every dog must have his every day
On Friday, Amy said I was missing the usual sparkle in my eyes. There was a lot going on this weekend -- though nothing bad, nothing I was necessarily ecstatically looking forward to either for whatever reason. However, it all turned out good. We've barely been home but I hope to have a chance to catch up yet. In the meantime, if I could only write about one thing it would be about the Humane Society volunteer work this morning ...
We got in later than planned last night so it was very tempting to sleep in but knowing that the animals were counting on us forced us up bright and early. Arriving at 7am, even before most of the paid staff, our self-sacrifice was instantly rewarded with dozens of happy barks. We start with the most housetrained dogs since those are the ones who have patiently been holding it all night long and work our way around. Again I walked Foxy the old rat terrier, Sadie the shepherd mix and Borgnine the greyhound (he's still there why?) in addition to Hilda the young rat terrier, Oliver the slobbering basset hound and Sebastian the cattle dog. Other volunteers start arriving around 8:00 and by 10:00 we had all 40+ adoption dogs (with the exception of puppies) walked at least once.
The first dog Bruce walked was Hershey the ten year old Norwegian Elkhound and he let him out again to run around in the fenced area before we left. When I walked up to the gate to join them, he greeted me like I was coming home. His story is that he's an owner surrender whose people moved into an apartment and couldn't take him with. He's a real sweetie with big brown eyes, a gentle disposition and loads of fur. Adopting him would mean going through the heartbreak again too soon but would be worth it to make his final days happy ones. I hope he finds a home before we return next week because he's really tugging on my heartstrings, the first dog to do so since we started this up again.
I used Miranda's beautiful leash for the first time since her last walk back in March. It was hard at first but any future dog we adopt deserves his or her own new leash and at the risk of sounding overly sentimental, I think she'd want me to use it to help other homeless animals at the place where she came from. It's just another way of symbolically coming full circle.
We got in later than planned last night so it was very tempting to sleep in but knowing that the animals were counting on us forced us up bright and early. Arriving at 7am, even before most of the paid staff, our self-sacrifice was instantly rewarded with dozens of happy barks. We start with the most housetrained dogs since those are the ones who have patiently been holding it all night long and work our way around. Again I walked Foxy the old rat terrier, Sadie the shepherd mix and Borgnine the greyhound (he's still there why?) in addition to Hilda the young rat terrier, Oliver the slobbering basset hound and Sebastian the cattle dog. Other volunteers start arriving around 8:00 and by 10:00 we had all 40+ adoption dogs (with the exception of puppies) walked at least once.
The first dog Bruce walked was Hershey the ten year old Norwegian Elkhound and he let him out again to run around in the fenced area before we left. When I walked up to the gate to join them, he greeted me like I was coming home. His story is that he's an owner surrender whose people moved into an apartment and couldn't take him with. He's a real sweetie with big brown eyes, a gentle disposition and loads of fur. Adopting him would mean going through the heartbreak again too soon but would be worth it to make his final days happy ones. I hope he finds a home before we return next week because he's really tugging on my heartstrings, the first dog to do so since we started this up again.
I used Miranda's beautiful leash for the first time since her last walk back in March. It was hard at first but any future dog we adopt deserves his or her own new leash and at the risk of sounding overly sentimental, I think she'd want me to use it to help other homeless animals at the place where she came from. It's just another way of symbolically coming full circle.