Today was our last day at Pasado's Safe Haven. Morganne and I spent today on farm duty and it was honestly the most rigorous day I've spent so far. We fed, cleaned and mucked every llama, pig, horse, sheep, goat and bird. It was certainly not a relaxing last day. Though I'm glad I had a hard last day because I feel now that I've really left by earning my keep. I could've done without scooping horse poop in the rain though. My shoes are most definitely going into the trash can when I get home.

I am so grateful for the time I've spent at this safe haven. Not only with the animals but with the people. These workers get up at the crack of dawn everyday and have dedicated their lives to making the world a safer place for animals. It is inspiring and after doing this job for only eighteen days, I appreciate farm life much more than I did before. I will truly miss the animals (especially Moo) and will always remember this

Today was the first of the entire trip that I was alone on dogs. The experience was challenging but definitely worth while to see what the caretakers have to go through almost everyday. I started by getting each meal ready for our numerous dogs with their medicines and special diets. Then after feeding was over, I began to clean each and every enclosure. This included walking up and down hills with gallons of bleach, towels, blankets, rugs, mops and pooper scoopers. I definitely got a work out today. Afterwards, I spent some time playing with each of the dogs because I knew I'd miss them once I left.

Today Madeline and I got back to the basics, Kitty City. Ah I missed my cats and their glorious home with its insulated walls and boom box. We didn't do much of anything different as cats usually do the same thing everyday. No surprises. Feed cats, clean litter boxes, sweep floor, mop floor, do laundry, pet cats and repeat in the afternoon. When we were finished with this list of chores, we both more or less wandered the farm in search of something we could help with. And alas, we bumped in to Morganne and Natalia! We caught them just in time for us to join them on a trip to Snohomish to drop off dog food at the house of a disabled woman. We drove down to storage and packed the car to the brim with dry and wet dog food and even some cat food for a cat who wanders in her yard. The trip was nice and we even stopped for some Subway along the way. When we got there, the woman explained to us that she was legally blind and could not leave her trailer to go and get necessities anymore. We sat with her and her 110 pound puppy as she thanked us and we listened to her story. It was nice to see some more of the behind the scenes work that Pasado's provides for the community.

Today Nat and I decided to work with the farm animals. We started off by feeding the pigs and cows. Afterwards, we were given a special task to plant nursery trees in the geese enclosure. We planted four trees for today all the while warding off territorial geese. I decided that my tree looked a Molly and therefore was named as such. Jennifer, the bird lead, recruited us for help with getting mulch out of the chicken coops. Apparently the mulch is rough on the chickens' feet and it is worsening their bumblefoot (a disease that creates pockets of pus on the bottom of the chicken feet). It took at least an hour and a half of hard labor but we finished with the help of five people. Using rakes and shovels and mucking tools, we scraped every bit of mulch out of the enclosure. After a restful and filling lunch, we returned to work and ran back into our mentor on his way to Reiner (the horse stables). At Reiner, we were given the opportunity to groom Jazz and Rica. After this long and tiring day, we're excited to be going home to watch the movie we rented from the Red Box in town. Yes, THE Red Box.

After two pleasant days of relaxation at home and exploring Seattle, we went back to work refreshed. Today was the day we'd been preparing for. Madeline, Natalia and I were driven down to Northern Seattle to present to The Meridian School. Dana had given us an hour long presentation on how to be kind to animals that we each split up and wrote speeches for. Morganne stayed and helped with the farm duties. When we arrived to the school we were in shock of how extravagant it was. It looked liked an East Coast boarding school from the 1800's! Just from the look of the school, I felt instantly more nervous to give a talk to these kids. When we got in to the gym, we set up the Power Point on the screen and waited as the K-3rd graders filed in. The presentation went incredibly! All of the kids sat attentively for the whole hour and answered questions and were involved. I was surprised at how well behaved and interested they were. We got typical cute questions of course like: "Why do people hurt animals?" or "Are we allowed to hurt cockroaches?" After our presentation the kids thanked us and told us lengthy stories about their own pets

I woke up with a strong logning for my precious kitties. I hadn't seen them in a few days and I pictured Moo and Maya frolicking about in Kitty City. Not long after the alarm went off, I claimed the day with the cats. The day at Kitty City was the usual. Cleaning out litter boxes, grooming some felines, doing several loads of laundry. After the cats were more than sufficiently played with, it wasn't even time for lunch. I walked around with Morganne to see if any other caretakers needed help. After meandering into the chicken coop and gathering eggs, we were told Dana had been looking for us. Apparently, no one had done a photo shoot with the new kitties yet! I was up to the task. Ah, was I naive. It took me a good thirty minutes to get even remotely clear shots of Maddie and Nat even with Morganne's help. I'm still not even sure the pictures were worthy, but we brought them back to Dana anyway. After lunch we were informed that there was another "funny favor" for us to do if we thought we could handle it. *Take pictures of animals high fiving you* Easy, right? Wrong. So wrong. If I thought getting normal pictures of two cats was hard, getting any animal to put their paw/hoove/talons on my hand would be near impossible. And that it was. We spent nearly an hour and a half with the most docile of the animals and even then, we got maybe five high-fives. To be honest, a good quarter of this time was spent rolling around with the Huskies and getting slobbering kisses on my face. Although today is Tuesday, since we have tomorrow and Thursday off, it is technically our "Friday". To celebrate another great week at Pasado's, we're going out to see the Great Gatsby and eat Red Robin (yum

