So today was my first day of work at the Shelter. It was a very early morning. I had set my alarm for 6:00am so that I could get ready and be there for the 7am shift, but my body woke me up at 5am from both excitement and nerves. Today I was at the North location working with Dogs, It was most definitely a hard days work, but a good introduction. I was first with Amanda, the head of the animal care unit. She showed me how to clean the kennels and soon enough I was off. We spent the morning cleaning kennels while other volunteers took the dogs for walks. I got used to the smells and noises pretty quickly. We also make sure to do some laundry so that the dogs can have clean blankets and toys in their kennels. We also did some dishes, making sure there are plenty of bowls for feeding. I then moved to cleaning the other dogs in holding with Deven, ones that may be court ordered or other things. After we were done with that we continued to keep up with laundry and dishes and feed the dogs that need to be fed three times a day. At this point it was 1:00 and time for my shift to end.

I was really surprised about how long just the necessities take. I thought there would be more time to spend with each dog individually but there was honestly not and that was a big realization. I also realized just how organized the shelter needs to be with communication. Between diets, cleaning, walking and other things on a fairly large scale, it takes a lot of effort.

So today I worked at the north location with cats. This was a completely different experience from the dogs. It was quite, less dirty, and you had some more time because you are able to leave the cats in there while feeding and cleaning. Firstly you would take out the food and refill that and the water, then while they were eating you would clean the litter box and their cages. I also felt bad because I fed the whole food to one of the cats but Brad who I was working with said it was ok.

Brad was really cool, he was a marine biologist and worked on a fishing boat in Alaska doing research prior to this. Sue, the other women I worked with has been there for 20 years and was very experienced but still very nice.

There were two things I noticed today that could tie into some social innovators work. One being the facts that a lot of the donations are just thrown out (mostly towels) because they already have too many. And the other is that they cannot use slightly opened food or treats and have to thrown away any expired food. The towels especially could be donated to somewhere else (which brad mentioned) like Salvation Army.

Today my work was at the North side location again and I was back with the dogs. I have picked up what to do pretty quickly and she basically didn't have to supervise me. In the morning i worked with Kira cleaning the adoption floor as well as the small dog holding. I actually got to walk some dogs today and not have to clean the entire time. I then moved to working in the holding room with leanna. The holding room is the dogs that have just come in and are getting checked out, or are being treated for medical issues. I cleaned and got to walk some dogs in there which was fun. I had noticed that one of the stray didn't have a name yet, and Leanna said that I could name her if I wanted. She was very pretty and looked like a pit mix so I decided to name her Athena.

It was kind of sad when I had to bring the dogs back from the walk though because some just really didn’t want to get back into their kennels but they had to. There was this one really skinny dog named Kiko, and he really didn’t want to go back in, which was sad. Some of the other dogs were just really anxious and looked scared. With the remaining time though i did some dishes and laundry.

Today was my first day at the East Location. I was on dog duty and it was very different from the North location. The facility is a lot bigger and holds a lot more dogs. They are at basically capacity right now so there are a lot of dogs to take care of. The other thing that was different is that there were a lot more dogs there who were aggressive due to stress either to people or other dogs, so there were some extra precautions that you had to take its those ones. There were also a lot more dogs in holding, meaning that they were newly brought there or on court hold. There was this new dog there in holding who was very pretty and seemed very nice. We took her out to the area to let her play. I could tell she was pretty well trained and had a previous owner which is sad because I don't know if she just escaped or something like that. She was very loud and sad the entire time I was in there with her. There was another dog in there who was so sweet, a pity, but she is very dog aggressive due to her previous owners putting her in dog fights. It's kind of sad to think about, but the staff there are doing the most that they can to keep them comfortable.

There were also a lot of puppies there right now, so playing with them and some of the other dogs kept me a little happier. Although those sharp puppy teeth can really get you.

Today I was at the east location working with dogs again. Even though every day I'm doing basically the same things, there is always something new I learn or see. It's interesting to see the differences in the kennels, with new dogs coming in and other ones being adopted. Sometimes you’ll see one be adopted and then come back for some reason. I'm pretty sure that happened with a husky named sparky. I remember last friday seeing a husky in the adoption room, and then today, I swear, I saw the same dog in the holding room. The person I was working with said that he had just come in a couple of hours ago, and I told her that this has to be the same dog. Maybe he ran away and was caught again.

Today I also saw a dog with three legs. He had a brother with him who had all his legs but they were very cute. There are a lot of dogs there who would be considered to have disabilities and sometimes it's really sad to see, but the weird thing is that those are the ones who are often seen as the happiest.

It's also pretty cool to see how much of a team effort it is for the shelter to run. In order for everything to go smoothly nobody can be slacking off. Everyone has to help with the dishes and the laundry as well as make sure their tasks are done properly.

Today I was back at the North Location working with the cats. It seemed very relaxing compared to the east location. Not only are there less cats, but generally they are more well behaved. There is this one cat named scratch that is so sweet. One of the things that did make it a tiny bit more difficult cleaning was the fact that there were 28 kittens that I counted in holding. Sarah, the lady I was working with today said that this is the time of year mom cats give birth so there is always an influx right about now. We finished pretty early today so I had a lot of time to spend just hanging with the cats.

I also got to stop in and see some of the new dogs in holding, there were quite a few of them. There was this one that was huge and white and very fluffy, he looked like a polar bear. Its really sad sometimes though just to see how stressed they are. They are all panting and pawing at the doors. I wish there was more that I could do to help.

Today was my last day working at the North location and with Dogs. I had a really good time. I worked with Sarah again, first cleaning the adoption room. It was a little slow because the volunteers were taking the dogs for longer walks, but we still got done pretty early. Then we made some enrichment toys which in this case was stuffing toilet paper rolls with treats and food. We kept up with laundry and dishes until the late dog shift started. Then I was working with Alexsia in the dog holding room. There are a lot of dogs in there right now and it was very loud. There was this particularly yippy dog that would not stop barking but I felt bad because I could tell he was super stressed. We also finished with that pretty fast since there were two of us so we kept up on the normal things, but since I had so much time I decided to take some of the dogs on extra walks. They really enjoyed the walks and it was really cool seeing them so happy outside.

The one dog that i previously said I had named, Athena, was now on the adoption floor so I spent a lot of time with her, she is so sweet. There was also this absolutely adorable little puppy named Dave. he was tiny and had these big floppy ears. I stayed after my shift for a little while to play with him and he fell asleep in my lap. It was very hard to leave him. I hope at some point I can go back and see them, or that they all find forever homes soon.

I was back at the East location working with cats today. While the cats are in fact easier to learn than the dogs, there are still a lot of them so it takes quite a while. While there were a lot of cats in the adoption room, there were not as many cats in holding as I would have expected, they had more at the north location. After we finished feeding and cleaning all the cats, we made sure to do the laundry and dishes, and I had a little extra time so I went to say hi to the doggies and play with the kittens.

Another pretty cool thing that happened, is when I stopped in at about 6:30 to get my morning coffee at coffee tree, the lady working saw my shirt and asked if i was volunteering there. I said yes, and she asked if there were any cute puppies there because she was looking for one. I showed her Dave, the puppy I hung out with yesterday. I was just really cool to be able to potentially seek out some potential new dog owners.

As this is my last entry, even though it is not my last day yet,I have looked back and reflected on my time working here. Although it has not been long, I really appreciated the chance to do this. The work may have been somewhat repetitive and har, but I really enjoyed the feeling you get after helping the animals. I actually got an email from the coordinator this evening, asking if I would like a job over the summer. If I did not live in Virginia, I would for sure take her up on that offer and work with them over the summer, but sadly that is not the cas. However I will take what I learned with me forever. I think I really know that animals are my true passion now.