I had my first day volunteering at the Humane Society today. Wow: there is a LOT of pent up energy in dog kennels. Boy, if we could only find some way to use the power of a dog who wants to go for a walk/ have playtime we could solve the energy crisis.

Or maybe we could just somehow attach generators to Labrador retrievers chasing balls.

I wasn’t allowed to walk any adoptable dogs today, but I was allowed to “socialize” them. That allows me to sound like I went and did something worthy today, but, in fact, all I did was take each dog out of it’s kennel and play with it for a little while. There is such a huge variety of types of dogs with different temperaments there! They’re all such furry individuals!

The smartest dog I encountered today is named Shiba. She’s a husky / collie mix. She’s absolutely beautiful. She looks like a small collie with husky ears and a shorter nose. She’s seven years old and has perfect manners: she was alert to the slightest noise. I can’t imagine anyone giving her up.
fact, I can’t imagine anybody giving up any of these dogs. Well, the labs, maybe, because they have such a great deal of energy. If a person truly did not have time for such an energetic dog, because their work situation changed or something, I can see that. The black labs that are there – there are two of them – are young dogs at their most energetic. I guess sometimes people don’t realize how much work they can be.

The best thing that happened was that a puppy got adopted while I was there. Actually, probably the BEST thing that happened was that the puppy peed on me and NOT the prospective adoptive family. I had just put it back in the pen when the family came in! Anyway, it looked like some kind of a terrier / Benji type dog with a sunny go-get-em personality, so it’s probably on its way to a great life. It’s certainly worth the laundry detergent to see that happen.

While the family was getting to know the (now empty) puppy, I hung out in the “cat room”. I tried to mostly handle the cats who had been stray to give them the idea that a lap is a good thing. Petting cats is just about my only talent. For some reason, cats really like how I pet them. But, it’s still stressful for them to be around so many other cats, and there seem to be even more cats there now than when I went for orientation. Also three rabbits, which I was actually afraid of due to Theresa’s violent rabbit story. Of course, if I were one of three rabbits in a room full of stressed out cats (all in cages, but still) I think I’d be inclined towards violence too.

I get to go back again next week. In fact I can “come any time”. How cool is that?!?