My Experience at Dumb Friends League

This is Lily! She was a puppy that I cared for when I first started volunteering. I bonded with her throughout the weeks and ended up adopting her! I adopted her on my 3rd day volunteering and she is now 10 months! This was one of the playrooms that the dogs got to play in. As you can tell, I took a lot of interest in Lily. Sometimes we allowed dogs to play together so they get to bond. I got to monitor them to make sure nothing happened. This was always fun and exciting to watch! This is Angel! He is a pitbull that I learned to love and adore! He is the sweetest puppy I have ever met. He loved to play fetch and tug a war. Everyone has this idea that pitbulls are these scary and dangerous dogs. I am a 5’3, 110-pound teenager and I couldn't have felt safer with Angel. Someone I worked with was a gal named Alex. She was such a bright and happy soul. She helped me learn throughout this experience. She has been working here since 2012 and is now a leader here. She has adopted 3 dogs and 2 cats (yay!) here. She and her fiance, Ryan, take some of the dogs on hikes and walks when they have free time. the location I volunteered was surrounded by mountains and fun hikes (for humans and the dogs!). Another person I met was Amanda. She was a teenager who volunteered on the weekends. She has been volunteering here for the past 4 months and has learned a lot. She helped “mentor” me here and help me get the hang of things quickly. She first volunteering for a school project but fell in love with it and has continue to volunteer (like me!). Something I learned about my community was how well we work together. When we volunteer together, we are able to achieve great things.

A task that would’ve taken 3 hours only took an hour with extra volunteers. Something else I learned about our community is some people are awful! Throughout my volunteering, I saw too many abused dogs. We had to care many dogs back to health and watch them learn to trust and love again. It was extremely tough for me to see animals in that condition. I have always been an animal lover and seeing dogs abused and crying, really took a toll on me. Throughout my couple months of volunteering, I was able to see the struggles they face at a simple yet intense shelter.

Something I learned about myself is I am such a shy person! I have always been a shy person. I’ve been at my job for 3 years and I totally forgot how scary it is to start at a new place! I was awfully shy when I first started. Once I met someone around my age that I could connect with, I started to open up a little more. I learned that I’m a great listener and communicator while I volunteered. I listened extremely well to instructions and the commands that needed to be done. After I got the hang of it, they started to have me help new people. I wasn’t in charge, whatsoever, but I was able to help the new volunteers when they needed it! This was truly an honor because I was able to master and help a shelter that truly impacted people and animals!

by Hannah McNeese, ACC Student