Zwei

Cleaning dog poo has a greater fear factor than cat poo, though climbing into rabbit cages might be just as bad (thank goodness I was not on small animal duty last Saturday, there was a whole new wall of rabbits to deal with).

I thought I saw 4 volunteers rostered for dogs duty on Saturday, but only 2 of us turned up. And me, the obvious rookie was naturally adopted by one of the full time SPCA staff to deal with 11 (approx.) dog kennels, while my other brave volunteer counterpart dealt with the 6 back cages alone.

Steps to cleaning the dog kennels:

1. Enter kennel, leash excited dog(s)
   
2. Tie dog away from kennels to facilitate cleaning. Puppies and small dogs are to be kept in the small cages or enclosure.
   
3. Use doggy poo metal scoop to remove dog poo from cage (takes skill. see note 1)
   
4. Move doggy poo to the cesspit SPCA has on its premises (icky. see note 2)
   
5. Splash copious amounts of disinfecting detergent into kennel
   
6. Thoroughly hose the kennel enclosure. At the same time, change the waters in the water bowl.
   
7. Use huge squeegee to push water into the drains. Take cloth to wipe dog crate dry.
   
8. Drag reluctant dog back into kennel again.
   
9. Feed hungry dog.
   
10. Remove empty food bowl; or remove partially empty food bowl after 10 minutes. (tricky. see note 3)
    
11. Wash the food bowls

• Note 1: Smearing doggy poo the wrong way increases the amount of surface area to clean.
  
• Note 2: My guess is a special truck comes to drain the cesspit on a weekly basis. After half an hour, the pit turns into the hottest leisure zones in town for all kinds of pests, especially cockroaches and flies. Highest fear factor of all.
  
• Note 3: Some dogs are food aggressive. I've been warned that some dogs may bite.

My duty involved mainly scooping dog poo, depositing it into the pit; squeegee-ing the water and wiping the crates; feeding the dogs and washing up afterwards.

After cleaning was done I stayed behind to mingle with the dogs, and horrors - Nice dogs play rough too. But lucky me, the largest dog there, a German Shepherd has not turned rough on me yet, though the neutered fellow did have a rather perturbing habit of flashing me his privates whenever I was near. Other than that, he happily stayed still to let me pet him.

However, the yellow lab retriever I previously loved has fallen from grace because he treats me like I am his largest walking chew toy and I have bruises on my arm for it. Since he did not draw blood, I assume the wrestling game was without ill intention. I hope. I don't like being treated as merely a chew object.