Reflective Journal

I have always been an avid dog lover, but have never spent any time volunteering in a shelter. My ideas about what it would be like seemed to flip-flop every day. One day I thought it would be easy and I would get such a sense of fulfillment and that would totally override the sadness and the hurt of seeing the dogs. Other days I assumed it would be too heart wrenching and that I would never be able to do it. It seemed like on the days leading up to my volunteering, my stomach was doing these somersaults while imagining what it would be like.

My experience volunteering at the shelter has been somewhat of a mixture of the two. When on our orientation they took us too the "intake" room, it was almost too much for me. I didn't know anyone else on my orientation, so I didn't want to get upset, but it was hard to hold it back when I saw all of the beaten up and scared looking dogs looking back at me. It was one of the saddest things I have ever seen in person to date.

However my experience volunteering has been much more good than bad. With the weather being beyond frigid most days, it has been hard for me to get out walking the dogs for hours on end, the time I spend there with the dogs is very peaceful. I have met some absolutely wonderful dogs who I have spent time with. It made me really re-evaluate my stance on getting dogs.

I have always been about rescue, but have gotten all my dogs as puppies from a rescue. This made me realize that so many nice dogs who aren't puppies anymore need homes so much more. From now on in my life I have a feeling my rescue dogs will not be puppies, and more will be just a dog that is really truly looking for a home.

-Mary Penxa