leave him after seeing the place and has joined in our effort to persuade the city to shut this business down. In keeping with our name, I will end on a note of hope. We have several irons in the fire, including the new barn, and the possibility of a spay/neuter clinic. These would make a big difference to our ability to help animals. Doll Stanley