Jessica Collier

Journal Four

I felt pretty stupid this week while I was volunteering. When I got to the shelter I started doing some laundry. I had to wait for a load to dry before I could fold it so I decided I would clean up a little bit and sweep. I wanted to do a really good job so I was moving things to sweep behind them because I decided that it doesn’t get done that often. I pulled a huge tub a dog food away from the wall and started sweeping behind it. When I looked down I realized I had swept up a dead mouse and I screamed. The other workers asked me what was wrong and I had to explain. One woman told me to get used to it because they have a lot of dead mice. I really didn’t want to scream and look like a dork but it happened. I guess I am going to have to work on my fear of mice. I was proud of myself, though, because I did sweep it into the dust pan and put it in the trash all by myself! After I finished sweeping and doing laundry I cleaned some cat cages. They are much easier to clean since they use a litter box so it wasn’t too bad. After I finished that I walked some dogs and played with some puppies. It was interesting walking the dogs outside because they leash they gave me was really short and it didn’t have a handle. I had to hold on really tight and run when the dogs did because I couldn’t hold them back very well. I guess it was good for the dogs and me though. We both got some exercise.

I also finally found their mission statement. I must be blind because it is framed right up on the wall, “to promote the humane care and protection of all animals, especially those abandoned, neglected and abused and to prevent cruelty and suffering.” I think that the humane society does the best they can to accomplish their mission. The facilities aren’t great but it is what they have to work with for now. They do take in every animal that is brought to them and they take them for free most of the time. They are supposed to charge people if they drop an animal off but if a person cannot pay they take the animal anyway. They do not turn away any animals and all the animals get a least a week to try to be adopted.