I HATE volunteering. In fact, I never volunteer for anything because I dislike it so much. I am the person who ducks my head, runs to the bathroom before the question gets asked, goes missing for a week... you name it. However, I think I have found my niche!
So last week I blogged about my volunteering nervousness. The big animal shelter in Houston holds adoption events in the mall each week around Christmas, and they were going to have to cancel their event because only one person had signed up to volunteer. I hear such bad things about the shelter that I felt horrible for the dogs not getting their chance to be adopted out of there, so I volunteered. Well, it ended up being great!
Saturday morning we got up at 7:30 and headed to the mall. Jeff had been out of town all week so he decided to take an allergy pill and come with me so we could spend some time together. We met up with the other girl who is their regular volunteer, and set up shop with tables, wire crates, 6 puppies and 2 kittens. The puppies were pretty gross and stinky- the shelter had not even bothered to clean them and they came to the mall reeking of pee, had matted hair, you name in. A couple even had poop on them! We cleaned them up as best we could and started the day.
It was non stop talking to people and passing puppies around. It was fun talking breeds and temperaments and helping people figure out if their potential pet would be right for them or not. It was also really cool to watch Jeff toting puppies around and cuddling them, and showing them off to people. He had a little black lab mixed girl I think he particularly liked, and he found her a home with a family that had a little girl, who was clearly a good match as we watched her sitting on the floor cuddling with her new puppy! I was so impressed to see him talking dogs (um, he even did it in Spanish a couple times)! I learn new things about him all the time, which I didn't think was possible after 4 years of dating. I could tell he was having a lot of fun talking to people and hanging with the puppies. He even got appropriately miffed (as miffed as any hard core dog person would be) when some thug asked if we had any "Rotts or Pits."
My pet project for the day was the Catahoula hound (or so they called her... I wasn't totally convinced on some of their breed interpretations). She was a lot bigger than the others, and pretty energetic, so people were passing her up for the more cuddly puppies even though I thought she had the sweetest and best temperament there (some of the others were shaking and timid, and she was such a normal puppy personality). I just always get scared for the bigger breeds because their chances of getting adopted aren't as good. She also looked a bit pit bull to people because of her brindle coloring (even though she didn't have the right body type and also had marbled eyes like Cosmo, people kept assuming she was pit and getting turned off). That worried me as well, because if some moron at the shelter decided she was a pit, she would probably get euthanized (they have such a stigma here with the fighting rings). I spent a lot of time keeping an eye on her, and trying to make sure she had a good chance. That meant taking the other puppy out of her shared crate because they were tumbling and scrapping, and people were getting turned off... and it meant having her out of her crate a lot because she did NOT want to be cooped up and was barking. It also meant watching her really closely because I found out she likes to jump on little kids (in a friendly way, but the kid started bawling and there went that adoption... which was fine). At the very end of the day, with 15 minutes to spare, a young engaged couple decided to take her home. It ended up being a good fit. Yes, I was full disclosure on her excitement and joy for jumping on toddlers (she did it a couple times to give them big old face kisses before I finally just decided to hang out next to her crate so little kids couldn't open the door and have her pop out and give them a big french kiss). The guy was very dog savvy and was amazing at handling the puppy even with her high energy. His fiancee had been wanting a dog for herself, and this little one curled right up in her lap and claimed her. The three of them just had a really great dynamic to watch, and it was obvious they were not going to be in over their heads with this dog.
When it was time to take the unadopted animals back to the truck we only had one left. Jeff and I took off- I didn't want to see the one lonely puppy get taken back to the animal catcher truck. However, I got an email later from the other volunteer saying the puppy got adopted at the last second while they were cleaning up. So in the end, every single animal at the event was placed in a home! It was really cool to watch the whole process, too. I'd get such a sinking feeling when someone who I thought was going to take one of the animals changed their mind at the last minute and walked away. The cool thing, though, was that even though the people who walked away would have been good owners, the people who did adopt the pets ended up being such a better fit. I guess we got to see a little bit of fate at work, and it was really awesome.
SO, even though we were only going to do this as a one time good deed, we ended up getting asked to come back this weekend. They were really impressed that all the animals got adopted out, so they are sending 10-12 this time. Eek! It will be fun, though, and hopefully we'll be up for the challenge now that we have the hang of it. I hope they all get adopted again- I am trying to mentally prepare for the fact that it just might not happen. Even getting one of them adopted is a big win for the day, though, because hopefully it means a better life for that animal!
