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