Service Learning Journal - Week Eight

This past Tuesday marked my last day to volunteer at the humane society for this class; I hope to be able to return for my own enjoyment in the near future, but I am not yet sure when I will have time. When I started to tell my supervisor that after Tuesday afternoon I would have my twenty-four hours, before I could even get half-way through my sentence, she said “Don’t tell me this is your last Tuesday.” And when I went to leave one of the other ladies was reluctant to sign my time sheet because I would not be coming back for a while. I am glad to know that I was accepted as a volunteer and that the people who work at the humane society like me as much as I like them. I discovered a good example of social capital at the humane society over my eight-week period. No matter how busy anyone else was he or she was never too busy to help others if they looked like they needed assistance. For example, I was having trouble getting a dog back into its cage, and even though the other worker that was outside was busy with her own task and her own uncooperative dogs, she took time to help me and to make sure that the dog got back into its cage. The humane society’s mission statement appears to be to rescue stray or homeless animals and find good, responsible homes for them. This also applies to any animal that is brought in by its previous owner. Finding a decent home for each adopted animal is ensured by the requirement that the animal be spayed or neutered and the fifty dollar adoption fee, thirty-five of which goes towards the spaying or neutering. The humane society also makes trips to PetSmart some weekends to help promote adoption of the animals. Volunteering at the animal shelter has helped me to realize that stray animals are becoming a noteworthy problem, even in our area; most of the animals the shelter receives are strays, and every day I was there I saw the Animal Control van pull up in the driveway and drop off animals at least once. The humane society is important to our community because it helps these animals, and since the animals must be spayed or neutered by law, the humane society helps cut down on the potential for more strays. Also, without the humane society stray animals could become more overpopulated which could cause health and safety problems for the citizens. I am really going to miss my weekly trips to the humane society, and I like to think that it has made me more aware of the world outside of my tiny bubble of school and work.

Service Learning Journal - Week Seven

Tuesday of this week was probably the most enjoyable time I have had so far at the humane society. My supervisor wanted me to take care of a couple of husky mix puppies that had just come up for adoption that day. Neither of them was exactly trusting, so I had to stay in the cage with them for over fifteen minutes waiting for them to sniff my hand. After a while though I decided it would be more prudent to play with another dog and come back a little later. So I went back to see the huskies again a few more times, and despite my best efforts, the best I ever did was to get a leash on one, who then refused to leave the cage. But at least I was able to get them both to the point that they would let me pet them. The people there were great again this week; they were happy to show me where some of the cleaning supplies are kept after two of the puppies decided that the kitchen floor looked like a bathroom. What made Tuesday especially enjoyable was not only the huskies, but also the fact that Crystal came in to do the last of her volunteering that afternoon. It was fun helping each other take care of, and clean up after, the puppies. And it was really nice being able to share tales of past experiences at the humane society with someone.

Service Learning - Week Six

After a Spring Break that was not much of a break, it was nice to return to the humane society to help out where I could. Everyone seemed happy to see me, especially the dogs. The only real downside to this week was that the storms had turned all of the play yards to mud. But none of the dogs seemed to mind, they were perfectly happy to run around in the mud and then jump on me, or each other. At one point I did have difficulty with a few dogs though. The humane society had placed three very energetic dogs into one kennel together which made it difficult to get only one dog in or out at a time. Lucky, the people who work there are very nice, and one of guys helped me with those particular dogs so that each of them got a chance to burn off a little energy in the play yard. Several people came in to look at the animals while I was there, but unfortunately most of them left without taking an animal home. What made me sadder though was a dog that had been adopted a few weeks ago was back at the shelter and up for adoption again. Also, one of the dogs I played with two weeks ago (the last time I was at the humane society, remember last week was Spring Break) was still there. It occurs to me that I need only volunteer for two more weeks in order to reach the goal of twenty-four hours. I am not sure just how I feel about that. I enjoy volunteering and playing with the dogs, and the humane society doesn’t seem to have oodles of volunteers so I sort of feel like I’m needed. Yet at the same time, I don’t know if I should continue after I reach my twenty-four hours or not, since the semester will be over not long after that and I will move back home to Oklahoma for the little bit of the summer that I won’t be on vacation. At any rate, it certainly is a question that I will need to consider and make a decision on in the not too distant future.

