Furkidz, Pretoria/Cape Town, SOUTH AFRICA.
I've created a non-work related blog of my time in South Africa, check it out here:
http://zoemarkell2.blogspot.com
http://zoemarkell2.blogspot.com
Week 13 - Monday 6th January 2014
Day 58
Today Stefanie asked if we had a creative side whether we’d
like to decorate the intern office, which is a separate building outside the
house where the interns work. Always having enjoyed art I immediately agreed.
Stefanie led us inside the office, which was a lovely spacious and airy room
with tons of light. The walls had just been painted white and I saw it as a
blank canvas. I suggested we do paws around the window frames and a couple
snakes alongside the doors with a sun in the corner and Georgia suggested grass
all along the bottom.
There were also a hundred or so pictures of past shelter animals that we were to hang on string around the room. Whilst ‘awwing’ at all the adorable dogs, I suddenly came across a few cats and kittens and then one that looked like Poppy which made me feel a bit sad as I miss waking up to her cuddles and was hoping she wasn’t going to forget me. We put on some music and our creative juices started flowing, I’ve always found painting/drawing so therapeutic and was really enjoying myself although I felt like I was in reception again! It wasn’t long before a couple of the small dogs, Mickie and Twirly, came to see what the fuss was about. Mickie decided to try and eat the paint and Twirly thought lying against the freshly painted walls was a good idea. I’m really starting to see all the different personalities of the dogs and each one makes me laugh in their own way. After lunch Stefanie asked us if we could help her with digging up some grass outside the property on the game reserve to put in the courtyard that sits in the middle of the house. We set off with the wheelbarrow and three shovels and I was brave enough to open the electric gate/fence, which was a new achievement. About a minute into our walk I was greeted with a not so popular creature – an army ant. I’d stepped on an anthill and found my foot invaded with these huge angry looking ants. My instinct was to shake them off but that made them angrier leading to a few bites which felt like needles in my foot! I screamed and Stefanie helped me and suggested I go and change my shoes to something other than flip flops – stupid me! I returned and we found a grassy area, although Stefanie said to walk through it carefully as you do get snakes around here (bloody hell I was becoming a nervous wreck at this point). We started digging with these huge spades and I nearly laughed to myself as I got covered in mud and my nails chipped and sweat was starting to drip down my forehead – I definitely wasn’t in London anymore. I was the first to dig out a square of the tough ground and Stefanie was quite shocked but I’d always been strong and I don’t really know how, maybe it was the Karate I used to do. That night Georgia and I fell asleep shortly after putting on a movie, we were shattered.
There were also a hundred or so pictures of past shelter animals that we were to hang on string around the room. Whilst ‘awwing’ at all the adorable dogs, I suddenly came across a few cats and kittens and then one that looked like Poppy which made me feel a bit sad as I miss waking up to her cuddles and was hoping she wasn’t going to forget me. We put on some music and our creative juices started flowing, I’ve always found painting/drawing so therapeutic and was really enjoying myself although I felt like I was in reception again! It wasn’t long before a couple of the small dogs, Mickie and Twirly, came to see what the fuss was about. Mickie decided to try and eat the paint and Twirly thought lying against the freshly painted walls was a good idea. I’m really starting to see all the different personalities of the dogs and each one makes me laugh in their own way. After lunch Stefanie asked us if we could help her with digging up some grass outside the property on the game reserve to put in the courtyard that sits in the middle of the house. We set off with the wheelbarrow and three shovels and I was brave enough to open the electric gate/fence, which was a new achievement. About a minute into our walk I was greeted with a not so popular creature – an army ant. I’d stepped on an anthill and found my foot invaded with these huge angry looking ants. My instinct was to shake them off but that made them angrier leading to a few bites which felt like needles in my foot! I screamed and Stefanie helped me and suggested I go and change my shoes to something other than flip flops – stupid me! I returned and we found a grassy area, although Stefanie said to walk through it carefully as you do get snakes around here (bloody hell I was becoming a nervous wreck at this point). We started digging with these huge spades and I nearly laughed to myself as I got covered in mud and my nails chipped and sweat was starting to drip down my forehead – I definitely wasn’t in London anymore. I was the first to dig out a square of the tough ground and Stefanie was quite shocked but I’d always been strong and I don’t really know how, maybe it was the Karate I used to do. That night Georgia and I fell asleep shortly after putting on a movie, we were shattered.
Day 59
Today we officially started work and we commenced with a
shelter day. We had to be ready and in the kitchen by 9. Stefanie suggested we
wear long bottoms as the puppies get excited and can accidently scratch so I
started with leggings but after half an hour at breakfast and not a cloud in
the sky, the heat was too much and I followed the German girls in wearing
shorts. They’d previously been in the Cape Town base and said the scratches did
not hurt. We set off to an area called Hardy’s where a sanctuary called Haw’s
was located. We turned in to the noise of tiny little meows and barks and my
heart sunk as I caught my first glimpse of the smallest animals I’d ever seen.
Stefanie explained on the way that it was easy to get emotional and to try not
to as it makes the job harder on yourself. This centre was not a pro-life
centre, which meant the animals only had a certain amount of time to get adopted
or they had to be put down which really upset me. On top of that, all these
animals had been abandoned somewhere or abused which meant their short life had
been set off to an awful start and many where terrified of humans. While
Stefanie caught up with the lady who ran Haw’s, the German girls, now I know
are called Francesca and Mariam, gave us a tour of the place. We started with
the rows of cages of puppies and kittens. The terror in some of their eyes as I
peered in was heart breaking and some were so young they should’ve still been
feeding off their mothers. Next we were able to go into a run where a large
litter of kittens were living and I was so excited. I sat down and while some
were too nervous to come over, a ginger and white one ran over and snuggled
straight into me! I picked it up, realising then it was just skin and bones and
held it close to me stroking it delicately. I wish I could’ve taken every
animal home that day.
Next we toured the older animals kennels and while some of the dogs were in groups of 3 we came across a bull terrier who was on his own. He was pacing up and down his small confinement like someone with a mental problem until I stopped and caught his eyes, they were weeping slightly from an infection but it looked as if he was crying, it was so sad. I asked Stefanie why he was on his own and she explained that this breed is stolen from people’s back gardens to be used in dog fighting, which is rife out here. The shelters tend to put them down as they are forced by these gangs to become aggressive and are then hard to rehome. Stefanie explained how she was against this idea and you can’t simply wipe out a breed because they are forced to fight against their own will. We took photos of every dog in his kennel line for the adoption programme but him and it made me realise he didn’t even stand a chance. Once I got over the emotions, I realised the harder I worked the more chance there was of these animals getting adopted so I jumped straight in, helping Stefanie set up the background and laying down the blanket on the floor and she then explained how it all worked. We bought cage by cage into the run once at a time and put them all on leads. While one was being photographed, we had to get to learn the personalities of each animal to write down for their profile.
