My life as a volunteer started soon after I adopted my first puppy. I walked into the shelter that morning determined to take a puppy home with me that day. I didn't realize how much this was going to change my life. That day I adopted a little black lab mix baby girl of approximately 8 - 10 weeks, and also signed up to start volunteering the following month. That was 8 years ago. People have asked me how I volunteer without bringing all the animals home. Believe me, it isn't easy sometimes. I like to work with the animals that need extra attention and love, and it is really hard not to become very attached. You learn the limitations of your household. I currently have 3 animals, 2 dogs and 1 cat. The second dog and the cat were supposed to be foster babies that I was to return to the shelter for adoption but … well, you can see where this is leading to… I became too fond of them and couldn't part with them. This limits my help as a foster home. It was too painful to return. I had two other foster puppies for a week at a time and I would like to share their stories.

You can meet Keisha and Howard, the fur kids who almost broke my heart by clicking HERE.

One of my fondest memories is of our shelter dog, Poncho. Dumped by uncaring relatives after his human mom passed away. He was nearly 18 years old at the time. He had skin problems and his hair was very thin. We knew no one would adopt him so we made the shelter his home. As the weeks went on I started to notice something about Poncho. He was starting to act like he had personality. When he first came into the shelter he was very quiet and slept all of the time. Now he was standing and barking at volunteers, begging for treats. He would even do a little twirl sometimes. He started to entertain the people that were waiting to see adoption counselors.

He would go to fast food drive-thru's with the staff for french fries and a burger of his own. He basically became obnoxious and we loved it. As his hair was so thin, he was given little sweaters to wear - he even had a Hawaiian shirt for summer. He lived the last 9 months of his life with us and passed away quietly one night in the arms of the girl that was running the shelter at the time. We miss him very much. They pass through our lives for a brief period of time and leave an indelible mark in our hearts.

Our next older gentleman had much better luck - JJ was very old - we aren't even sure how old - we knew he was our next shelter dog until people came in one day to adopt a puppy to keep their two 14 year old dogs company. When they saw JJ they knew they couldn't leave without him. They wanted him to be in a home when his time came. They adopted him and he left with a big smile on his face. He also left a mark in our hearts and so did the wonderful people who cared enough to help an older dog. All I can say is they will be rewarded ten fold when they get to Heaven. Unfortunately, I never took any pictures of JJ while he was at the shelter.

One last picture of Poncho.  He had a big soft bed of his own at the shelter where he used to snooze during the day when he wasn't getting into mischief.

Another favorite of mine from recent years has been Bailey, the greyhound/lab mix. His litter of pups came in and they all went out quickly, as puppies will do.  But after they left and weren't on the good food that we would feed them most of the litter started having skin problems from allergies.  All the people worked with us in order to correct the problem except Bailey's people.  They brought him back with very little hair and abandoned him.  It took several months at the clinic to get him back to the point where he would be adoptable and then he came back over to us.  To be truthful, I don't remember him as a puppy.  Sometimes when puppies would come in I would never even see them as they are usually adopted so quickly - which must have been the case with his litter.  This is how he looked when I first saw him.  He was a little timid then until he realized that we were going to be playing with him.

	Here is the first of several pictures I took of him. He looks just a little bit intimidated in this picture, but I never exactly figured out why.
	This picture was taken while he was in his cage.  It was really hard to get a picture of him when I was by myself - which was the case this night.   Love the ears. Bailey was a little headstrong and we worked with him for several months in obedience trying to make him calm down.  But everyone didn't work at it when they walked him so he was getting mixed directions on what was expected of him.

One Sunday when I came in right before Christmas last year,  I brought my mother with me just to give her some fresh air.  I thought she was our good luck charm with Bailey.  A family came in that was really interested in him.  He walked nicely with all the kids and we thought it was a match made in Heaven, but he must have been intimidated by the number of people standing around.  They adopted him.  But it wasn't meant to be.  Once he got settled in the home he got aggressive with the kids - he didn't try to bite them but he would stand up and grab them and scared the one really badly and they brought him back on New Years Eve.  It was with very mixed feelings that I greeted him again.  It was good to see him but I wanted him to be happy in a home that would love him as much as we did. I considered bringing him home myself but another male dog in the family wouldn't be good, and his thin little greyhound legs weren't going to be good on all my stairs and I already had been through one surgery with Madison in December.

Then another home was lined up for him with a woman and a boy that was home all day with health problems.  We thought this would be the perfect home since he would have company all day but again, it wasn't meant to be.  Here are pictures of Bailey getting a bath before he went home that day.  Again, the volunteers and staff were all distraught by his leaving.  Perhaps he was picking up our vibrations and felt he should stay with us.  We will never know. We should have known because it was a struggle to get him in the car with them.  The girl that did the adoption left the room and cried.  But he had a smile on his face when they pulled out of the parking lot and we thought everything would be okay.  It was a pretty awful scene though that I can replay in my mind.

