Funny story...
When I first joined CS, I saw that the pound was about to open. Having only some experience with CS, I waited until it opened out of curiosity. When it did, the first thing I saw was the timer at the top. Being very new to CS, I thought the pound would close one the 10 - second timer ran out. I very frantically picked the first pet I saw. Later in my experience with CS, I realized that the timer did not count down until the pound closed.
Now Athena is one of my most favorite pets. Thanks, CS!