Update first: Patron and Malcolm have been adopted!!!!!! (See my previous blog posts for their stories. Hinkley is in isolation with an upper respiratory infection. I stop in to visit her every day I’m there. Will share more on her in my next blog post. 

I seem to be drawn to a certain personality in a dog at the shelter. The seniors are my heart string pullers but I also am hopelessly drawn to the shy, timid and afraid. It’s like I want to be their mommy until their forever mommy or daddy shows up. I want them to overcome their shyness and fear and know it’s ok to be loved and give love back. Sometimes I swear I feel their sadness. Some of them shake in their kennels when you talk to them and I just want to scoop them up in my arms and smother them with hugs and kisses. Some of them are staff only dogs which means volunteers can’t take them out. I wait and watch for what seems like forever for them to become volunteer dogs and some never do so the only thing I can do is give them treats and pets through their cages and just talk to them in a soothing loving way. The staff are wonderful with them though so they are definitely getting great love and care.

When I get to the shelter, I love to go up and down the first row and say hi and give some love pets to the babies. No matter how old they are they are still babies to me. When they are not in their cages or out for walks, I try to find out where they are hoping they got adopted. The thing is they could be missing for several reasons such as transferred to a rescue, transferred to one of our other shelters or just another shelter altogether, adopted, or on a medical hold because they got sick or worse………have passed away. I always arrive hoping especially to see the seniors adopted.

I then go to the boards and look for the dogs labeled priority walks or holds it. After walking the priorities and holds it dogs, I start on row one and then just walk till the staff is ready to go home. I have a routine that I usually follow with the dogs. I take them through “poo poo” alley first.  It’s a wooded path that usually encourages the dogs to do their business. After that I take them to the play yards and just love on them, give them treats and play with them. If the play yards are full, I walk around the front of the building past the medical trailers, up the hill and sit on what I call the love bench. The dogs don’t get to run free here but they get loved on, fed treats and I will brush them if they allow me to.  I love to walk around the front to show them off. When people see them, they will comment on how cute they are. I tell them the dog’s name, how wonderful they are and tell them if they are interested, they can talk to a staff member about meeting them. Once we as me and my dog get inside, I grab a peanut butter treat out of the refrigerator and take them back to their kennels.

We try to get each dog out for a walk twice a day but it takes a lot of volunteers showing up. I get so excited when we can give a dog three walks because we have a great turnout of volunteers. The hardest days are when I have to leave and there are several dogs that only got one walk that day. I would probably stay all night if they let me til every last dog got walked. Volunteers are so important!!!

The burden I feel for these dogs is my passion. I look forward to every day I get to go there. At first I was so overwhelmed with the amount of dogs not getting there second walk but I had to learn to be grateful for the opportunity I and the other volunteers got with the animals we were able to get to. You have to make a difference with one dog at a time. If you stay in an overwhelmed state of mind, you will quit. I know in my heart that this is where God has lead me and I am open to where ever this leads me and to learn from it whatever He wants me to learn. I have a lot of love to give and a lot of learning yet to do!!!

This is Marigold. She is just as sweet as can be. She’s very friendly and outgoing and is a great leash walker and loves exploring. She waiting for her forever family at the KC Pet Project on Raytown Rd.

Walking the dogs at the shelter is not all sunshine and roses and good feelings especially when the poop starts flying. I mean literally; poop flies! When I get to the shelter, I start looking for the priority walks and dogs that hold it and walk them first. I start with row one and work my way to the back.

There was this one dog that needed walking but his kennel was full of poop. I didn’t see anyone around inside to clean his cage so I thought I will walk him last so when I put him back, his cage will be clean. The staff were really busy that day with walking, introductions and all the amazing things they do to keep the shelter running. It was almost time to head home and this sweet dog was still needing a walk. Seriously if you had seen his cage, his body and his paws, you may have walked by thinking someone else will walk him. I really felt bad for this little “holds it” guy who didn’t hold it this time.

I walked around until I found a staff  person and asked him should I wait a little longer  or could someone clean his cage while I was walking him. Fortunately, he told me he would clean it and to go ahead and walk him. Nice to meet you Malcolm!