Some were shy, some were curious, some were loving and some were funny – they were all very human like in their personalities. Stefanie taught me the best angles to shoot from and how to make the dog do certain positions with the help of treats of course! The day was very tiring both physically and emotionally but we left at 4.30 on a high note that come Monday I could start writing these animals a chance into a good life. Later that evening David found a Puff Adder up in the outhouse and had to kill it as a bite can kill humans…This was not the most comforting thing to hear before bedtime.
Week 14 - 13th January
Day 60
Next we toured the older animals kennels and while some of the dogs were in groups of 3 we came across a bull terrier who was on his own. He was pacing up and down his small confinement like someone with a mental problem until I stopped and caught his eyes, they were weeping slightly from an infection but it looked as if he was crying, it was so sad. I asked Stefanie why he was on his own and she explained that this breed is stolen from people’s back gardens to be used in dog fighting, which is rife out here. The shelters tend to put them down as they are forced by these gangs to become aggressive and are then hard to rehome. Stefanie explained how she was against this idea and you can’t simply wipe out a breed because they are forced to fight against their own will. We took photos of every dog in his kennel line for the adoption programme but him and it made me realise he didn’t even stand a chance. Once I got over the emotions, I realised the harder I worked the more chance there was of these animals getting adopted so I jumped straight in, helping Stefanie set up the background and laying down the blanket on the floor and she then explained how it all worked. We bought cage by cage into the run once at a time and put them all on leads. While one was being photographed, we had to get to learn the personalities of each animal to write down for their profile.
Some were shy, some were curious, some were loving and some were funny – they were all very human like in their personalities. Stefanie taught me the best angles to shoot from and how to make the dog do certain positions with the help of treats of course! The day was very tiring both physically and emotionally but we left at 4.30 on a high note that come Monday I could start writing these animals a chance into a good life. Later that evening David found a Puff Adder up in the outhouse and had to kill it as a bite can kill humans…This was not the most comforting thing to hear before bedtime.
Week 14 - 13th January
Day 60
My first office day commenced at 9am and I was eager to get
started. I sat at a desk with a view that many office’s would despise of. It
definitely helped towards my happy mood. Stefanie handed us a large guidebook,
like a how-to manual, which really really helped to get to know how the company
ran. However, there was a lot to take in and this worried me slightly as every
time I read a new page, I forgot the last! She also installed a very handy
Photoshop step-by-step guide onto our computers, which jogged my brain slightly
from when I last learnt about it at A-Level. After a while of installing and
reading and a lot of question asking I started my first project with the help
of Miriam. I was in charge of ‘Happy Tails’, which is a section of the Furkidz website/database
where the adopted animals are moved to once they’ve found a home. It took me a
while to get used to the database and finding my way around but eventually I
got it. I started with the shelter, Haws, we visited – so selected them and
then ‘dogs’ and used CMD + F to find the names of the dogs that were on a list
emailed to me. Next to each name was a letter A (Adopted) or PTS (Put to
sleep), which I found quite hard to deal with. My first PTS was Sandy, as I
typed in her name, a tiny golden puppy appeared on my screen and all I had to
do was click delete and she was gone forever, it wasn’t nice to think about and
even harder to delete her like she was just a file. But, like I remembered earlier, the more
effort I put in now, the more of a chance these animals might have of a life.
So, like a computer geek I leaned in to the screen and processed each name on
my list as quick, yet carefully, as possible so I could move on to my next
task. After a while I’d finished and it was time to use Photoshop. As I opened
it up, millions of options and buttons appeared and my mind blanked, but I
asked Francie to come over and help me. Albeit a slow process, I managed to
start work on my first animal we photographed, a Jack Russell called Peanut. I
had to download all his photos from that day off the hard drive then select his
best three, taking into account eye contact, stance and different postures
which I’d learnt meant different things. Then, I had to remove backgrounds,
remove leads and collars using the clone tool, resize the image, change photo
settings, alter colours, crop, even sometimes paste another dogs paw onto a dog
that had hidden his and carefully merge them together. Patience was the key to
this task, something of mine that is tested in these cases but I managed to
pull through. Before I knew it, it was 5 and was time to top up my tan – what an
easy life!
Day 61
Day 61
Today was about learning how to work the rest of the tools
and jobs used in the Furkidz Company. Miriam and Francie leave tomorrow so it
was vital we learnt as much as possible! Although I’d read the manual a few
times now, as the girls taught me how to physically do the tasks, my mind was
working overtime to remember each mouse click and move they made. We learnt
roughly about how to write and layout the newspaper articles and I noted down
how many dogs were to go into each newspaper in each area e.g. 7 in Cape Town
and 17 for Gauteng. Shortly after, I had to install the second software we were
to use which was Lightbox, another photo editing programme. I grasped the
concept quite quickly and learnt how to place their watermark on each photo
that was exported. Moving swiftly on I sat down with Miriam to learn how to
process the Spinner Update which was a moving banner on the homepage of the
website. 22 dogs and cats moved vertically across and as you scrolled over one,
their name appeared and you could click on them for more info. This was to try
and be updated daily using special web codes to form the module. I suddenly
felt like a complete computer whizz! From a marketing perspective, it was as if
the animals were products and I had to try and sell (rehome) as many as
possible and as I like a challenge, this was very fun. I’d rather have too much
to do than too little, so the amount of work didn’t bother me. However, the
website soon crashed and none of us could access it to complete our work which
I was soon realising a downside of being so rural.
Day 62
Day 62
We said our goodbyes to the German interns and soon realised
we were on our own to run this company! There were 8 interns in the period
before Christmas, and now it was just us two! We made an early start as we
still had work from late 2013 to sort out. I started updating the Happy Tails
for the Darg shelter and within half an hour the power was gone again –
Stefanie explained this was common in South Africa and laughed that everything
was laid back. Luckily, it was soon back on again. Next we got a lesson on SEO,
while writing the descriptions we needed to include popular words associated
with the company and the product (animals) so that Furkidz would appear in
searches related to it’s area of topic. We continued the day processing images
and making everything up to date on the database and website. I started on the
Spinner update with the animals from the Haws shelter.
Day 63
Day 63
Today was our second shelter visit, which was back at Haws,
as we didn’t finish all the animals last time. However, Stefanie had to stay
home as an electrician was coming which meant with Sarah’s help we were on our
own which was a tad scary! I pretended to be confident when she asked if we
were okay to do it but inside I was a bit over whelmed. None the less, we
arrived at Haws and it was a scorching hot day. It was approaching mid day and
there was barely any shade but we had to keep going to gain all the data for
the office work. The dogs were feeling the heat too and were not being very
cooperative which made life even harder. As I went round filling in the spread
sheet with the data tied to each Kennel, I realised some dogs were in the wrong
kennels, which meant we had to match each description, to each dog. Finally,
five o’clock approached and we managed to photograph and collect data for 23
dogs, which was good going!
