Remember Pete - the dog I agreed to foster last fall? He was in a high kill facility in Henderson, NC where they use the gas chamber to kill the animals there. I told a gal that pulls animals from that facility that I would foster a senior dog and that's how I ended up with Pete. Pete was headed for that inhumane fate when the angel, Angie, pulled him.
Anyway, Pete looked horrible - skin and bones - and another owner surrender. It has taken months for him to put weight on and look presentable for adoptathons. Today was his first.
It was a miserably hot day. I don't know what the official temperature was but I know it was over 100 degrees. We stayed outside the store in the shade for a couple of hours but then went inside.
He had some stiff competition in the form of adorable kittens - all also pulled from kill facilities. Pete did great, as I knew he would. He got lots of love and attention and was ready to walk away with every single person that stopped to pet him.
While we were inside sitting near the windows, I saw a bird suddenly appear outside on the cement. I thought the dog trainer that was outside was giving a demo on how well his dog would stay and had tossed a stuffed bird to test the dog. Well, it was a baby dove that had literally collapsed from the heat! It had been setting on top of the store roof with its parents (in the blazing sun) and fell off and landed on the hot cement right in front of a woman. It was fully feathered and capable of flying but it could barely move. I took a small saucer of water out to it and it was so afraid that it managed to run into some bushes in the shade.
I hope the little baby survived and stayed in the shade where nobody could see it. Unfortunately, it was a small patch of bushes right next to a busy parking lot. I think if he stayed put, he would have recuperated.
How distressing to see this.
The temps here are so bad and will stay this way till Wednesday. I haven't been able to do a thing but stay inside and watch TV. The a/c is running non stop and the house is almost 80 degrees inside, but I don't want to turn the thermostat down and make the unit work even harder. I'd rather be hot than break the a/c altogether and be without any. That happened to me many years ago and it was a miserable experience to go through.
Here's another picture of happy Pete. He really enjoyed being out in public today. I wonder why his previous owner threw him away? Well, he's safe now but there are so many others. Please consider saving a life the next time you look for a pet.
Time to get ready for bed. Tomorrow morning I'll head out to WalMart to do my weekly grocery shopping before the heat gets too unbearable. Then I want to try to accomplish something. Goodness knows, I sure didn't today!
I hope you're all surviving the heat wherever you are. Don't forget to keep the bird baths filled!