I knew I would get poop on me from lifting him out of his cage and prepared myself but holy cow I didn’t expect what was to come next. I opened his cage and the poop went flying….in my mouth ( It is what it is people. Don’t judge me), on my face, my neck, my shoulders, my shirt, and my hair. Another staff member was standing near and came over and helped me get him out and off we went. Once I got outside this same staff person brought me lots of wet and dry towels to wipe off with directing me to the spots I couldn’t see. Forever grateful!!

We then proceeded to give Malcolm a much needed bath. He was quite the trooper and patiently endured shampoo and being hosed down. Poor guy!! He was just so desperate to get out of his kennel that his paws were going in every direction. Once his bath was over, we went on our walk so he could dry off. Let me tell you that boy knows how to clean up and is a very handsome dude.

When I got home from my Malcolm experience, my dogs refused to greet me, my daughter-in-law was laughing her butt of while I shared my story and my husband was pointing me to the shower…..sigh.

I haven’t had  a chance to walk him again. Usually someone has gotten to him before me or I am so busy walking rows 1 and 2. Would I do it again? Of course! It’s just another day at the shelter.

Malcolm is 5 years old and 11 months and just a sweet loving boy who loves to give kisses and available for adoption at the KC Pet Project in Missouri. I sure hope someone sweeps him up soon. These aren’t my pics but they are awesome!

There are times when walking dogs at the Shelter that a certain dog comes along that pulls your heart strings. For me that comes often. I wrote about Hinkley in my last blog and she is my current heart string puller but there’s another little man (actually he’s an 81 pound Pitbull mix) that came along the first week in July. His name is Patron.

When I first met Patron, he was a grumpy, old man. He would come out of his kennel and we would head out for our walk and he would just stop and refuse to move. I would let him stay for a few and then give him a little tug and get him to move a few more feet. He wanted to be in charge and he just seemed mad to me.

I took him out to the kennel yard to try and get acquainted a little but he was so indifferent to me. It was almost like he was doing me a favor by allowing me to pet him. As I was stroking his head, I started praying he would find a special home with special people who would love him and make his last days more special then his first. And of course the tears started flowing. I just thought how unfair it was that a 10 year dog who was accustomed to living in a home was now possibly spending his last years in a shelter.

When I took him back inside the shelter, he reluctantly walked in with me and planted his bottom in the doorway. I had to get help from a staff person to get him to his kennel and get him back in. He just broke my heart.

I took out again another time he was a much more compliant boy but still didn’t want go back into the building. I had to have a little help this time but once we got through the door he actually moved a little quicker to his kennel but I still had to coax him in and give him a little push.

The third time I walked him he walked with me with out stopping, ate my treats and when we stopped at the love bench, he put his paws on my legs and let me totally love on him. When we got back inside the building and in front of his cage, he walked right in. I was smitten!! I saw a young puppy coming out of him..

Every day after that was just amazing. He had a spark in his eye and seemed genuinely happy to see me. I would be so bummed when I came in and someone else had walked him but I made sure to stop by to tell him how awesome he was and give him treats.

The last day I walked him, we were walking up the hill and he stopped and dropped in the bushes and just began rolling around. My boy was frolicking. My old man was acting like a puppy who had found his happy place. He even played tug of war with me. I was so happy that I just wanted to shout, “Hey everyone! Look at this beautiful boy playing and being a puppy again!”

When I came back the next day, he was gone. He had been moved to a different location. Where he went, could have given him a better chance of being adopted. I kept checking his profile on our website and then one day I saw he was in a foster home. I was so happy, someone was loving on him and he was in a home again. Just recently I saw he was once again at our other shelter.

If I didn’t have my two precious boxer girls, I would adopt him in a heartbeat. So now I just continue praying that my precious boy will get to live out his last days in a home with some amazing people loving all over him. I’m hoping that I can take a trip to the Zona Rosa Adoption Center at 8721 N Stoddard Ave, Kansas City and maybe walk and visit him some time.

It’s a good thing my heart has a lot of strings that can be pulled cause……..I’m hoping to be here for a long time.

I walked Hinkley again today! This time I took her to the play yard and she let me pet her and feed her hot dogs. She didn’t flinch one time. Progress!!!!