Life with dogs

The truth is that it is a lot of work running a business, however small.  I was thinking this little project she is working on would take up about 10 hours of Claire's time a week.  Right now she is spending at least 6 hours a day organizing, on the phone, writing letters, taking care of her dogs and researching. It is a full time job for her.  I am hoping this is all going to die down (a little) and I am very grateful that she did the bulk of the work to set it all up over the summer vacation.  

I am going to have to be very crafty in getting her to fit in all of her compulsory work.  In the mean time my life has gone to the dogs! I surrender!  On Sunday we took Claire to her first dog adoption event in Danbury at Choice Pet Supply.  She called many places.  This was the only place she could do without 501c status (which is pending).  She formed a business relationship with Bill, the manager and will be holding events once a month at this location.  

I was surprised at what a great location it is, so clean and friendly and she was allowed to set up inside.

We brought both dogs, Lucky and Romeo and we had two families lined up to come and see the dogs.

Romeo found a new family!  They are very excited to adopt him but are going on vacation for 10 days first.  Lucky however got the most attention. Two families wanted to take her.  The event was very successful and both dogs now have families pending.  We have to have the home visit before we complete the adoption and make sure the dog and the family are well matched.

We were so lucky also to have many visits from our good friends.  Thank you Prevey's, Snajders and Cosars for coming to wish Claire well.  We love you guys! Congratulations to Ava and Kaya for guessing the closest number of jelly beans in the jar!

Today Claire was visited by our local newspaper reporter.  She wants to get some foster families in our town to cut down on the driving.  To get the word out, she contacted our local paper.  She spent an hour with the reporter explaining everything she has been doing and was photographed with the dogs.  She was nervous before they came but seemed to be relaxed and passionate during the interview.  

The article will be in the paper on Friday.  She apparently tried to keep the story steered towards getting fosters although she thinks the reporter was more interested in her age.  At the end the reporter said, "Here is my business card.  Please give me a call if you are having any events and I will help get the word out."  She replied seriously, "Thanks and here is my business card." And he just laughed and laughed.  So that was a bit of fun and I hope she gets some more local foster families.

Also today we explored Wave, a free accounting system for small businesses.  She had found it online and set up an account for Lucky Tails.  She wants to migrate away from her notebook tracking of expenses and donations to more detailed records.  She has a basic filing system but now she wants to make digital records of her dogs that can be quickly retrieved.  

Now that she has a system, the key will be to manage the flow of dogs so that she can still manage to do *ALL* of her work and keep her life in balance.  The next adoption event is on September 29th with another rescue organization and of course she will need 1-2 new rescue dogs to take to that.