Everyone remembers visiting their local animal shelter when they were younger; meeting new dogs with their tails wagging a mile a minute, playing with the cutest kitten in the playroom, or holding a bunny for the first time. You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who didn’t enjoy visiting the local animal shelter. But what most people don’t realize is that what you see as a visitor only scratches the surface of the inner workings of an animal shelter.

1. Most of the time, you're not even working with animals

I was only 16 when I started volunteering, and due to liability issues, I couldn’t even touch the animals for the first year. So what is there to do in an animal shelter if you can’t even touch the animals? Well there’s the boring stuff like washing dishes, cleaning floors, and putting away donations. Every once in a while, I even get to wear our mascot costume!

Of course, the one thing that no one thinks about is laundry.

No one believes me when I explain the massive amounts of laundry we have to do, but it’s one of the most important jobs to make sure our residents are clean and cozy. Laundry is one of the most time consuming and least desirable jobs in the shelter, but sometimes it’s much better to be stuck in the laundry room stuffing pee-soaked blankets into the washing machine than to be out on the adoption floor when things start getting crazy.

2. You will get yelled at. A lot.

I am a very introverted person, so it took me a long time to work up the courage to work with the public instead of hiding in the back of the shelter. Even though I’d heard all the horror stories, it caught me by surprise the first time I encountered an angry customer. It was hard for me to keep a happy face on while being called stuck up and rude, but everyone made sure to remind me that it happens to everyone and the person was angry at the shelter, not me.

I wish I could say this was an uncommon occurrence, but unfortunately we have situations like this happen all the time, and it’s usually the sweetest looking, nicest sounding people. Less than a month before my incident, we had our security guard escort out an elderly lady who was harassing volunteers and others visiting the shelter because she couldn’t have the dog she wanted!

Getting yelled at is probably my least favorite thing about volunteering at the shelter (yes, I would rather pick up poop), but I would put up with a million angry customers because…

3. When you're having a bad day, the shelter is all you need

I’ve had days where I’ve woken up and nothing is right, and all I wanted to do from the moment I opened my eyes was cry. Getting myself out of bed on those days is the hardest, but it’s a million times easier when I’m getting out of bed to go volunteer.

On a bad day, there’s honestly nothing that works faster to make things better than seeing my favorite big pitties with a smile on their faces waiting for me in their kennels, or seeing a tiny little chihuahua jump three feet into the air waiting for me to take her outside for a walk. Even in the darkest of times, sitting on the floor with a 150-pound dog rolling around next to you can make the light shine.

The part that makes me smile the most is knowing that I’m not the only one whose day is getting brighter. Some of our animals spend months with us and it can kill their spirits. Being able to spend just 10 or 20 minutes with these beautiful creatures can be all of the difference in the world for both of us. No matter how many happy moments there are, it’s always very important to remember...

4. The shelter will break your heart

I don’t think I could count how many times I have cried over animals that I’ve helped take care of. From the outside, all the visitors see is the smiling faces of the animals waiting to be adopted. From the inside, it is a very different story.

When we have trouble adopting out a dog, they tend to become “volunteer favorites.” We all fall in love with them, give them lots of treats, spend lots of time training them, and we rant and rave to everyone about how amazing this dog is. Those stories are the hardest; usually they end in happy tears when our buddy finally goes home, but there isn’t always a happy ending.

At the end of 2014, we met a very special dog named Booger, eventually renamed Boogs. Over the course of several months, Boogs won the heart of every single person in the shelter; he was even the first large dog I was given permission to handle. He was obsessed with his tennis balls, wore a big inflatable donut around his neck instead of a cone, had the sweetest smile and the cutest cropped ears. We even gave him the home of a king: he had four kennels to himself, and a giant bed to snuggle in every night.

In May of 2015, about six months after being brought into the shelter, Boogs went through major surgery. He seemed on the road to recovery but a few weeks later, Boogs passed away. I don’t think there was a single person who worked with him who wasn’t heartbroken. Even almost a year later, I’m tearing up looking through old pictures of him and reading the amazing things that everyone had to say about him.

When I started volunteering, I always knew that I would become attached to our animals. I knew it would be hard to come in and play with a dog, and have to send that same dog home later that day. I was prepared for that. I wasn’t prepared to fall in love with a dog and love him like he was my own, and I definitely was not prepared to have that sweet guy there one week, and gone the next.

Every heartbreak hurts. Every load of laundry makes me question why I willingly stick my hand in pee-soaked blankets. Every scratch or nip from an excited dog makes me wonder why I choose to put myself through the abuse every week. But every little girl or boy who smiles because they picked out their first pet makes it worth it. Every lonely older man who leaves with a new best buddy keeps my head up. I would put up with a million heartbreaks to see one happy dog go home.

Volunteering in an animal shelter definitely is not for everyone, but I wouldn’t give it up for anything. I don’t expect a thank you from the animals I help, but seeing that huge smile and the wagging tail as an animal leaves our shelter for the last time is all the thanks I need to keep me going.