Warm Hearts on a Cold Day

The temperature is struggling to rise to 40 degrees outside and given the cold rain falling it probably won’t reach it.  Despite the chill many of the dogs at the Durham County Animal Shelter are eager to go outside.  Some of course will need to do their business, and others will want to catch up on the sights and smells.  Most also are eager for some human companionship.  If there are volunteers on this day then the dogs will get their chance to get out and be walked.  Will people show up on such a miserable day for no other reason than that they care?  Yes, the dogs can count it!

It’s not just the dogs that wait eagerly for the volunteers to arrive to brighten their lives.  The cats at the shelter need their litter scooped and bowls filled.  Just like the dogs, they will sit expectantly looking out of their cages waiting for someone to take them out to be held and to have a warm lap to sit on.  Like the dogs, on most days they will have doting volunteers to help care for them.

Being in the shelter can understandably be difficult for the animals.  Some were given up by their owners after years in a home; others arrive as strays, found wandering alone on a street or on someone’s doorstep.  Those found as strays have stories known only to them.  The volunteers seek to make the time that the animals spend at the shelter the best it can be.  Volunteers work tirelessly to make the animals comfortable and comforted.

Yet volunteering at the shelter is no easy task.  Many people sign up with an initial burst of enthusiasm but the reality of the work is often challenging.  A lot of time is asked of them and they must go through hours of training to keep them and the animals healthy and safe.  The work itself can be far from glamorous, battling the cold winters and hot summers, cleaning up after the animals.  Then there are the jobs which can be tedious at best like filing paperwork or folding the towels and blankets used for bedding.  On top of all of this is the fact that due to the severe pet overpopulation problem many of the animals in the shelter end up being euthanized because there aren’t enough good homes for them.  It takes a remarkable level of unselfishness to be able to care for and often fall in love with these animals and to make their time at the shelter the very best it can be.  If anyone thinks that a volunteer is somehow able to distance him or herself from this reality then that person would be mistaken.  Shelter volunteers must often take the sadness with them.

Yet, remarkably, the volunteers keep coming.  These caregivers give time and compassion, fueled by a desire to do something good for the animals which through no fault of their own are at the shelter.  The reward may be seeing a cat or dog being adopted and going to a new home. It may also simply be the knowledge that for the dog that gets walked on the cold day or the cat that contentedly purrs in a lap, they have made the life of an animal so much better.

A version of this article appears in the latest issue of Fifteen501 magazine!