At the shelter...

Today I began my voleenter work at the local humane society. For my first day there i decided i'd take some dogs out for a walk. I was there for 3 hours and I walked 6 dogs. one every 1/2 hour, that way they got a decent walk. Choosing 6 dogs out of the 30 that are up for adoption was the hardest decision to make. My heart broke when i was walking past all the cages. all the dogs were barking and jumping around their cages except for a tri-coloured beagle in cage 18. he was laying in the far right corner of his cage, resting his head on his paws. He was the first one i walked, he is the sweetest dog ever! I think he was abused because he is really shy. I had to walk really slow, and i talked to him the whole time. He didn't have a name so i called him Buddy. The lady at the front desk said that he was abandoned there, then he got adopted, and then he was abandoned there again :(

I could have stayed there forever and the dogs all loved the attention. The 6 dogs i walked all had the time of their lives. I walked them, played with them, rubbed their tummies, gave them treats, and brushed them. As upsetting as it is there, its the best job ever. I did it in some rain today, and i plan to do it all winter too.

Congratulations to you! What a wonderful and also sad job to have. You are bringing joy to some poor dogs who really need it. My hat goes off to you! I admire you!

Sue

I am going to have to agree that it is the best work EVER. I've been volunteering and working with the local humane society for almost 2 years now and IT IS GREAT! I can't imagine my life without the shelter. The shelter IS my life (besides my babies at home of course).

When I first starting doing shelter work, I kept thinking a lot of them were abused too. A lot actually are, but some are just so scared to death of the environment that they sort of act like it.

I'm so glad you're doing this. Its so much fun and you get so much out of doing it. I almost feel selfish for doing it because I enjoy it SO much! I feel like I should pay the shelter to let me come in, hehe!!

Aly, "horse," I was wondering. Is your Humane Society shelter a no kill shelter? I live down the road from the ASPCA local shelter. It is a wonderful place. The people who contribute, the kennel environment and facilities, the volunteers, are all so wonderful. I try to go to visit the dogs and cats and critters as often as I can; contribute goods, visit with the critters, dogs and cats. But I always leave in tears, fearful to return, because I know that some of them will not be adopted, be sent to the Rainbow Bridge. And it's almost unbearable to return to see their cages empty. They try VERY hard not to take the final step. They rotate them among many shelters in S.E. Mass.; ones that at the moment have more room. But, I was just wondering how you cope with the loss. I know. If people such as yourselves were not there to give them the love and attention they so desperately need, what would their lives be like while they are waiting to be adopted? Thank you so much for giving them so much love and a chance to feel happiness. "horse," Aly, I know the joy you speak of. And I envy you. You are both very special. Sandra

The one here is no-kill. We put down about 10 dogs a year, most for health reasons but a few very extreme temperament reasons. Those losses are incredibly hard for me. What I do to help deal with the pain is just get myself out of bed, get to the shelter, and help as many dogs as I possibly can in the name of the dog that was recently lost. I counsel people on shelter dogs to ensure that if they adopt one of our dogs, we will never see it in the shelter again. It really helps to go do your work in the name of a lost dog. You'll find yourself working extra hard that day, and although the pain is still there, you feel better because you know that you helped save other lives because of that special dog who was sent to Rainbow Bridge before its time. Now, if I had to deal with it on a daily basis, I'd be in the fetal position.

But one of the girls that works at the Humane Society and I promised ourselves that we would start volunteering at the kill shelter just once a month at first. We'll just walk them and play with them and clean them up, then leave. We won't come back for at least 2-4 weeks so this way we won't have to know what happened to them. I know that sounds bad, but the dogs there REALLY need some help and it is the only way we can handle it mentally.

I can transport all the rescues in the world to their new homes, drive 1000s of miles, but I would never equal what you shelter volunteers do, Aly, Horse, others. I want to applaud you loudly, over and over, http://www.plauder-smilies.de/party/yelclap.gif , maybe one day, I can bring myself to do what you do.

