Monday, October 31, 2011

I fall in love everyday

Every Monday morning I have a dog-walking shift at our local shelter. I spend my time primarily with the dogs on the Stray Side, those dogs who are waiting out their time to see (hope in many of their eyes through the shock and fear of being shut into a space they do not understand) if anyone comes to claim them.

There are dogs that are Red Dots, which means they cannot be interacted hands-on by volunteers. I can offer them soft encouraging words and cookies through the bars. Sometimes I sit outside their kennels and chat with them, if they come close and request comfort with their body language and expressions.

Then there are dogs who are Green Dots, who have passed their initial behavior evaluations and are available to be taken out to the enclosed dog yards for sunshine, play, fresh air, and some freedom.

Finally there are the Blue Dots who are too fearful to be allowed out of their kennels yet but are likely to pose no threat to trained volunteers. I dote on the Blue Dots, they remind me painfully of my own poor Rio and what he must have been like - shocked to be closed into a concrete floored and metal bared world after his life as a ranch dog, under the sky.

Today one dog met me with a cringing but hopeful full toothy submissive grin, and a wiggly soft jig. He ran to his bed, other end of the small kennel, when I unlocked entered his run. I settled to the floor to wait. I could catch him watching me when I checked in out of the corner of my eyes. I droned on quietly. Sometimes they will come to me first time I visit with them, sometimes they will not. Soft nose, touch and sniff...hesitate paw...then all at once little warm trembling body in my lap. I stayed a long time with him. His stiff body and stress panting at last gave way to a few heavy sighs and his head resting on his paws across my crossed legs.

Will he make it? I hope so. I think so.

Some will not.

There was an ancient sweet old Border Collie bitch last week. She was rail thin and seemed ill. She leaned into my touch and seemed glad to be released of the mats I brushed out of her filthy coat. She was not in her kennel when I looked for her today.

Cats and dogs, rabbits and birds - they come to the shelter and we hope for the best but trust most in the time we have with them.

Here is a snippet of my interaction with a couple of folks who came to visit a shelter where I used to work - on my last day there.

All these animals matter while they are with us.

-----------------------------------

My last day at work at the local county shelter where I was temping I took part in a difficult but certainly interesting exchange in the cattery.

There were a few folks viewing cats, interacting in a variety of ways, and I was there welcoming them and listening to them, inviting conversations as best I could. One set was a young mother and her middle school aged daughter. They seemed interested in adopting a pet and had stopped to visited, through the kennel doors, with a number of the kitties. The daughter turned her face up to her mother and asked if they could have a kitty and how much they cost. The mother replied that they were free, didn't cost anything - and here was the kicker - because no one wanted them anyway, that is why they were here.

I took a deep breath and waded in.

I explained there was an adoption fee and what it covered (spay or neuter, FIV/FLV testing, de-worming and de-fleaing, up to date on all vaccines, micro-chipping and a free free vet visit with any vet in the county). I went on, once I had their attention, to tell them that we at the shelter thought about them all as our cats: out cats at home, our cats at the shelter. It was our job to find our cats at the shelter their real homes because the shelter, no matter how nice we and the volunteers tried to make it, was never nearly as good as a real home.

I think they heard me. They did take a cat home that day. I hope it all worked out well. I hope they learn a lot from each other. As I have learned so much from my cats, at the shelter and at home.

-----------------------------------

Thank you all for the care you give, everyday.

1 comment:

Happy Camper said...

I agree, it's not that "nobody" wants "them" it's that "somebody" didn't...