Service Learning Journal - Week Five

Tuesday was a busy day at the humane society as far as volunteering went. Three other people besides me showed up to volunteer and walk the dogs. It was nice to see that the puppy room was still fairly empty; some of the front kennels outside were empty too for a change. One of the puppies seemed pretty traumatized; he tried to urinate on anyone who attempted to get him out of his cage. Then he proceeded to leave large puddles in the front room next to the main door. And once I got him outside he refused to walk with the leash! When I finally got him to the play yard all he would do was jump on me and scratch my arm. I honestly did not know what to do with him. I was simultaneously afraid that he would hurt me and that he would hurt himself by thrashing about against the leash. I didn’t get a chance to play much with the older dogs that stay outside, but the ones I did play with were very nice. The humane society even had a spaniel that was trained. Whenever I would crouch down, it ran right over and sat down in front of me – ready to be petted. Overall, it was a nice day, and I managed to get home without any bug bites this week!

Service Learning Journal - Week Four

Once again, the weather was nice to go volunteer at the animal shelter. This week my friend J.J. went with me and helped me play with the dogs. I guess the weekend before the shelter took a lot of puppies over to Petsmart where many of them were adopted. So the puppy room was almost empty on Tuesday, which means that we had more time to spend with some of the bigger dogs too. Having J.J. there made the whole day more fun, and it helped a lot too since some of the dogs would not go back into their cages. However, I did learn an important lesson this week – just because it was February did not mean that the bugs hadn’t come out yet. I highly recommend to anyone else that volunteers at the humane society to go buy something to keep insects, and especially ticks off. This is because when I woke up on Wednesday, I found a tick on my shoulder. So for your own good – buy some Off!

Service Learning - Week Three

The weather yesterday was amazing – perfect for volunteering at the humane society. I spent the afternoon outside letting the puppies run around in the exercise yard. They all had so much energy! Some of the smallest ones were the most fun though; they seemed to have just discovered that they had teeth. There was one little cream colored puppy, a lab maybe, that just had to chew on everything. And was he ever excited when he discovered the tongue of my sneaker! He just yanked and tugged as hard as he could, to no avail of course, considering he only weighed about two pounds. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) the husky mix that I love so much was not adopted since last week. He’s still sitting in the puppy room, rapidly outgrowing his cage. Hopefully, he will be adopted before he gets sick. One of the other dogs got a little too excited though when I carried him outside – I now know what it is like to have an animal pee on me – a life experience to be sure. After I got done playing with puppies, my supervisor asked me to clean the exercise yard. This process consisted of a garden hose and a special bottle of bleach water that attached to the hose. In all, it took four bottles to completely soak the small yard. One of the other workers was surprised by what I was doing and by how much bleach I was using until he asked whose idea it was for me to clean the yard, after which he figured he should have known. Now you may be wondering “Why on earth would you hose down a yard with bleach?” Good question. According to Dictionary.com parvo is “a highly contagious, often fatal viral disease of dogs, characterized by vomiting, severe diarrhea, and depression and accompanied by high fever and loss of appetite.” I was asked to soak the yard in order to kill diseases, mainly parvo, so that the other dogs would not become infected – in essence, clean the yard with bleach to help save lives.

Service Learning Journal - Week Two

I discovered that I made the right choice about where to volunteer. I choose the humane society, not only because I love animals, but also because I figured that working with animals would be far superior to working primarily with other people. Turns out, that at least a few, if not most, of the other people who work at the animal shelter feel the same way. Case in point, last week I found a great little poodle there and I was really hoping that a nice family would adopt him. This week when I went in he was still here, only by then he had gotten ill, maybe stress, maybe something worse, not sure. So I had only been there a short time when a lady, and her somewhat annoying children came in asking about the poodle. My supervisor explained that he was sick, and stated numerous times that by law the dog must be neutered. At first, the lady agreed to have him neutered. By the time they got to the front counter to officially adopt the dog, she had a slightly different story. She said that it just didn’t seem right to have a dog fixed, in fact, she only got her other dog fixed because it got old. At this point, my supervisor started to show part of how upset she was by explaining to the lady that what was actually wrong was having to destroy perfectly fine animals every day since people don’t always get their pets spayed or neutered. One could tell that she was biting her tongue during this exchange. After the lady left with the poodle my supervisor pretty much exploded, the gist of which was that she was really sick of people. About the organization itself, I learned that when they get animals in they keep them separate for at least a week before they can go up for adoption. Also, I found out what happens when animals get diseases – they have to be destroyed immediately, and then their cage(s) is completely sanitized.