today is just chock full of surprises.

a few months ago, we hosted international students on a volunteer work experience program. i am forever doing these kind of things even tho generally they just don't work out very good. we have often done work experience placements for various organizations...international, local high schools, special needs, the justice dept. and the reason it usually doesn't work out is because the work here is freaking hard! young students especially think working in an animal shelter is all warm, fuzzy, fun and clean...everyone wants to do it til they come face to face with the actual wet, dirty, back breaking reality. suddenly working with animals is not so much fun..oh well, it was worth a shot and i don't mind giving them the chance to find out if they would like it or not.

so anyway....quite a while ago we hosted a combined small group of ukrainian and canadian international students. we failed miserably in the ukranian students eyes....they freaking hated it here. the canadian student was from ontario..he unlike his student partners...really enjoyed his time with us...and we really enjoyed having him..he fit in perfectly. i said if he ever moved to BC and was interested in a job to come and see me.

low and behold, who stopped by this afternoon but avery...he has moved to mission and is hoping to work here. now we don't have much money and we are fully staffed and meeting payroll is always a juggling act...but i really like this young man. he has a great work ethic, he is great with the animals, he has a peaceful and kind aura around him..he is very good saints animal caregiver material... and considering what it takes to work here well... that is nothing to sneeze at.

so under the understanding that we may at anytime run out of money and have to cut back on staff hours...i am really pleased to be welcoming avery to our part time staff caregiving team...it is not like we don't have enough work here to go around.

there are times that you take a risk because an opportunity presents itself...i already know that avery will be good for us...now i just hope we can pay him and keep him with us for awhile.

rule number 672 in rescue is all about never questioning a gift horse's open mouth.