8:00 AM – The Day Begins

Eight day-shift workers arrive at 8:00 a.m. in the morning. When the "day crew" arrives, two workers attend to the puppies. The workers on “puppy duty” begin their day by opening up dog food cans...a lot of cans! The puppies are fed dry puppy chow mixed with canned food and vitamins. Once the puppies finish their breakfast, they are moved to an outside area, while their corrals are cleaned and disinfected. Dog houses are also disinfected, and fresh blankets are placed inside. Once the pens have dried, the pups are returned to their enclosures, with chew toys and biscuits.

Throughout the day, dry puppy chow and water are replenished as needed. The puppies enjoy the day by watching all the goings-ons at the sanctuary, napping, and frolicking and playing with each other.

While the puppies are being tended, another employee begins work up in the cattery. The kittens are tended to first. Litter pans are cleaned and the kittens are fed and watered. The kittens are fed dry kitten chow, mixed with canned food and some evaporated milk with vitamins. Every few days, old blankets or towels are replaced with clean ones.

The adult cats are cared for next. They are fed and their litter, water and blankets are changed out. The cats really get a kick out of a little catnip sprinkled on their bedding. They have a ball running around the cattery and playing with each other.


While all this is going on, our other workers are inside the large dog corrals, cleaning, and checking the general condition of the dogs. They all receive fresh water, but feeding time is not until 3:00 p.m. each day.

Throughout The Day

Because the sanctuary does not possess some critical tools in diagnosing illnesses (an X-ray machine, for example) some animals are driven to veterinary offices elsewhere when X-rays are needed, or when we have an influx of spay or neuter surgeries that we need help with.

Our lunch breaks are quick, maybe 15 to 30 minutes. As you can imagine, besides feeding, watering and cleaning corrals there are many other tasks that must be accomplished each day. The afternoons are spent bathing cats and dogs (weather permitting), giving vaccines, de-worming, skin treatments, etc. If the weather is not in our favor, BAS employees spend the balance of their day sorting and organizing donated items, and cleaning and organizing inside the house.

Of course, as in all work places, our daily routine is always broken by some unexpected problem, such as a broken water pipe or hose (playfully chewed up by one of the residents), a broken latch on a gate, a hole dug under a fence, or a box of newborns dumped in a field near the Sanctuary. Needless to say, BAS workers are very good at multi-tasking!

Consumables

There are three very important things that BAS needs each day in order to run smoothly – water, gasoline, and propane.

Water – Each day (and usually twice during the summer months) the water truck delivers 500 gallons of water into the BAS water tank located at the top of the property. As you can imagine, we use a lot of water!

All of the smaller pens where the puppies are kept have concrete floors (and our goal this year is to have ALL pens concreted to make disinfecting easier and to therefore reduce illness) and must be cleaned and disinfected twice each day. Water is also used to do the laundry – with an animal population of 400 there are a lot of blankets and towels to wash each day! We also need water to bathe animals each day.

A bathtub, elevated on a plywood platform, makes up the BAS “bathing station”. It is located on the sunny side of the house and allows for warm-water bathing of the residents in the sunshine. Smaller puppies and kittens are bathed upstairs in a large sink in the cattery area.

Gasoline – There is no electricity at BAS. A donated generator produces any electricity that is needed. Each day workers must go into town to purchase enough gasoline to keep the generator running. The generator is used extensively during the day when the laundry needs to be done. The generator can run up to 4-hours straight just to get the wash done! In addition to running the generator, gasoline must be kept at all times in the two BAS vehicles so that the workers can go into town to purchase propane, gasoline, and run any other BAS errands.

Propane – During the night, puppies, and any animals that are sick are kept in small corrals inside the house. Three propane heaters run all night long to keep the house warm. Two additional propane tanks are located on the patio of the house. One runs the hot water heater, the other runs the stove inside the kitchen.

The Night Shift

The night shift begins at 4:00 p.m. The night-shift worker’s main responsibility is to watch the animals and guard the property during the night. BAS is never left unattended.

In order to fight the boredom after dark, the night-shift workers usually fire up the generator and work on building dog houses, cat cubbies, and making minor repairs where needed.

Our days are long and full, to say the least. The work never seems to end. While taking care of the current BAS residents, new dogs and cats arrive that need immediate health evaluations. They are placed in isolation, given food and water, and a warm nesting place, and are checked by a veterinarian as quickly as possible.

There are so many things that need to be done each day, but the most enjoyable part of the day is when we get to play with the animals and give them love and attention.

Each of these homeless animals, with a personality all of their own, is so grateful for every little hug and pat they receive. One animal at a time BAS continues to try to make a difference in each of their lives.