The Humane Society, Potsdam New York

I have volunteered at our local animal shelter and have a strong affinity for rescue work (as you might suppose from all my animals). I hope to volunteer again when I move up to the farm and have already toured the shelter in Massena, just north of my farm. But on this day I was checking out Potsdam, so stopped in at their newly remodeled shelter:

My first discovery was a cat socialization room where this woman and perhaps twenty cats were enjoying each other's company. She said that she grew up in Potsdam but moved to Burlington, Vermont. Whenever she comes home to visit, she stops in at the Shelter:

The cats were enjoying this very much and were all over her until I walked in. My entrance brought many of them to my feet to check me out:

Her husband was visiting the cats in the second of two cat socialization rooms. Everything was clean, relaxed and friendly:

And then I entered the dog adoption area. All the dogs were behind glass and anxious for someone to give them attention:

Most were Pit Bull mixes:

A big, happy goof ball:

This dog appeared to be a Great Dane mix:

And I got a big smile from this pooch:

While I'm sure the glass doors are wise because they keep fingers from poking through the wire as used to happen where I volunteered, it did seem to be a frustrating barrier both to me and to the dogs:

This dog had slobbered all over the glass on his door. It reminded me of my car's windows:

This short legged doggy of very mixed origins was the closest thing they had to a "small" dog. Apparently small dogs are more adoptable than large dogs in Potsdam, just as they are in Albany:

There was a large, glass fronted cat room and a large cage housing kittens:

Just as I was exiting, two girls approached the front desk to ask about adopting. They said they were students and the woman at the counter asked which university they attended. They replied that they were high school students and the conversation went on to instructions on getting their parents' signatures on the application. That was the end of my visit to the Potsdam Humane Society and time for me to travel on. I'll post more tomorrow:

Potsdam, New York, A College Town - Part 2

I'd left the dogs behind back at the farm and was taking a driving tour of Potsdam, New York. Just outside the "downtown," I parked beside this old brick building which housed a law firm. I decided I'd walk from there because the main street, called Market Street, had an awful lot of traffic:

Market Street was exceedingly busy, so much so that I had trouble crossing, though I confess that my picture taking and eyeballing the sights was a big part of the problem. There were plenty of cars and plenty of trucks carrying merchandise in all directions. So much activity for a small town in a bad economy! Actually, I'm told that the national economic trends usually bypass this area and its economy has been steady:

And with two large universities in town, one would expect to find at least one large bookstore:

There are many areas outside of town with broad roads and big box stores galore, but those look pretty much the same all over the country. I am happy to report that Potsdam's downtown seems to be thriving in spite of the big box stores:

I was parked near the Little Italy Pizzeria (but that is not my car in the picture, though it even fooled me for a moment) and it was time for me to continue my driving tour. This, however, is where I had trouble crossing the road because of the large amount of traffic and my inattention to the lights. Just as I was about to ignore the "Don't Walk" sign a police car went by, effectively putting an end to that idea:

And from there it was on to the infamous toilet house. I featured it in a blog post a couple of years ago and the toilets and urinals are still all there:

In addition to the toilets, behind each of which the owner planted three large sunflowers this year, were scarecrows and signs and what appeared to be space alien references. Each toilet was filled with plastic flowers. A great deal of work goes into this yard each year. I imagine it's really tough to mow that lawn:

The garage was painted with pinkish orange paint and adorned with two urinals. A large face made with what appeared to plastic plates smiled out at all passersby:

The side street adjacent to the toilet house was pleasant, middle class, clean and well kept. I imagine the home owners there have no problem giving directions. They just tell visitors to turn when they get to the toilet house!:

And another home made from what must be Potsdam Red Sandstone:

One last house and I decided to continue my journey. But I'll post about that tomorrow: