Shelter Volunteering

For the first time, I was sad today, thinking about leaving the shelter. Molly, the German Shepherd Dog, was looking at me from her kennel, intent and eager. I tilted my head from side to side, and she responded with head tilts of her own. She was very attuned to my motions in general, and clearly was hoping for additional interaction. She doesn't have much leash etiquette (though she's not the worst I've known by far), but she seems so eager to please and intelligent. I think she'd be a very trainable dog. I kept looking at her and thinking of my grandfather's dog and felt a personal connection that I haven't felt with the other dogs there. I wish I had more time to work with her. The bully breed dogs are big, goofy, excitable creatures who are a lot of fun to be with. Molly, though, is of a breed and temperament that I'm more familiar with. I have an even better sense of what's in her head, and that makes me yearn to give her the attention she's asking for when she sits in her kennel and looks hopefully out at passing volunteers. Instead, I can take her out for a little extra walk at the end of the day before going home, which is at least something.

I'm so happy seeing and walking and socializing with these dogs every week.

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I've been pretty fully occupied for the last two days with playing games with my brother, T, who was down from Kenosha for a little while before his last final exam of the year. Sorry I've been away.