Day 64
Ah Friday. After a hectic week, the weekend was approaching. However, today was not easy. We had to Photoshop and Lightroom and Watermark all 23 dogs and for each dog we were to edit 3 pictures each. It was one of the hottest days since we've been here and we were sweltering in the office and the deep concentration we needed for Photoshop was making it all harder. But eventually we got through it and after writing a paragraph for each Pet Profile, it was 5pm. I was shattered!
Week 15 - 20th January
Day 65
Week 15 - 20th January
Day 65
Today we set off to a new shelter called FORA. It was much
larger than Haws and they were a pro-life shelter, which made me feel happier
inside. We had the standard tour round and met everyone who was overly
friendly. Today we were focussing on a litter of Puppies who had been abandoned
in a box outside the gates very recently. They were just 8 weeks old and one of
the cutest sights I’ve seen in my life. However, with puppies comes lots of
excitement and scratches!! My legs and arms were torn apart in their play. For
the spreadsheet, we had to identify breed and gender ourselves, which was
interesting, Georgia got confused as the males had tiny teats too. I learnt
from the other shelters, in order to write the most interesting article and pet
profile, you need to uncover some unique traits to make them stand out. So I
tried to get to know each animal a little deeper and in turn I had some
original adjectives to note down. Most, or nearly all of the shelter’s have a
Facebook page and I reminded myself to check them out individually and see if
there was anything they could be doing differently to increase traffic and
interactivity. After a long day of collecting data and taking photos of the
animals, it was time to head home. My denim shorts were now a brown tinge and
my legs had an array of pink scratches, not your average 9-5 job!
Day 66
Day 67
Three shelter days in a row!! I was absolutely shattered but I knew we were doing so many here so that when we travel to Cape Town tomorrow we will have a lot of office work to get on with whilst we settle in. Back to Haws it was to collect data for the final kennel and a half. And also to pick up Jaques – a Jack Russell cross who was close to be euthanized. Stefanie explained this breed was popular in Cape Town and she was going to foster him whilst she found him a home there. There was not a cloud in the sky so we were forced to take photo’s in the kennels which gave me a hint into the lives these animals lead – it was bleak and lacked stimulus which drove a lot of them crazy. The volunteer vet came in about 12 and we were offered to watch her so I thought I’d give it a go. Neutering was this morning’s clinic and after 15 seconds of watching, I had to leave the room! Not a sight for the faint hearted! In the office I had a talk with Linda, the lady in charge. She was upset as today she found out the fundraising/donations had been stopped by the company that had sponsored them for years. Without this, everyday needs such as paying the staff to dog food would have to be cut and she explained this could lead to putting some of the dogs down. I noted this down on my phone and thought I’d have a brainstorm later of ideas to help her.
Day 68
This morning we packed and gathered our things ready for the 20 hour drive to Cape Town! We were moving down south as the company had more of a demand there at this point in time and so we were needed to help with the Christmas influx of work.
O Day 69
We arrived in Hout Bay at about 3pm local time and were absolutely exhausted. We unpacked, did a food shop and got an early night!
Week 16 - 27th January
Day 70
Today we were offered a day off as we'd previously worked on a Saturday to catch up with work and Stefanie said our hard work had paid off! I spent the day catching up on my blog and Skyping missed ones from home!
Day 71
Today we set up in our new office which was a lovely place to work. I'm starting the realise that the place you work in really affects your mood and how progressive you are. Lots of light and space and a calm and happy environment makes you work much better. I was glad we had the help of Marie, an intern here from Germany who had done 4 months so far. As we brought out all the data we'd collected from the shelters it seemed like we'd never get through it but I suggested if one did Photoshop, the other write the articles and the other start the uploading and website management we could rotate and get it done quicker. With so much to do the day went by in a whizz and although we didn't finish it, I still felt satisfied. We decided to go for a cocktail on the beach once we'd finished at 5 as we'd been working non stop.
Day 72
This morning I was a bit tired from last night but i've learnt over the course of this placement how to mix work and play - don't drink too much! I finished off the Happy Tails for ARK and then started writing the profiles for HAWS. A profile looks a bit like this - it must include certain factors that we have in a booklet in front of us. You must make some first person and some third:
Public Holiday. Day off!
Week 24 - 25th March 2014
Day 110
After a lovely 4 day weekend it came around to Monday again - my last week! I couldn't believe how quickly it had gone! Today we travelled to the Epping shelter for what was probably my last visit to my favourite shelter. I greeted Tanya in her office and she went through the adoptions with me and a list of new-comers. It was the perfect day - kittens and puppies! We started videoing as well for the new YouTube promo video for the Furkidz internship. After a long day and lots of kisses we had to left and having seen so many animals I help get adopted, I felt like I had some sort of impact on the place and it made me feel great.
Day 111
Today was our first day with the new American girl, Keri. She is great fun and a keen learner, meaning teaching her was very easy and she picked it up quickly! I had great fun editing the pictures of the kittens, they were so cute that your heart melts every-time one appeared on the screen. I started analysing the footage we captured and deleted clips that were no good. It was funny because the girls asked me to be in the video as some didn't want to be, so was interesting watching myself back! Here is a link of the current promotional video for the internship - however it is based in the Pretoria headquarters so we are creating the Cape Town version - exciting!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0HAp9CqMXY
Day 112
Today was meant to be a shelter day but a storm decided to brew and just before we left it poured it down. Not good shelter conditions! So we opted for an office day instead. We designed and created the poster that we were going to use for our promotional side of things. To increase awareness of the organisation, we contacted vets, shelters and supermarkets to ask if we could put our poster up at their sites. Poster boards are very popular here and all the local supermarkets have them, with adverts from taxi numbers to babysitters posted up.
Day 113
My last working day for Furkidz! It was very weird, it hadn't sunk in that I won't be doing this anymore, especially as the 3 months zoomed by! It was a lovely sunny office day and we had the music playing. I started with updating the Happy Tails from Johannesburg then started on the newspaper article for the Cape Town newspaper.
Day 114
Today I got given the day off to pack and visit the last thing on my To Visit list - Lion's Head!
Day 66
This morning we were off to a shelter I hadn’t been to before
called ARK. It was all the interns’ favourite shelter and I was soon to see
why. We drove up to this beautiful, huge house with palm trees and
Mediterranean tiles. Inside the gates we were greeted with some of the owner’s
dogs. Inside the shelter was laid out beautifully and had cute signs everywhere
e.g. Puppy Palour. It was a pro-life shelter that was for puppies! My first
glimpse into one of the pens saw a beautiful litter of golden pups with black
nozzles. After all the fuss of the pups we met the owner and she explained how
December alone they had 60 adoptions! Haws had only 5. I asked Stefanie why
this was and she explained it was because the daughter was married to someone
who worked high up in a big magazine out here and so they had fantastic marketing.
It just goes to show how vital marketing is for every type of business and the
figures exhibit this.
Day 67
Three shelter days in a row!! I was absolutely shattered but I knew we were doing so many here so that when we travel to Cape Town tomorrow we will have a lot of office work to get on with whilst we settle in. Back to Haws it was to collect data for the final kennel and a half. And also to pick up Jaques – a Jack Russell cross who was close to be euthanized. Stefanie explained this breed was popular in Cape Town and she was going to foster him whilst she found him a home there. There was not a cloud in the sky so we were forced to take photo’s in the kennels which gave me a hint into the lives these animals lead – it was bleak and lacked stimulus which drove a lot of them crazy. The volunteer vet came in about 12 and we were offered to watch her so I thought I’d give it a go. Neutering was this morning’s clinic and after 15 seconds of watching, I had to leave the room! Not a sight for the faint hearted! In the office I had a talk with Linda, the lady in charge. She was upset as today she found out the fundraising/donations had been stopped by the company that had sponsored them for years. Without this, everyday needs such as paying the staff to dog food would have to be cut and she explained this could lead to putting some of the dogs down. I noted this down on my phone and thought I’d have a brainstorm later of ideas to help her.
Day 68
This morning we packed and gathered our things ready for the 20 hour drive to Cape Town! We were moving down south as the company had more of a demand there at this point in time and so we were needed to help with the Christmas influx of work.
O Day 69
We arrived in Hout Bay at about 3pm local time and were absolutely exhausted. We unpacked, did a food shop and got an early night!
Week 16 - 27th January
Day 70
Today we were offered a day off as we'd previously worked on a Saturday to catch up with work and Stefanie said our hard work had paid off! I spent the day catching up on my blog and Skyping missed ones from home!
Day 71
Today we set up in our new office which was a lovely place to work. I'm starting the realise that the place you work in really affects your mood and how progressive you are. Lots of light and space and a calm and happy environment makes you work much better. I was glad we had the help of Marie, an intern here from Germany who had done 4 months so far. As we brought out all the data we'd collected from the shelters it seemed like we'd never get through it but I suggested if one did Photoshop, the other write the articles and the other start the uploading and website management we could rotate and get it done quicker. With so much to do the day went by in a whizz and although we didn't finish it, I still felt satisfied. We decided to go for a cocktail on the beach once we'd finished at 5 as we'd been working non stop.
Day 72
This morning I was a bit tired from last night but i've learnt over the course of this placement how to mix work and play - don't drink too much! I finished off the Happy Tails for ARK and then started writing the profiles for HAWS. A profile looks a bit like this - it must include certain factors that we have in a booklet in front of us. You must make some first person and some third:
Mia
Mumma Mia isn't she beautiful?! This gorgeous female
grey tabby is just 3 months old! She isn't scared to come up and ask you for a cuddle
and she longs for a home where she will be loved and snuggled all day long. But
don't forget about her inner kitten! Any loose laces or bracelets and Mia will
be playing with them for hours. It's adorable to watch and this striking kitty
could be yours. Visit Mia today at Haws and you won't be able to say no!
Mandla
Hello, anyone there? I'm Mandla, a 3-month old, male,
ginger and white tabby. I'm looking a little skinny at the moment because I'm so
hungry. I dream every night about being snuggled in bed with someone who loves
me back. Could this be you? I'm used to playing all day long with my brothers
and sisters, so prepare yourself for endless fun with me! Please give me a
chance and visit me at Haws today, maybe your home could be mine too?
In college I took an extra-curricular course called Creative Writing. This definitely has helped me in my writing as I learnt the different needs for different types of writing. In this case I remembered to use questions and 'you' to involve the reader and adjectives that people can associate with the animal. The first sentence should be grabbing and use Mumma-Mia for Mia gave it a playful and interesting tone.
Day 73
Thursday was a short day as we finished work at 3pm to go into Cape Town and pick up our rental car. But the day was similar to yesterday, we still had dozens of puppies from Johannesburg to get online and even with 3 of us working on it, it was taking a while.
Day 74
Friday! And we finally finished the Christmas load and the Johannesburg shelters. We also had a talk with Stefanie about the newspaper ad's. We needed to select 5 dogs, of different size, breed and age etc to go into the local paper. This had to be accompanied with an article of course about them and the organisation.
Week 17 - 3rd February
Day 75
Our first shelter day in Cape Town! Marie drove us as to AACL in Belville as she knew the way from previous trips. As we arrived to the very industrialised area, Marie told us to do up our windows and lock the doors of the car (just in case). We arrived to AACL to see it was packed with cars and I realised because today was clinic day. We walked in to see all the owner's patiently waiting with their cats and puppies and dogs and kittens, all of whom looked a bit poorly. We were shown through by the receptionist to be greeted by Hellen, a lady from Northampton, UK! It was inspiring to see how much hard work she put into the shelter and how touched she was by each and every animal that was brought there. Before we started she pleaded that we try our hardest to get Biscuit adopted as he is unwell and if he doesn't get adopted in a month he'll be put down. I met Biscuit as I entered a puppy run and noticed all but one jumping around. There was Biscuit, a gorgeous German Shepard cross puppy. When it came to photo time I offered to take Biscuit's as I was going to put every ounce of effort into getting him a home. I then studied him to note down personality traits along with his gender, breed and age etc. Later, we were met with a large litter of kittens and countless other dogs all wanting the same thing - a home. Unlike some other placement's I'd completed, I really enjoyed getting something back and doing something so good always meant I left on a real high.
Day 76
Today we routinely collated the data and sorted it into a system, edited, wrote profiles and uploaded the dogs and cats. We finished this by about 3pm however and I suggested we generate ideas for Furkidz social media. Starting with their Facebook page, we brainstormed ideas of content to upload, how often and what times and what sort of links and status's they'd post. We suggested they needed to mix up the content slightly more by for example including ways people could get involved with helping animals themselves and creating ideas for fundraising. Maybe links to funny pet videos or animal videos could also provide some entertainment.
Day 77
After a couple of cocktails last night, we all woke to feel a bit uneasy about the idea of a shelter day in Stellenbosch (an hour away) but luckily our friend Esther had agreed last night to come down and help and she used to intern for Furkidz. I slept the whole way in the car and felt better once we got there. It was a well kept shelter and the large number of staff meant we had assistance when trying to get dogs in and out of kennels and runs. I was looking around their reception room and they had made a real effort with their marketing. There were links to their Facebook page and posters all dotted around promoting the organisation. We were handed the new dogs list which was about 20 and with four of us we finished by 2 o'clock! So we came home and wrote our blogs and planned our routine for the office day tomorrow.
Day 78
Today we split up all the data from yesterday and I had finally downloaded the trial version of Photoshop, so I could start helping with that again. This meant we could all write our own profiles for the animals we edited which worked quicker. Later that day I had an idea of another platform for Furkidz - Instagram. As it is picture based, it would be perfect to show people just how cute the animals are that Furkidz are trying to re-home. Stefanie said she'd look into what exactly it was but that it sounded like a good idea!
Day 79
This morning I looked into other organisations or animal based companies that had used the Instagram route to show Stefanie how it works and its effectiveness and she really liked the idea. The only issue was once we'd left who would run it, would other interns take over etc so we had a think about that. Then nearing the afternoon I used Lightroom to add the watermark to my edited pictures from yesterday and began writing profiles.
