It's been two months since we last had a furry day. I think I have quite forgotten just how tiring yet satisfying it can be! We woke up to a wet humid morning. The rain had slowed to the slightest of drizzles but there remained the potential for a downpour. With sleep-filled eyes, I took the bus that brought me to the shelter and reached bright and early at 810am. I constantly thank my lucky stars that the shelter happens to be so darn close to my home. I have the greatest respect for my fellow volunteers who unfailingly travel the distance to get there, what more at such an unearthly hour on a
Saturday!
I stealthily tip-toed towards the shelter and tried to peek through the hole in the gate as quietly as I could. I wanted to spy on the furkids and observe how they were like on their own. But the moment they caught whiff of my clumsy movement outside, they started barking their heads off in excitement. Our dogs were smart dogs. They knew that visitors so early in the morning always heralded great things to come.
This was the first time we implemented the volunteer registration system to keep track of people who moved in and out of the shelter. The volunteers were extremely cooperative, filling up forms and the registration book with nary a complaint. For that, we would like to express our utmost gratitude.
This furry day was exceptional for a number of reasons. For the first time ever in the past 7 furry days, we finally succeeded in bringing Caspian out of the shelter, up the van and to Pasir Ris Beach for furry day. Caspian has stayed at the shelter for almost as long as Gentle Paws has been active. But because of his unpredictable temperament and his tendency to become slightly defensive when scared, we were never able to get him out of the shelter. Together with the older folks Debbie, Buddy and Baby, Caspian was always left behind when the shelter emptied out and his fellow furry mates hopped up the vans heading for the beach.
This time, our hero - one Choo - decided to give Caspian a shot. And lo and behold! With a bit of courage and a whole lot of persistence, our Choo managed to weave some magic and successfully coaxed Caspian out of the shelter gates, up the van and onward to the beach!
This furry day we also had many newcomers on board our furry day express. It was the first trip to the beach for Dooney, Big Gal, Small Gal and Grin. We have no idea if they have ever laid eyes on the sea in their lives. When Dooney, our eight year old springer spaniel, saw the water, he made a mad dash toward it, dragging his poor handler with him. He was a natural in the sea and he swam so beautifully! This furry day, we discovered that this old dog is really a playful puppy at heart.
While most of us were having a good time at the beach, a handful of volunteers stayed behind at the near-empty shelter to give the place a good cleaning. We managed to detox each and every dog run, stall and electric fan in the shelter. Our store was also subjected to a good scrubbing. And so, our sandy tired furkids returned home at about half past one to a clean and comfortable home.
Many of the furry day volunteers also kindly stayed back to help shower the furkids and get the grime, salt and especially, the sand off from their furry bodies. There were a lot of grumpy furry faces at the very thought of showering. But with many human helping hands we managed to get all of them smelling like apple, lavender and oatmeal.
Thank YOU for making this furry day a success. Thank you for responding so promptly for our call for volunteers. Thank you for tolerating any administrative hiccups along the way. Thank you for being so enthusiastic and open-minded. Thank you for helping to ferry some of the dogs to the beach in your cars. Thank you for devoting your entire Saturday morning to the shelter kids.
You guys make furry days like these possible.
If you do not see your picture here, do refer to our Facebook page where we have the whole collection of this furry day's pictures. Picture credits go to our favourite photogs, Sebastian and Jie Hao :)
