Friday, My son and I donated our day (over 6 hours) at the local humane society. He chose to do it as a part of his community service for advancement in the scouts. My incentive was their policy that children volunteers under 16 need an adult supervisor. My son got to experience the whole array of caring for animals at the shelter. We walked dogs, cleaned kennels, tended to cats, etc.
I have to give them credit, they do work hard at keeping the place clean--and so do the volunteers. They were happy to get two volunteers for the price of one. It's sad to see so many good animals without a home. Many of the dogs were tickled to death to have some one walk them and give them attention. They had what they called the bark park (100ft by 100ft) that you could take the dogs in, take off the leash, and let them loose. They loved it. One big, mean-looking, large pitbull mix was perfectly happy to just run around a little bit and then he just kept trying walk into the leash around his neck. I think he liked being walked on the leash.
They had a red pitbull that is about 2-3 years old that was an absolute sweetheart. She is just like my niece's red pitbull except about 7-8 years younger. She loved to run and catch Frisbees. If my wife were not so afraid of dogs, I would have taken her home with us.
We were filthy when we got home so my wife made us come in through the back door and go straight the utility/bathroom. Part of this was because we spent some time in the quarantined cat room. They said that we could make our own cat sick and I also didn't want to take any chances with my wife's weakened immunity system having been off of chemo less than one month.
After getting cleaned up, my son went to his martial arts class. I was tired to say the least.
As an aside, my son's scout troop is still together even though its future is undecided. They had already registered for summer camp and will be going there next week. Only the future will tell.
