Oh I'm sure you will love it! I've been volunteering for a year and a half now and I've loved every minute. As you say, you may be faced with a lot of cleaning when you first begin, but once the shelter see how devoted you are (they get a lot of people who mess them around, who volunteer once or twice and then never come back), you'll be sure to start doing a lot more interacting with the animals (though of course there is always a lot of cleaning every day of the year ).

The only downside to volunteering is seeing some of the cruelty cases come in. This week we've had dozens of animals in from a hoarder. Hamsters, gerbils, rats, chinchillas, degus, ferrets, birds, this guy had the lot crammed in his home. And we've only got half of the critters, the other half went to another shelter!