Week 18 - 10th February
Day 80
I managed to screenshot some of the examples of editing I've been doing whilst working for Furkidz. Here is an example of what we have to do for the 'first' picture out of the three we choose for each animals profile. It involves using the lasso tool to outline the animal and then remove the background, then 'refine edge' to soften to outline and create a new layer to paste it onto and turning the background to white.
Once this is done you have to resize the image to around 400 x 600 and export.
Day 81
We set off for Epping again today as we didn't managed to collate data for the puppies - the big dogs took up the whole day! Georgia and Marie had contracted a bug that was going round so weren't feeling too great. There were 4 litters of puppies, each averaging 5 - so there were a lot! Luckily puppies are easy as you simply hold them in your hand, whereas dogs you have to train to sit and then lie down and turn to the side. Georgia and Marie took it in turns to sit down and hold puppies so I photographed as I was feeling fine. Around 4 o'clock we left to collet the new intern, Julia from Austria, from Cape Town International airport. I felt like I was going home as we entered the beautifully air conned airport. I was a bit embarrassed as we were hot and bothered and covered in hair and mud from the shelter - not the best of greetings for Julia! I held up a sign we made for her and we finally met her, she was lovely and spoke perfect English which was lucky for us!
Day 82
Today was all about teaching. Julia started by reading all the internship manuals and Stefanie talked her through what we did while we started organising and downloading the photos. Next we all had to teach her a different element. I taught her Lightroom which was easier said than done, I was so used to speeding through it I had to remember to slow down and explain things very well. After that I did one with her and let her use the mouse which I thought was a good technique as she had a chance to ask me if she forgot. Not too long after she had the swing of things and was off learning the next step.
Day 83
This morning we set off to DARG which is the closest shelter to us in Hout Bay. But, just as we were going through recent adopting, new comers, deaths etc the rain started to spit. As the pictures have to be taken outside for lighting reasons we decided to return tomorrow and spend today more productively in the office. I started writing the profiles for the cats of Epping, of which there were 9 all black kittens!! Trying to make each sound different and unique was very hard but looking up synonyms helped.
Day 84
Valentines day! Today we headed back to Darg to complete what we started. It was a beautiful shelter that looked like an old house as it had statues and house-like features to it. We had to run Julia through everything and she was excited to get started. We brought out Zebedee, a Staffie who the shelter explained was very hard to re-home as Staffie's have an unfortunate stereotype because they are used for dog-fighting. Ironically, she was a softie and very well behaved! After a long day in the sun we returned home to get ready for our Valentines meal we had booked on the beach. It was romantic and beautiful and stopped the feeling of being alone (after a few cocktails of course).
Week 19 - 17th February
Day 85
Today we had an office day that was cut in half as 3 new interns were arriving! 2 girls from Sweden and 1 girl from Germany - it was weird going back to the airport again and realised that my time here was going incredibly quickly - too quickly! We picked up Mimi, Blue and Annie and they were all very friendly and excited (phew!). We realised things were going to get a bit more complicated with 7 of us now here as only 5 people can fit in the car but Stefanie explained you just split in half and take things in turn which was good.
Day 86
Everyone together in the office was a bit different! We went from having 3 of us last week to now 7 but the more company the better. It was amazing to see how well they all spoke English and teaching them the different roles in the job was easy. A couple of them already knew how to work Photoshop so picked things up very quickly which was handy. I continued editing the cats from Epping and started writing profiles from Darg - there was a lot to do!
Day 87
Today it was just Julia and I in the office as the other 5 went to a shelter. It was quite nice to have just the two of us as when we're all there it can get a bit hectic. We formed a nice routine of working and were getting things done crazily quick. It was nice to hear that one of the black kittens I took photos of was adopted today as there was such a large litter of all black kittens, I thought people may pass them as there were other 'prettier' cats.
Day 88
We had a lot to catch up on today as we were starting to get confused about where we were with each shelter which highlights the need for organisation in a large group. We noted down where each individual was and dished out jobs based on that. Finally, after a long and confusing day, we were up to speed. Here is an example of how we upload and manage the Furkidz website. There are a lot of codes and options you need to use and the file size and amount of words must not exceed a certain amount:
Day 89
Heldeberg! We were visiting the shelter the most farthest away today - 1 and 1/2 hours away! I was co-pilot on the way there, reading instructions that Stefanie gave us and surprisingly we got there okay. We got stuck straight in as there was so many dogs to get through. This shelter was harder than others as in each Kennel section all the dogs were out in the free run so we had to put them all away but one and take them out one by one. Apart from Marie, I was the only other experienced member so I had to take control and teach the newbies the routine. We had to find out the data for each dog as it wasn't listed which was time consuming but we eventually did about 30 dogs and I conquered my fear of Pitbulls!! The only downer on the day was the ending. As we were sitting in reception we saw a dog with a large wound on him being taken into the clinic, but I thought he'd be fine as his tail was wagging and he didn't act ill. Quarter of an hour later a body bag was carried out and and once the vet locked up her door I put two and two together. It was a harsh reality to this side of the job and once again made me feel even better about the work I was doing and encouraged me to keep working hard.
Week 20 - 24th February
Day 90
This morning Georgia and I had a meeting with Stefanie regarding the social media aspect of the job. She explained she had chosen us as English was our mother tongue and as our degree was marketing it made sense. We presented our list of ideas with Stefanie and bounced off her thoughts of them, some she liked, some she loved, some didn't work. Eventually we had a final list to go ahead with. Now it was time to think up catchy names for the different days, e.g. a day for uploading lost pets. We created Missing Mondays and Found Fridays which had a memorable ring to it.
Day 91
Today was an eventful day. We set off to the Heldeberg shelter and within 15 minutes our car broke down! Luckily we were before a junction and managed to pull into the side of the road. Being South Africa, it took 2 hours before help arrived and Stefanie suggested we come home and help with the office work. By the time we had arrived home the other girls had finished all the office work and we had a beach day! We visited Llududno Beach, a surfer's paradise. We were greeted with a load of shark warnings which was a bit eery but didn't ruin the beauty of the beach.
Day 92
One of my ideas was to create an uploading schedule - social media management has to be continuous and organised, you can't post whatever whenever. It has to lie in conjunction with objectives and achieve something. Also, by creating a schedule, the work can be passed on more easily when we leave. Below is the start of my Excel Spreadsheet I created:
Day 93
A more creative day today, I started sketching ideas for the poster that we would post on Missing Monday's and Found Friday's. It had to be simple, yet explanatory and eye catching. I Google'd Lost & Found posters to get a feel for them and starting creating layouts and match colours to the Furkidz brand colours.
Day 94
Today we finished up all the weeks work and finished early! I was updating for a shelter called Puppy and Kitty Haven and they had the cutest names for their cats such as Roger Rabbit, Christmas and Domino.