Today ended up being a pretty short day. I worked again in Dog Town with Natalia and our feeding/cleaning went even quicker than yesterday's. We spent a lot of our time playing with the different pups and doing bedding laundry. After lunch, Natalia, Morganne, Madeline and I were asked to help with "geese beautification". This time we were promised no lice would be involved. Natalia and I were on the task of catching the geese while Madeline took medical notes and Morganne helped with the examination. Of course, I caught no geese. Natalia, expert geese catcher, helped to catch the most rowdy and slippery of the birds. For most of the debacle, I stood back and watched after I almost fell in the pond while chasing Meth. (In case that statement concerned you, Meth is one of the two rescued guard geese from a crystal

Today I chose to work with Natalia in Dog Towne. The day's work went by quickly since we've gotten aqcuainted with the daily chores. After feeding all of the dogs and cleaning their cabins of poop and soiled bedding, we were told we could go play with the Huskies. Now the Huskies have an interesting story. Pasado's does not officially own them and they are extremely skilled at escape tactics (they even got out of a locked cop car). Because of this, they are kept in a nice cabin atop a hill with only scheduled outdoor times for their own safety. Natalia and I visited them with treats and toys and, as they are with all visitors, were ecstatic. The two Huskies are named Max and Sissy and they love to lick people and jump around and roll in the mud. Another exciting development to their story is that we get to rename them! Natalia and I were told to vote for new names including Banshee and Loki for Max and Namiria and Sasha for Sissy. We loved the name Loki for Max because he is such a jokester and the name suits everything about him. However, we didn't particulary enjoy either name for Sissy. So we took naming her into our own hands and added Nala to the list. After hanging out with the dogs we were asked to assist with "bird beautification". This consisted of going to the hens, ducks and roosters to weigh them, medicate them, delouce them and clip their nails. In order to do all of this though, we had to catch them all one by one. Of course this was pretty entertaining to say the least. Deloucing the chickens was probably the hardest part of all because after dusting the birds, the lice would jump on over to our clothes and skin. Not a good feeling. Needless to say, Nat and I ran back home and took turns quarantining our clothing and del

Today was a whole new experience. I was given the chance to work on farm duty. After only getting to see these farm animals from a distance in Kitty City, I was clearly ecstatic. I dressed for the occasion in a flannel, a heavy coat and rain boots that were two sizes too big. I was ready. The llamas and pigs and donkeys and chickens and etcetera etcetera awaited my arrival. When I walked into the "Old Barn" the sharp smell of steaming, fresh shit entered my nostrils. I immediately was put to work with cleaning out various trofts and replacing the contents with nice hay and seed. I blissfully moved on to the llamas where once dietary needs were met, played with Finn (a 7 month old llama) for a good thirty minutes. Following that, I was told it was off to the chicken coops. These tasks were no such pleasure as the other furry criters. Something about cleaning out poop from fluffy, cuddly animals is much more appealing than pecking hens. Nonetheless, I carried on and was happy to find about three eggs laying underneath various birds. The most rewarding find was a goose egg, as the geese are incredibly vicious and I'm sure I could have died. Honest. After the day's work was done, my mentor and I headed over to the pig enclosures to feed them afternoon treats of raw eggs, dandilions and a variety of greens. Needless to say, I can't wait until the next time I can be on farm duty.

After an unpleasant awakening by Madeline's alarm clock we all truly felt the impact of our labors. With two days off in a row behind us, getting out of bed wasn't a welcome thought. I began work as I do most days, in Kitty City, though today was special. I was encouraged to have all of my work done by 10am so that I could join the Dog Town team to an off leash park. Surprisingly, we were greeted with news that two cats had been adopted to loving homes (congrats to Hamlet and Taylor!). On top of that, a family had dropped off two new cats for us to care for. Both are girls, one being a Calicco and the other all black. Morganne and I were even given permission to name them ourselves! I went through my daily tasks much quicker and met up with Dana who gave Natalia, Madeline and I instructions for the field trip. We each gathered up one or two dogs and loaded them into their traveling crates. We packed the truck (a large moving van sort of vehicle) with six or seven dogs and were off. Madeline and I stayed in the back of the truck with the dogs to keep them calm and supervised. Trust me, this was not a comfortable ride. Not only did we get thrown around by bumps in the road, but the truck held in every dog fart and echoed every bark. Needless to say, we were relieved when we finally got to our destination. At the park the dogs were let off their leashes and able to run freely around the property. It was so much fun to see these dogs having such a blast and being allowed to run wherever they'd like after working with them in their enclosures for the past week. The time at the park was tiring but rewarding and I was excited to see some of the progress these dogs were making. And luckily, I got to ride up front on the way back!