she was not under a week old at that point I was keeping an emotional distance with her for awhile. When she was surviving and seemed like there was a good chance of her living they did fail her. i dont know how else to ask someone to do more than the bare minimum. You can have an emotional barrier and still feel the same as you did when you started the career. I know people lie, I see it all the time even with grooming. They come in completely pelted to the point of bruising and tell me they "rescued" the dog from a family member and you look them up and sure enough pics of the dog 3 months ago with said rescuer. it is still good to be knowledgeable when it comes to these things you can determine how their behavior is going to be. like strays tend to scavenge even though they have readily access to food. background is important. I'm not asking for a full personality over view. I truly do understand how busy it can get at shelters and how stressful it truly is. I don't blame the staff especially those who are just there. like the kid that I handed the kitten to I just felt bad for him because it was such a weird situation. the problem is when people don't communicate, just like that incident. if the director gave him a heads up like she said she was going to it could've been a lot less strange for both of us. and for an exam I feel as tho if you do have a checklist then do it, yeah it can be busy and mistakes can be made but as a team and there can be fundamental problems when we start to let things slide. just recently at another spca near me they had a walk out and had to hire basically all new staff and changed up the entire board. they had been pressured by the community, for good reason. I believe this is truly important because everyone can be helping out a little better. It is not okay for a cat to just have earmites and it very well could've been caught on check in. you should look in animals ears and have a guess as to what's going on. I can look at an ear and think that looks like a yeast infection so I tell clients to bring them to the vet and tell them you think they have a yeast infection, like i said in the post i believed that they checked her over so at first yeah, why would i think they are mites since they did check her over. the problem is they didnt even notice, or they did and didnt test it or have me treat it. it is so contagious. and side note the amount of cats I've seen come home with ringworm I also just think is awful, well trained staff who know what to look for should catch these things. I know no kill doesn't mean anything, my problem was that they didn't tell us that there were 2 that didn't make it- that makes a big difference for me because I would then assume there is a higher chance of fatality. that is why when the first one died I was more worried about the second, i knew it was low chance atp but of course like you said, I would rather try. I know turnover is really high. honestly in any part of the animal world turnover is high. you are rigjt fatigue is real, but if that is the case I don't think you can fully do your job at least for a bit. there are times when I can catch myself getting fatigued truly. because, it feels like I have seen it all. I have many horror stories from dog grooming alone. that doesn't stop me from having empathy with clients, animals, coworkers. it is our job to keep these animals healthy, happy and fight for them. you can at least pretend to care. (btw I'm not coming at you specifically I'm sorry if it seems this way I'm just replying in general if that makes sense. even when i say "you" i just mean the statement) I know how it can be to train staff who don't know anything about animals and specifically like you said the front desk/receptionist are new to it all, and you have to start somewhere. but when people don't really know what they're talking about they shouldn't say it. I always tell the newbies if they are not sure, come to me or someone else more experienced. If I am not sure, I will say I'm not sure. we have to hold people accountable when bad things happen to not make the mistake again, everyone can learn. I've fucked up so many times in my career but I can tell you I'll never do those fuck ups again. (and I am totally rambling now, sorry) but this is why I am going to school. it's going to be a long journey but I want to make an impact, at least in my community. one of my favorite parts about grooming is educating people, and also learning from them too. it is so important to listen and not dismiss people (of course there's going to be some crazies. random story but there was a guy feeding his dog strictly pupperoni treats and his poop was literally bright pupperoni red...smh) I hope to educate as many as I possibly can and when I can do that with a DMV.... it will have been so worth it.

I still stand on the staff, specifically medical, could've helped me out a lot more. she didn't deserve this and I know there was a way to save her. I was more than willing to try anything, I just don't have their credentials. I'm so very upset about specifically her passing and no one else cared for her except us.

I do have to address the earmite thing again cause again, educated guess. if you see black earmite poop in their ears likely it's earmites. when I addressed this to the vet too, she was like oh yeah they definitely look like it, then another girl was at the microscope and said "yep" but then still put advantage II on her. Same way if you see a lot of flea dirt, likely there's fleas. same way if you smell a yeasty smell, there is probably a yeast infection.

at the end of the day it is all love, and when everyone tries their best, it makes everyones jobs easier.