Week 21 - March 3rd
Day 95
This morning, Stefanie sent us a list of shelters that needed updating in general. We split the list in half and Georgia and I got to work. We don't get to visit all the shelters as some don't want visits etc so we use their own pictures etc although it can make it harder as you don't get to bond with the animals so the descriptions can be harder to write. Later in the afternoon I checked out some of the shelter's Facebook pages to get a feel for what people were posting and noted down some good tactics for use in our strategy. One popular, and very entertaining tactic was the use of Meme's to keep entertainment and interest flowing. Meme's have become very popular on social media and whether its a re-post or a customised one, it'll be sure to have your audience smiling. For example:
Today I finally finished my Poster to integrate into our social media strategy. It was to share online (Facebook) to make people aware of Missing Mondays and Found Fridays. I really enjoyed the designing of the poster and used previous knowledge to help me create it. Hopefully it will raise awareness and out strategy will start to work!
Week 22 - 10th March 2014
Day 73
Thursday was a short day as we finished work at 3pm to go into Cape Town and pick up our rental car. But the day was similar to yesterday, we still had dozens of puppies from Johannesburg to get online and even with 3 of us working on it, it was taking a while.
Day 74
Friday! And we finally finished the Christmas load and the Johannesburg shelters. We also had a talk with Stefanie about the newspaper ad's. We needed to select 5 dogs, of different size, breed and age etc to go into the local paper. This had to be accompanied with an article of course about them and the organisation.
Week 17 - 3rd February
Day 75
Our first shelter day in Cape Town! Marie drove us as to AACL in Belville as she knew the way from previous trips. As we arrived to the very industrialised area, Marie told us to do up our windows and lock the doors of the car (just in case). We arrived to AACL to see it was packed with cars and I realised because today was clinic day. We walked in to see all the owner's patiently waiting with their cats and puppies and dogs and kittens, all of whom looked a bit poorly. We were shown through by the receptionist to be greeted by Hellen, a lady from Northampton, UK! It was inspiring to see how much hard work she put into the shelter and how touched she was by each and every animal that was brought there. Before we started she pleaded that we try our hardest to get Biscuit adopted as he is unwell and if he doesn't get adopted in a month he'll be put down. I met Biscuit as I entered a puppy run and noticed all but one jumping around. There was Biscuit, a gorgeous German Shepard cross puppy. When it came to photo time I offered to take Biscuit's as I was going to put every ounce of effort into getting him a home. I then studied him to note down personality traits along with his gender, breed and age etc. Later, we were met with a large litter of kittens and countless other dogs all wanting the same thing - a home. Unlike some other placement's I'd completed, I really enjoyed getting something back and doing something so good always meant I left on a real high.
Day 76
Today we routinely collated the data and sorted it into a system, edited, wrote profiles and uploaded the dogs and cats. We finished this by about 3pm however and I suggested we generate ideas for Furkidz social media. Starting with their Facebook page, we brainstormed ideas of content to upload, how often and what times and what sort of links and status's they'd post. We suggested they needed to mix up the content slightly more by for example including ways people could get involved with helping animals themselves and creating ideas for fundraising. Maybe links to funny pet videos or animal videos could also provide some entertainment.
Day 77
After a couple of cocktails last night, we all woke to feel a bit uneasy about the idea of a shelter day in Stellenbosch (an hour away) but luckily our friend Esther had agreed last night to come down and help and she used to intern for Furkidz. I slept the whole way in the car and felt better once we got there. It was a well kept shelter and the large number of staff meant we had assistance when trying to get dogs in and out of kennels and runs. I was looking around their reception room and they had made a real effort with their marketing. There were links to their Facebook page and posters all dotted around promoting the organisation. We were handed the new dogs list which was about 20 and with four of us we finished by 2 o'clock! So we came home and wrote our blogs and planned our routine for the office day tomorrow.
Day 78
Today we split up all the data from yesterday and I had finally downloaded the trial version of Photoshop, so I could start helping with that again. This meant we could all write our own profiles for the animals we edited which worked quicker. Later that day I had an idea of another platform for Furkidz - Instagram. As it is picture based, it would be perfect to show people just how cute the animals are that Furkidz are trying to re-home. Stefanie said she'd look into what exactly it was but that it sounded like a good idea!
Day 79
This morning I looked into other organisations or animal based companies that had used the Instagram route to show Stefanie how it works and its effectiveness and she really liked the idea. The only issue was once we'd left who would run it, would other interns take over etc so we had a think about that. Then nearing the afternoon I used Lightroom to add the watermark to my edited pictures from yesterday and began writing profiles.
Week 18 - 10th February
Day 80
I managed to screenshot some of the examples of editing I've been doing whilst working for Furkidz. Here is an example of what we have to do for the 'first' picture out of the three we choose for each animals profile. It involves using the lasso tool to outline the animal and then remove the background, then 'refine edge' to soften to outline and create a new layer to paste it onto and turning the background to white.
Once this is done you have to resize the image to around 400 x 600 and export.
Day 81
We set off for Epping again today as we didn't managed to collate data for the puppies - the big dogs took up the whole day! Georgia and Marie had contracted a bug that was going round so weren't feeling too great. There were 4 litters of puppies, each averaging 5 - so there were a lot! Luckily puppies are easy as you simply hold them in your hand, whereas dogs you have to train to sit and then lie down and turn to the side. Georgia and Marie took it in turns to sit down and hold puppies so I photographed as I was feeling fine. Around 4 o'clock we left to collet the new intern, Julia from Austria, from Cape Town International airport. I felt like I was going home as we entered the beautifully air conned airport. I was a bit embarrassed as we were hot and bothered and covered in hair and mud from the shelter - not the best of greetings for Julia! I held up a sign we made for her and we finally met her, she was lovely and spoke perfect English which was lucky for us!
Day 82
Today was all about teaching. Julia started by reading all the internship manuals and Stefanie talked her through what we did while we started organising and downloading the photos. Next we all had to teach her a different element. I taught her Lightroom which was easier said than done, I was so used to speeding through it I had to remember to slow down and explain things very well. After that I did one with her and let her use the mouse which I thought was a good technique as she had a chance to ask me if she forgot. Not too long after she had the swing of things and was off learning the next step.
Day 83
This morning we set off to DARG which is the closest shelter to us in Hout Bay. But, just as we were going through recent adopting, new comers, deaths etc the rain started to spit. As the pictures have to be taken outside for lighting reasons we decided to return tomorrow and spend today more productively in the office. I started writing the profiles for the cats of Epping, of which there were 9 all black kittens!! Trying to make each sound different and unique was very hard but looking up synonyms helped.
Day 84
Valentines day! Today we headed back to Darg to complete what we started. It was a beautiful shelter that looked like an old house as it had statues and house-like features to it. We had to run Julia through everything and she was excited to get started. We brought out Zebedee, a Staffie who the shelter explained was very hard to re-home as Staffie's have an unfortunate stereotype because they are used for dog-fighting. Ironically, she was a softie and very well behaved! After a long day in the sun we returned home to get ready for our Valentines meal we had booked on the beach. It was romantic and beautiful and stopped the feeling of being alone (after a few cocktails of course).
