Week Six: Humane Society

Here we are in week six of our service experience. So far, I have only been able to volunteer for two to three hours at a time, which does not allow much time for in-depth experiences. This week, however, I have been able to spend a full day at the Humane Society, along with my two hour days. This provided a good point for comparison.

First, I am usually assigned to the Puppy Room. I clean, feed, water, and play with the puppies. Because I was able to stay longer on Wednesday, I was asked to walk and exercise the larger dogs. This was an interesting experience in itself because I have always had small dogs at home and have always worked with puppies! Needless to say, I got a good work out. Instead of cuddling cute little pups, I was jogging around a fenced in yard, throwing balls and sticks, and wrestling beautiful grown dogs that weighed almost as much I did. I really loved being able to interact so closely with the animals and realized how important it was to them. A lot of the dogs had been brought in that very day, so they were scared and shy. Therefore, when I took them out to exercise, I helped them build trust in people and their surroundings once more. This was a great feeling.

Also, I not only got to personally interact with the animals, but I interacted more with the workers as well. Before, I was just a random volunteer. On that day, however, I became a little more. I was able to speak with the workers about their background with the organization, their background with animals, their opinions about the society, and so on. All of the people I talked to turned out to be avid cat and/ or dog lovers who couldn't turn down an animal if their life depended on it. I heard a lot of stories about dogs and cats being adopted by the workers because they were deemed "unadoptable" and were going to be put down. Furthermore, one young man told me that when he began working at the Society, he honestly did not care for animals at all. It was just a job. Now, however, he works there full time, works with animal control when he is not there, and owns several pets of his own. Atleast one he adopted under the previously mentioned conditions.

Overall, I was impressed and touched by everything I learned. This organization has begun to move itself from being a small, insignificant organization to being a growing, important addition to our society. This will definitely be a place I will return to after our week eight is finished.