A Great Day to be a Volunteer

     Yesterday morning I woke up super excited to start the day.  I was headed to Kansas City Pet Project to walk dogs and help with doggie photos.  First off, the weather had cooled down a bit.  The high was only supposed to be in the low 90's.  This was such great news because that meant it wasn't too hot to take the dogs on a little bit longer walk.  Then I checked my facebook and saw that several people were planning on volunteering.  I knew it was going to be a great day for the dogs.
    I was the first volunteer to arrive, with Natasha getting there just a few minutes later.  I had brought a list of dogs that needed bios and Natasha had brought a list of dogs that needed photos taken.  We were ready to start the day.  We got started right away walking dogs and before we knew it we were already done with the first row.  Then more and more volunteers starting showing up!  We were so excited because we knew that meant that all the dogs would get walked!  Many days there are not enough volunteers to get all the dogs walked and it's so sad.  But today would be different :)  One of our photographers showed up at 1pm and we quickly got all the new dogs photographed.  Our list was shortened because several of the dogs on the photo list had already been adopted that day!  So wonderful!!!
  Around 2:30pm one of our wonderful volunteers showed up and brought us all peanut butter & jelly sandwiches!  What an awesome treat!  Walking dogs all day really makes you hungry :)  So we all took a break sitting on the bench out front and had a sandwich.  It was really great because it felt like we were a team, a family even.  We were all chatting about different dogs and how awesome it was that we were all here today.  Most of us don't know each other outside of the shelter, but it's nice that we can come together and share this passion for these dogs.  We all love animals and want to do whatever we can to make their lives better and to find them forever homes.  We all share that connection and it really makes me feel so proud to know and be associated with this special group of people.  I wish more people in the community would come join our family!!!
     After our sandwich break we finished up walking all the dogs and some volunteers even had time to give a few dogs baths!  As I walked around the kennel area at the end of the day I could just tell how happy all the dogs were that we were there.  Even getting a 10-15 minute walk really makes a difference in these dogs lives.  They seemed so calm and content.  After saying goodbye to everyone, I walked out to my car with a huge smile on my face :)  It had been such a wonderful day:  all the dogs got walked, all new doggies got their pictures taken, over a dozen volunteers came out to help, and we enjoyed some "family" time while eating some pb & j's.  I wish that this day could be repeated everyday at the shelter.  I can't wait until next Sunday!  Please come out and join our volunteer team!  Next Sunday, July 15th, there is a Volunteer Orientation for anyone who is interested!  Please go to http://www.kcpetproject.org/ for more information.  Looking forward to seeing you soon!