What does a day at the Humane Society entail? Slobber, dirty hands, and lots of love.
I went to the Humane Society the past two weeks to volunteer – in this span of time I fell in love with each animal individually, watched the first dog I helped take care of find a forever home, and got to know each and every animals story. There’s an 80 pound, black as night, goofball named Samson that thinks he’s taking you for a walk rather than the other way around. A pitbull named Michael deserves a whole article to himself on the life he’s lived, but has a strict policy of needing two tennis balls when you play with him – one for him to hold and another for you to throw so he’ll let go of the first. Every single animal has a story of its own, but they all have a mutual wish to have a forever home with someone who’ll care for them. Every one of them deserves to be adopted.
It’s a dirty job, there’s no doubt about it, animals may be number #1 in my heart, but they’re fully capable of going number #2. So my day began with moving animals and washing their pens down. I’m not sure if puppies have some pact against me, but it’s almost as if they had an understood agreement to pee as soon as I put them in their clean pen. So, this explains why they get cleaned multiple times a day. Sarah, the woman who guided us around and showed us how to help out, let us take some of the dogs out to the play yard. My results are as follows – Samson is 100% confused if you have French braids in your hair, Big Guy lives up to his name, Zara’s tail can wag up to 40 mph (probably), and Fruity may have a snaggletooth but she’d win prettiest smile in a heartbeat.
In the summer adoptions go down because families are travelling, in the Winter they go up because nothing’s cuter than a kitten with bow on its head sitting under the Christmas tree, but the number of animals brought in stays consistent year round. While I was there I saw plenty of visits from animal control, owner surrenders, and animal’s that someone had found and turned in. The flow of animals is constant, but the adoption rates can’t match them. Lots of people want to buy off of breeders for hundreds of dollars, when there are dozens of lives they’re forgetting about.
In a world where it matters more on how you do your hair and what brand of shoes you have on your feet, an animal still shows unconditionally love. Seeing the first dog I cared for get adopted was bittersweet. Bitter because I hate to see her go, but sweet because I know how much love she has in her heart to share with that family.
“A dog teaches a boy fidelity, perseverance, and to turn around three times before lying down.” - Robert Benchley
