Chapter 55 - Chapter 55: The Bell Over The Door

I didn't get much sleep last night. After waiting on Zondi's landing until two in the morning, I wandered back across the road to my own place for some rest, but I only had a few hours before I had to be up again. I wanted to get to the shelter early to check on the dogs.

Since before six, fans have been filling the pavement outside our scruffy little converted double-storey on Jan Smuts. They're loud, and for a lot of the pups the shouting and the singing and the music coming off a bakkie parked half on the kerb is frightening, especially when you're somewhere new and not in the home you were used to. Hawkers have taken over the closed road outside, and a man is selling club flags and plastic horns off a trestle table right under our window.

Thankfully our group of senior dogs has been mostly unbothered by any of it, but either way, I'm glad to be spending the day here. It's a good distraction from the fact that I still haven't seen him.

Charity and I weren't opening today. We only came by to check on the dogs. The pavements are too crowded, the route is closed, the CBD is shut and half of Joburg isn't at work. A day with the door shut is a day with no adoptions and no walk-in donations, which this place cannot really afford in a month where the money in only ever covers about half of what goes out, but there was no version of today where we were going to be open.