Thank you, thank you.
Logan

I volunteer at our local SPCA (when I'm not in a wheelchair because I don't pay attention!). I can't go to Animal Care and Control. I couldn't go in and see a dog one day and not the next and know he/she wasn't adopted. I would be a mess. Our SPCA is no kill here (the only one in the immediate area) and therefore is always full. And Logan, what you do is no less important than volunteering at a shelter, you give a new life to an animal that might not otherwise get that chance. So, I applaude you just a much as the volunteers on this subject.

wonderful

Horse,
God Love You for volunteering to be a friend
to these homeless ones..I think every hour,
every 1/2 hr or even the least little
kindness you show them matters so much..
They never forget it. It does matter so much.
I admire you & your kind heart very much!!!

Aly,Logan,Mugsy,Horse..You are my heros!!!

Horse, Aly, mugsy... you guys are absolutely wonderful and I look up to the three of you! You too, Logan! You're all doing something to change the world one little life at a time!

Thanks to all for the compliments...sometimes it feels like the uphill battle is becoming overwhelming, but you're right...any bit of attention means everything to them. I look around the room at my crew sleeping all over the floor and couch and wish that all dogs could have this...I just wish I could save them all. I think that everyone should be able to experience the good feeling of volunteering at a shelter of any kind.

......."We'll just walk them and play with them and clean them up, then leave. We won't come back for at least 2-4 weeks so this way we won't have to know what happened to them. I know that sounds bad, but the dogs there REALLY need some help and it is the only way we can handle it mentally".............

As you posted above Aly, that is exactly what I have to do. I will visit, help out, drop off supplies and toys and treats. But, I have to wait 2 or 3 weeks to go back. That way, if a dog is no longer there, I say to myself, "he or she was adopted...." I pray for the day that "kill" shelters are a thing of the past.

I would like to give everyone on Pet Talk who volunteers at the shelters a round of applause. You are all my heros! I also think the Pet Transport volunteers are equally wonderful!

Keep up the wonderful work you all do! :D :D :D

Everyone who gives their time to the animals is doing a wonderful thing. It takes so little to make the shelter pets happy (a tummy rub, a walk, a short game of fetch), and that's a sad statement about their condition....Keep doing what you guys do! :)

Hurray to those who help shelter animals! It is not an easy job, at least for me it was not. I get attached. That's my problem. I usually would just go in and help out, feed, water, walk, bathe, brush, or rub tummies, but sometimes there is a *special* one that looks at me in a different way, perhaps that dog looks at me at a soul level and leaving without that *special* one effects me tremendously. Graham was one of those special ones, and I was not allowed dogs when I adopted him. I am afraid to go back to the shelter because Graham has proven to me many times that he is only happy as an only dog, he does not want a sibling...be they cat or dog. I am usually strong and have an easy time keeping myself shielded from all those needy souls, but in the rare case that one touches me in a way only few have, I am just setting myself up for perhaps a lifetime of regret. All of the shelters by me have a very high kill rate. I don't know what I would do if one of the rare special dogs touched my soul, and it had only days or hours to live before it was put to death like most of the dogs that walk through those doors. I would either adopt it and let Graham live out the rest of his years as an unhappy dog, or I could let it die and forever regret it. I donate alot of money, leshes, collars, food, toys and blankies, and participate in walks to raise money for the Michigan Humane Society but I am afraid I can't volunteer at the actual shelter unless my beloved Graham is no longer on this earth with me. I owe it to Graham to honor his desire of being an only pet. By not going and walking/playing with dogs, I never see what it is that I am missing out on. It still saddens me, and always will, that there are so many homeless animals, but I will do what I can for them from a safe distance.

The only no-kill shelter near me that I know of is not exactlly a no-kill shelter. They will donate (or sell at a very low discount price) animals that have been at the shelter for an extended amount of time to science. So they provide companion animals unfortunate enough to land themselves in the shelter, to science, which means they will do who knows what kind of tests to those poor animals! They would wish they had of been humanely euthinized :mad: