Dogs Dogs Dogs

Let’s talk about something other than Social Security—My Time at the Animal Humane Society

While working as an attorney, doing social security representation, I try to help people many of whom have been homeless.  It is hard and not always rewarding.  Try as hard as you can, sometimes you just don’t win!

When I volunteer at the Humane Society I help dogs, all types and sizes, many originally stray but all now homeless.   For the Dog on the adoption floor there always is a happy ending!

I have been volunteering at the Humane Society for years, first as a customer care person answering questions on the dogs up for adoption, and assisting in showing and exercising the dogs.  Lately, I have been engaged as a ‘dog walker’.  I take the dogs, one by one, for a  short run or long walk.  It is amazing how running with a dog, for even a short distance, changes the dogs personality, from robust to calm.

The dogs are always happy to see me, and no matter how bad a day I am having, it changes for the better when I interact with the dogs.  There are big dogs, fluffy dogs, small dogs, lap dogs.  There are mixed breeds and pure breads.  Every time I work there is a different variation.  Every time I volunteer, I find one or two whom for some reason, I find to be my favorite of the day.  I tend to be a big dog person, but I have seen many small dogs that turned out to be one of my favorites.

Interestingly every dog has a story.  He was a stray, found and rehabbed and now looking for a home; he was given up because ¨ owner lost his home, ¨ owner went into nursing care apartment without animals, ¨ owner died, ¨ rescued by the county, other state etc.  The saddest stories for me are the older dogs given up because the owner had no further ability to keep the dog—from being spoiled to hoping for a new home. L

I have experienced owners returning to see their old pet, who they could not keep because of a change of circumstance in their lives.  It is sad.

I presently have three dogs at home, all of which have come from the Humane Society.  The three living at home are all spoiled and part of the family.  Sometimes my wife chastises me for walking dogs at the Humane Society, when I could be walking our dogs, but I walk them every other day, I only get to the Humane Society twice or three times a month.

When I come home after a day at the Humane Society, my dogs meet me at the door and give me a thorough once over—they know I have been seeing other dogs during my absence.  Funny how that works!  (I also had a cat, but that is a whole different story with a whole different love story—mainly directed by the cat.  A cat can be fiercely independent or grossly loveable, but at his choosing.)

That was a refreshing break from blogging about disability law.  My next blog will be back to my writing trying to understand the actual practice and its nexus with the law and regulation.