Week 19 - 17th February
Day 85
Today we had an office day that was cut in half as 3 new interns were arriving! 2 girls from Sweden and 1 girl from Germany - it was weird going back to the airport again and realised that my time here was going incredibly quickly - too quickly! We picked up Mimi, Blue and Annie and they were all very friendly and excited (phew!). We realised things were going to get a bit more complicated with 7 of us now here as only 5 people can fit in the car but Stefanie explained you just split in half and take things in turn which was good.
Day 86
Everyone together in the office was a bit different! We went from having 3 of us last week to now 7 but the more company the better. It was amazing to see how well they all spoke English and teaching them the different roles in the job was easy. A couple of them already knew how to work Photoshop so picked things up very quickly which was handy. I continued editing the cats from Epping and started writing profiles from Darg - there was a lot to do!
Day 87
Today it was just Julia and I in the office as the other 5 went to a shelter. It was quite nice to have just the two of us as when we're all there it can get a bit hectic. We formed a nice routine of working and were getting things done crazily quick. It was nice to hear that one of the black kittens I took photos of was adopted today as there was such a large litter of all black kittens, I thought people may pass them as there were other 'prettier' cats.
Day 88
We had a lot to catch up on today as we were starting to get confused about where we were with each shelter which highlights the need for organisation in a large group. We noted down where each individual was and dished out jobs based on that. Finally, after a long and confusing day, we were up to speed. Here is an example of how we upload and manage the Furkidz website. There are a lot of codes and options you need to use and the file size and amount of words must not exceed a certain amount:
Day 89
Heldeberg! We were visiting the shelter the most farthest away today - 1 and 1/2 hours away! I was co-pilot on the way there, reading instructions that Stefanie gave us and surprisingly we got there okay. We got stuck straight in as there was so many dogs to get through. This shelter was harder than others as in each Kennel section all the dogs were out in the free run so we had to put them all away but one and take them out one by one. Apart from Marie, I was the only other experienced member so I had to take control and teach the newbies the routine. We had to find out the data for each dog as it wasn't listed which was time consuming but we eventually did about 30 dogs and I conquered my fear of Pitbulls!! The only downer on the day was the ending. As we were sitting in reception we saw a dog with a large wound on him being taken into the clinic, but I thought he'd be fine as his tail was wagging and he didn't act ill. Quarter of an hour later a body bag was carried out and and once the vet locked up her door I put two and two together. It was a harsh reality to this side of the job and once again made me feel even better about the work I was doing and encouraged me to keep working hard.
Week 20 - 24th February
Day 90
This morning Georgia and I had a meeting with Stefanie regarding the social media aspect of the job. She explained she had chosen us as English was our mother tongue and as our degree was marketing it made sense. We presented our list of ideas with Stefanie and bounced off her thoughts of them, some she liked, some she loved, some didn't work. Eventually we had a final list to go ahead with. Now it was time to think up catchy names for the different days, e.g. a day for uploading lost pets. We created Missing Mondays and Found Fridays which had a memorable ring to it.
Today was an eventful day. We set off to the Heldeberg shelter and within 15 minutes our car broke down! Luckily we were before a junction and managed to pull into the side of the road. Being South Africa, it took 2 hours before help arrived and Stefanie suggested we come home and help with the office work. By the time we had arrived home the other girls had finished all the office work and we had a beach day! We visited Llududno Beach, a surfer's paradise. We were greeted with a load of shark warnings which was a bit eery but didn't ruin the beauty of the beach.
Day 92
One of my ideas was to create an uploading schedule - social media management has to be continuous and organised, you can't post whatever whenever. It has to lie in conjunction with objectives and achieve something. Also, by creating a schedule, the work can be passed on more easily when we leave. Below is the start of my Excel Spreadsheet I created:
Day 93
A more creative day today, I started sketching ideas for the poster that we would post on Missing Monday's and Found Friday's. It had to be simple, yet explanatory and eye catching. I Google'd Lost & Found posters to get a feel for them and starting creating layouts and match colours to the Furkidz brand colours.
Day 94
Today we finished up all the weeks work and finished early! I was updating for a shelter called Puppy and Kitty Haven and they had the cutest names for their cats such as Roger Rabbit, Christmas and Domino.
Week 21 - March 3rd
Day 95
This morning, Stefanie sent us a list of shelters that needed updating in general. We split the list in half and Georgia and I got to work. We don't get to visit all the shelters as some don't want visits etc so we use their own pictures etc although it can make it harder as you don't get to bond with the animals so the descriptions can be harder to write. Later in the afternoon I checked out some of the shelter's Facebook pages to get a feel for what people were posting and noted down some good tactics for use in our strategy. One popular, and very entertaining tactic was the use of Meme's to keep entertainment and interest flowing. Meme's have become very popular on social media and whether its a re-post or a customised one, it'll be sure to have your audience smiling. For example:
Day 96
Whilst emailing with my Placement Advisor Debbie, I found out that she would like to put forward my placement blog to My Career Hub and Study Abroad etc - I was delighted! It does take a lot of effort to post every single day of my 40-week placement but I was so happy to know that my work was paying off. The rest of the day I was brainstorming more ideas for our online strategy and writing profiles for the website.
Day 97
Day off! After looking after her 5 dogs over the week whilst she was away, Stefanie explained yesterday when she arrived home that we had earned a free day. So, making the most of the weather he headed to Clifton beach for a beach day!
Day 98
Now there was 7 of us, two had to stay at home on Shelter days but I didn't really mind that, so Blue and I put ourselves forward. Shortly into the morning, whilst collating the data for the Top Dogs newspaper articles, the electricity went. Stefanie tried to work out what happened until Amos, a guy who rents a room here explained they'd had a lot of rainfall in the North and they'd left the coal out which is now soaked so they can't use it to burn for electricity. So, they're turning off electricity in different suburbs to save some - only in South Africa! I couldn't believe they would just turn it off with no warning, she explained people get stuck in lifts and all sorts! South Africa are trying to call themselves a first world country but I personally think they still have a while to go.
Day 99
Today I finally finished my Poster to integrate into our social media strategy. It was to share online (Facebook) to make people aware of Missing Mondays and Found Fridays. I really enjoyed the designing of the poster and used previous knowledge to help me create it. Hopefully it will raise awareness and out strategy will start to work!
Week 22 - 10th March 2014
Day 100
This morning I got forwarded an email from Stefanie which had been sent by a family who had an enquiry. I had to use my people handling skills and work out how to respond in an empathetic and formal business manner. It also included me using my own judgement to meet her needs and respond with an appropriate and relevant list of dogs up for adoption:
Day 101
Today Stefanie asked if I personally could help set up a Pinterest page for Furkidz as Georgia wasn't so confident. I have my own Pinterest page so I understand the platform very well and was very happy she asked me for such a big responsibility. We talked through ideas and I helped explain what the site was about and what you do. I started researching into similar companies that had used Pinterest as a platform to see how they went about it. Then I spent the ideas drafting a plan and layout.