For whatever the reason, the mom brought him back the following week.  We thought they were going to be the perfect home - but the kid had seen a puppy that wasn't available for adoption that day and I really think he whined until the mom brought Bailey back - they ended up getting that other pup who had become available for adoption that week.  Thank goodness Bailey didn't seem very upset by it all because he had us and we loved him.

Then one Sunday when I came in I didn't hear his usual frantic cry upon hearing me speak. When I asked they said he had gone home that week and so far everything seemed fine.  I wish I had gotten to meet the people - I wish I knew how he was doing. But he's been in his new home for over six months and I have to take that as a good sign and hope that he is happy and getting lots of toys.  He is one that is going to stick in my mind forever when I remember the fond times I have had at the shelter. Although they are good memories and I am glad I got to meet him, I always cry when I think about it too much.  I guess I'm just a big softy. Bailey, I hope you are well and happy and if your parents ever read this web page, I hope they contact me because I would really like to know how you are doing - and so do my other Monday night volunteers.

I have taken a picture of Bailey and turned it into a background design which is pictured below. This is a reduced version of what it looks like and is a cute background, I think. You are free to copy it if you like it.

Although it is really rewarding to watch the animals get adopted and go home with people who are talking babytalk to them as they leave, it is sometimes really hard since you grow to care about these animals so much. You almost feel they are your own. It's a wonder we all don't have 20 animals in our homes. But one of the nice things is when our human friends, relatives and co-workers come in and adopt and then we can get updates on the animals all the time and see pictures. Obviously I take pictures of the shelter animals and have huge scrapbooks going back 8 years. I don't remember all their names now but certain ones stand out, even if I didn't remember to put a name on the photo.

I have a habit of taking these pictures to work and showing them to people. I took a picture in the one day of a little kitten we had and was showing it to one of the girls I work with and she fell in love and wanted to meet the kitty. Of course, she adopted her on the spot. This is a picture of Sydney when she was with us. We were calling her Misty at the time. Next to it is a picture of Sydney today.

Well about a year later I showed another picture to Jan that she couldn't resist. She had always talked about wanting a real sweet cat and this kitten was just about the sweetest little thing you would ever meet. And we didn't get this type of kitten in very often. Now he lives with Sydney too and one other cat adopted from another animal shelter in another city. Here are pictures of Hank when he first came in and a picture I took when I got to visit them in their new home.

The really odd part of this story is they now live with her daughter, who does petsitting for a living and we have her as our petsitter to walk the dogs each day at lunch.

Another of our sad stories is little Mouse. Mouse was an abused puppy. When he came to our shelter no one could touch him. He had been beaten by the father of the household with a 2 x 4 and lived under the porch outside. Neighbors stole him and he somehow ended up with us. I worked with him for several months to get him used to people. I guess I was the first one to make a break through with him - on a Memorial Day weekend when I was there by myself. He finally gave me a kiss in the face and I was so excited but had no one to tell as everyone was out of town at family parties. For Mouse to trust me enough to do this, it was a big break through. After that he started being much better with other volunteers and I tried not to touch him as much because he needed to get used to other people. Here is the only good picture I have of him. He was a real sweetie.

Unfortunately he had potty problems and no one would give him the needed time to learn. He went back over to our clinic so they could try to train him and then he finally ended up in a foster home. I finally lost track of him and never really got to say goodbye. If I could have, I would have taken him myself but he required a little more time than I had and we were looking for a home where someone was home all day. He never had much of a chance in his previous life and hopefully he is doing well in his foster home. As with many of us (being a foster home myself) .... many of us end up keeping these poor souls ourself. I hope that Mouse is happy where he is and knows that I love him very much.

What can I possibly say about Fred that you can't see from looking at his picture?

At Christmastime when we would take the older dogs home for the holidays, the volunteers fought over who would take Fred. He could have had several homes with the volunteers except we were all too overloaded with animals already.

Fred gave me a bad scare once while I was working alone one night doing the feeding and walking. I was letting him wander around the shelter helping me because I was locked in, but he went to the back door and pushed really hard and apparently the door wasn't tight. Out he went like a steam engine. Have you ever tried to stop a bassett that wants to go somewhere? He headed around the side of the building going full steam and I had to stop to make sure the door was unlocked so I wouldn't lock myself out. By the time I nearly caught up with him he was crossing the main street with traffic going both directions. When he got to the other side he stopped long enough for me to rush across between cars and grab him. Maybe he saw his life flash before his eyes because he nearly got hit and none of the cars even slowed down or stopped to help me. When I got him back across the street by holding onto his collar, I sat down on the ground and cried. If he had been hit I never would have been able to work there again. After that no one was permitted to be there by themselves.

One last picture of the big guy. He got a good home and we all said our fond farewells.

The faces change but the stories are still the same - so sad. Yes, they all get good homes but right now we have another little guy that reminds me very much of Poncho named Shorty. He was dumped off at the approximate age of 15 because his owner couldn't deal with his old age health problems. Would it be better for him to end his journey in the arms of his family or to end up with strangers? He adjusted nicely and had free run of the shelter when someone was there. He was sleeping in a big litter box fitted with a blanket on the floor while the staff was there and snored his little head off. I never got a picture of Shorty. He is living at our shelter sanctuary in Florida now - an old age home for animals and other misfits who were not able to be adopted. You can read about his story by going to the official shelter webpage HERE.

We have a cat with one eye that went to the sanctuary because he was just too shy to be adopted. I am sure Toby is doing well now and perhaps one day he will be brave enough to ask to leave us and find his own home. When Toby went to Florida his cage was filled again by another one eyed cat name Stevie. Stevie has been a favorite with the staff and volunteers. He is almost blind but he is friendly to every human, cat or dog he has met. Stevie never met a "being" he didn't like. But no one has seriously looked at him and each week when I come in and he is still there my heart breaks a little more ... until a Saturday in March, 2001 when the nicest girl came to visit and Stevie touched her heart. She came back the same day with her dog to meet Stevie and they got along. The following week amid many tears from volunteers and staff, Stevie went to his new home where I know he is going to be loved as much as we love him. I was lucky enough to be one of the volunteers that was there when he left. I raced home to make a report to an egroup list I belong to. People all over the world were waiting to see if she came back for him. He is a celebrity cat now. Here's his picture.

Isn't he sweet?

I have sponsored a kitty from an animal shelter by sending her toys and treats. Her name is Beta and she lives at an animal shelter in Virginia. I sponsored her in honor of Honey.

Honey was one of our shelter kitty favorites. She was with us for a really long time, possibly abused. I never knew her real story. I only knew she needed lots of love and a patient person to live with that would let her adjust very slowly. Honey used to hide in or behind her litter box. When you got her out of the cage she would grab you and hang on like her life depended on not being detached from you. She hid her head in your neck or in your hair and wouldn't look at anyone else. Over a period of months she relaxed a little but she always hugged you like her life depended on it. What happened to her in her past life, I will never know. She did get a good home with a patient individual as they all would if given the chance.

These are the only two pictures of Honey I have. In the first I am sitting in her cage with her, listening to lots of wisecracks about whether I was adoptable or potty trained. In this cage I discovered that from her view, life was really scarey with lots of legs and feet going past her cage. She was moved to an upper cage and things were much better for her. If you click on this picture you can see it enlarged so you can see Honey better. She is in my lap. Isn't she pretty?

This is the button I received for sponsoring Beta. It is a one time donation of whatever you can spare or whatever toys and treats you can send. Please take a moment and check out the Furr Angels by clicking on the banner and going to the sponsor animals page. Perhaps there is a face there that you cannot resist helping. There are both dogs and cats looking for homes through various agencies and shelters. All deserve the chance.

Simon and Eileen being the "special" little fur persons that they are got their own web pages too - you can read about them before you leave. They are truly special.

SIMON

EILEEN

Want to be a special person? Help a shelter animal by sponsoring one at the link below.

Before you leave this website I hope you will take a moment and visit my rescue pages. I painted a somewhat one-sided point of view on these pages with happy endings. Not all animals are this fortunate. Many go into shelters and never make it out. Many are just babies that have never had a chance to live. In an ideal society where everyone spays/neuters their pets, these animals would have never been born. To be born and never even get the chance to live isn't fair. There is also a fair amount of abuse that goes on in the world where animals are concerned. The only safe thing you can do for your pets is keep them indoors when you are not home and always monitor them while they are outside. Always make sure they have proper identification on them so if they are lost, the shelter can call you. Above all, please spay/neuter your pets. Lives are depending upon it. You can view my rescue pages by clicking HERE. I hope you will not skip this page. You owe it to yourself to know the whole truth.

I have been the very first website to win an award from Ali and Jasper. Thanks so much you two. I am very honored to accept this award on behalf of all my own animals and all those waiting in shelters for homes. It is very rewarding for me to see young people who love animals as much as I do. Please stop and read Jasper's story. It's a story of love.

We also received this special award from Jackie and Leslie and the rest of the Fearless Foursome: "We also would like to give you Leslie's Award for Caring because your shelter stories, care banners, entire site in fact, all reflect your deep compassion and concern for all animals and your desire to see an end to animal abuse." We would like to thank you all for this lovely award.

Also, please take a moment to sign my guestbook. Thanks.

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