Cold noses and warm hearts

I recently signed up to be a volunteer dog walker at my local animal shelter, the Roice-Hurst Humane Society. I decided I have too much love to give to dogs, and this is turning Sadie into a spoiled moocher. ;) This morning I went for my "dog walking class" and got to walk my first two dogs.

My first dog was Ace, a 4-year-old Blue Heeler mix. Their website says Ace is a female, but he's really a boy. What a sweet dog, but it seems like he didn't get a lot of human contact before. He doesn't like to play ball and he always seemed a little surprised that I would want to pet him. By the end of our walk he was really pretty happy to have his neck under his collar scratched.



I also walked Darvey, a 7-year-old Red Heeler mix. This Darvey is one special guy. He was born without tear ducts so his eyes get really goopy. He's also missing about 98% of his teeth (and what he does have are awfully crooked) but that doesn't stop him from mooching dog biscuits every chance he gets. He loves to play ball and knows how to sit and shake. He also has an amazing ability to quickly determine which pants pocket contains the dog cookies!




If you're interested in volunteering and you like dogs (or cats), check with your local shelter to see if they have any volunteer opportunities. I had no idea that my shelter had a dog walker program until I looked on their website about something else two weeks ago--a little something that I'll be sharing with all of you next week!