Day 102
The morning didn't start off so well as we remembered Georgia locked the car keys in the car, so we had to walk to the nearest shelter which was Darg. Luckily it was only about half an hour away but in the heat and carrying all the equipment, it felt much longer. We arrived and I headed to the office to get an adoption update of which I went through with the manager, Maxwell. Next, a list of all the new dogs and I had to fill in breed, age, size etc. We cracked straight on and whisked through them very speedily. We finished slightly early so went around cuddling the puppies and kittens - hard day ;)!
Day 103
Today was Stellenbosch shelter which was very far away and needed a lot of people, but one person also needed to stay at home and tackle all the work. I offered as I work quite well on my own and sometimes enjoy having a lot of work to get through, makes me competitive! So I started off by updating the Happy Tails on the database (the adoption list), then Stefanie asked me to help her with Top Dogs, the article for the Cape Town newspaper then later I posted some pictures and captions to Facebook, keeping up with our social media plan. And finally, I edited all of yesterdays photos on Photoshop and arranged them into organised folders. Busy, busy day!
Day 104
Everyone was home today and we practised our team skills by getting all the work done as quick as we could!! It was quite fun competing against ourselves. Stefanie also briefed us about writing a new intern information PDF, or at least updating the last one. I put myself forward to be apart of it as I needed to start collecting things for my portfolio.
Week 23 - 17th March
Day 105
This morning we updated the social media and got started with the weeks strategy. Then once we had finished we helped the rest of the team with the website and database. I took a picture below of the office, it is a very relaxed environment and is very light and airy (I love it!). Later at 6pm my time, I had a FaceTime call with Debbie, my Placement Advisor. I always enjoyed talking to Debbie and we had kept in contact a lot through my placement which really helped. Some other students on my course didn't have the personal element or regular contact like I did so I counted myself lucky. We spoke about my past targets and had I achieved them or not, how everything generally was, options and coursework and feedback from myself on the internship etc. Was great.
Day 102
The morning didn't start off so well as we remembered Georgia locked the car keys in the car, so we had to walk to the nearest shelter which was Darg. Luckily it was only about half an hour away but in the heat and carrying all the equipment, it felt much longer. We arrived and I headed to the office to get an adoption update of which I went through with the manager, Maxwell. Next, a list of all the new dogs and I had to fill in breed, age, size etc. We cracked straight on and whisked through them very speedily. We finished slightly early so went around cuddling the puppies and kittens - hard day ;)!
Day 103
Today was Stellenbosch shelter which was very far away and needed a lot of people, but one person also needed to stay at home and tackle all the work. I offered as I work quite well on my own and sometimes enjoy having a lot of work to get through, makes me competitive! So I started off by updating the Happy Tails on the database (the adoption list), then Stefanie asked me to help her with Top Dogs, the article for the Cape Town newspaper then later I posted some pictures and captions to Facebook, keeping up with our social media plan. And finally, I edited all of yesterdays photos on Photoshop and arranged them into organised folders. Busy, busy day!
Day 104
Everyone was home today and we practised our team skills by getting all the work done as quick as we could!! It was quite fun competing against ourselves. Stefanie also briefed us about writing a new intern information PDF, or at least updating the last one. I put myself forward to be apart of it as I needed to start collecting things for my portfolio.
Week 23 - 17th March
Day 105
This morning we updated the social media and got started with the weeks strategy. Then once we had finished we helped the rest of the team with the website and database. I took a picture below of the office, it is a very relaxed environment and is very light and airy (I love it!). Later at 6pm my time, I had a FaceTime call with Debbie, my Placement Advisor. I always enjoyed talking to Debbie and we had kept in contact a lot through my placement which really helped. Some other students on my course didn't have the personal element or regular contact like I did so I counted myself lucky. We spoke about my past targets and had I achieved them or not, how everything generally was, options and coursework and feedback from myself on the internship etc. Was great.
Day 106
Today we broke the Heldeberg curse and actually made it there! The previous two times we attempted to drive to this shelter the car had broken down so we were very pleased. There were a lot of animals to catch up on and we worked through blood, sweat and nearly tears to get through them all in the burning heat. The physical aspect can be very tough and I almost thing it has made me more motivated, before I probably would've given up as soon as I got hot and bothered but seeing the effects of your work is so beneficial.
Day 107
We sadly had to say goodbye to the Swedes today, they were such a great addition to the team and brought so much colour (literally, one had blue hair!). Julia and I had to drop them at their new accommodation in Sea Point and then drove straight to Cape Town International Airport to pick up the new intern from Mozambique! There was a lot of change to the work team and took some adjusting to but everything learnt is a lesson and a new skill learnt, how to adapt quickly and how to react to a lot of changes.
Day 108
Today we finished off the last of the editing and uploading and contacted Heldeberg for their adoption list as they had forgotten. We then had to have a house spring clean and Georgia and I had to take the intern car in for a service as the brakes were playing up. Whilst that was happening we finally got our tattoos done! I got a small one on my ankle of the outline of Africa with a paw at the bottom so I can always remember this journey.
Day 109
Public Holiday. Day off!
Week 24 - 25th March 2014
Day 110
After a lovely 4 day weekend it came around to Monday again - my last week! I couldn't believe how quickly it had gone! Today we travelled to the Epping shelter for what was probably my last visit to my favourite shelter. I greeted Tanya in her office and she went through the adoptions with me and a list of new-comers. It was the perfect day - kittens and puppies! We started videoing as well for the new YouTube promo video for the Furkidz internship. After a long day and lots of kisses we had to left and having seen so many animals I help get adopted, I felt like I had some sort of impact on the place and it made me feel great.
Day 111
Today was our first day with the new American girl, Keri. She is great fun and a keen learner, meaning teaching her was very easy and she picked it up quickly! I had great fun editing the pictures of the kittens, they were so cute that your heart melts every-time one appeared on the screen. I started analysing the footage we captured and deleted clips that were no good. It was funny because the girls asked me to be in the video as some didn't want to be, so was interesting watching myself back! Here is a link of the current promotional video for the internship - however it is based in the Pretoria headquarters so we are creating the Cape Town version - exciting!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0HAp9CqMXY
Day 112
Today was meant to be a shelter day but a storm decided to brew and just before we left it poured it down. Not good shelter conditions! So we opted for an office day instead. We designed and created the poster that we were going to use for our promotional side of things. To increase awareness of the organisation, we contacted vets, shelters and supermarkets to ask if we could put our poster up at their sites. Poster boards are very popular here and all the local supermarkets have them, with adverts from taxi numbers to babysitters posted up.
Day 113
My last working day for Furkidz! It was very weird, it hadn't sunk in that I won't be doing this anymore, especially as the 3 months zoomed by! It was a lovely sunny office day and we had the music playing. I started with updating the Happy Tails from Johannesburg then started on the newspaper article for the Cape Town newspaper.
Day 114
Today I got given the day off to pack and visit the last thing on my To Visit list - Lion's Head!
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