Hugo’s Speed Dates: Red Door Animal Shelter

April 27, 2025

A really, really busy day for us today. I woke up early and drove to Home Depot to get more insulation. Liz got up soon after, and suited up to do some work in the office.

We’ve got drywallers coming in, and still had a bit of work to finish up in the office. As much as we wanted to go out to brunch this morning, we opted to try to fit in some work, instead.

Fast forward to noon, where we are at Red Door Animal Shelter with Hugo, to go on some speed dates. First up: a meeting with Kavorka.

Really positive interactions overall. I think that Kavorka binkied several times on first meeting Hugo, which was an incredibly positie sign. And a big plus, because Kavorka is one of Liz’s favorites.

A follow-up meeting with Kavorka’s brother, Costanza (several bunnies that came in all got Seinfeld-related names).

A session with Salt, which seemed to go rather well. A bit later, Toni would let us know that Salt was “a little boy crazy.”

Post date, I captured this photo of Salt back in her pen… looking longingly at Hugo.

I think this was a newer bun that came in (named “Binky” I think).

After this date, we did what were referred to as “callbacks,” where a prior bunnny was brought back to meet Hugo a second time. On this list was Kavorka and Salt.

Unfortunately, the callbacks were not as positive. It’s a bit unclear if the match just wasn’t right, or if Hugo had hit his limit and was done for the day. So we opted to set a future date to come back, for another round.

Overall, Kavorka was a strong contender and Salt was a runner-up. When asked if we wanted to place a “hold” on any of the buns, we said now. But when Liz and I talked a bit more, I asked her if she would be upset if someone adopted Kavorka before we had a chance to bring Hugo back for a second date. She said yes… and immediately asked to have Kavorka put on hold.

In the main area on the first floor, there were two small ducklings that everyone ws doting on. So incredibly cute!

Back home, we got Hugo settled into his area and decompressed for a while. Liz needed a power nap, and I just sat for a while to give my back a rest.

Around 5PM, we got ourselves prepped and went to work in the office.

More paper on the floor, and starting to get the remaining drywall up on one of the furnace walls.

Our drywall approach to the house has been to keep the same dimensions that existed with the plaster. To achieve that, we use two layers of drywall: one layer of 5/8″, and a second layer of 1/4″. For a total wall depth of 7/8″.

We’ve put up a layer of 5/8″ soundproof drywall, and are asking the drywallers to put on an additional 1/4″ along the walls (and to put a layer of regular 5/8″ on the ceiling).

The room, with the floor covered and ready.

A lot of insulation and extra drywall, against the North wall. The drywall for the furnace wall (on the right) ended up being quite tricky – and took a good portion of the evening.

Can’t wait to see this all go away, behind a layer of drywall.

View of the West wall.

We worked pretty late into the evening, and this made for a long end to a very long day. Both Liz and I were quite exhausted by the time we got done. But we got done.