The Boss Blog Life at the Shelter – from inside my kennel

Boss and Glenda

People.  From my room with a view, (how I refer to my
kennel) people is what I see.  Especially on weekends, I see a lot of people.  All sorts of people.  Tall people. Short people. Young people. Old people.  There are singles and couples, some are families with little kids.  People with walkers and canes, people with expensive running shoes;
lots of people.  They walk by the kennels and as they do, I see my shelter mates working so hard to get their attention.  They jump up and down; some
run in circles.  They grab a toy to share if they have one.  Some bark.  Some just sit and watch, as person after person just walks by with hardly a glance.  It takes some time, but eventually us long-timers get to know pretty quickly that very few will slow down to give us a look.

It breaks my heart, watching my friends work so hard just for a quick pet.  They have such hope that the people walking by will give them a look, give them a pet, give them a chance. 

How wonderful it is to be able to watch as somebody does stop and look.  Some say a few nice
words and even reach out to pet one of my friends.  Sometimes they even
take a little time to play for a few minutes.  They both, my friend and the person, walk out to the play yard maybe for a short game of fetch ?!?!. 
We all cheer when that happens!  Sometimes instead of fetch, we get an amazing brushing … oh, it feels so good. 

A few of us are pretty lucky.  We special few have some dedicated volunteers who come by in the mornings and take us for a wonderful walk.  It’s so great to get away from the kennel for a bit.  Some of us pretend like we’re their dogs, except we know at the end of our walk, we’re going back to our kennels. 
But while we’re out … fabulous. 

If people only knew what hope they give us, with just a little bit of their time and attention.  For a short time, someone spends with us, while we’re with somebody who is paying attention just to us, it’s heavenly.  It makes it easier, going back, where we wait and hope that somebody will give us a look, a pet,  a chance.