the volunteer high

Today was my first day (orientation day) at Operation Kindness, North Texas largest no kill animal shelter. I wish I took some pictures, because the place is awesome. The shelter is literally a 2min drive from my apt, actually within walking distance on a nice day. I had no idea that it was this close when I sent in my application a while ago. Guess it's a sign.

Anyway, orientation went pretty fast. There were a lot of volunteers there, mostly made up of a group of 8th graders there for their honor society class, which kinda shocked me. They went over the rules, regulations, gave us a tour and introduced us to the animals. Until I do further training, I will only be working with the small dogs (no puppies either) and cats. This is definitely a good thing. I can be pretty fearful of large dogs... especially when they bark a lot and weigh the same as me. However, I'll do the advanced training next month just to be able to work with the puppies. They actually had a ton of puppies and kittens ready for adoption. Not just all old dogs at the no kill shelter. This year they will have adopted something like 3,000 animals. Isn't that insane?? So awesome!

So they had us all walk a small dog to get accustomed to where the leashes and collars are, the 'walk' board and the dog path that runs behind the building. It's a very rugged path through some woodsy area that I never knew existed in this part of Dallas. But then again, I don't venture out very much. I walked a small chihuahua named Papi. He wasn't very personable, but he wanted out of his cage so badly I just couldn't resist. I also spent a lot of time in the cat room. They have a screened in porch connected to the main cat room where all the friendly and healthy cats get to roam free. They just walk up to you, jump in your lap and demand attention. I was reading the book with the names and stories of all the free roaming cats and some had been there since 2006. Kinda sad, but at least they are in amazing hands.

As a volunteer, we don't have schedules and can go by the shelter at any time as long as there is a staff member present. I think I'll go by again on Monday to see how I can really get myself involved. It was such an amazing feeling being there, and I can't wait to settle in more. I actually emailed the volunteer manager about possibly taking over the shelters Twitter account. Whoever started it stopped updating back in July. I'd love to take pics and make daily updates. We'll see.