i’m in love!!!!!

Yes, it is true, but like so many other aspects of my life, it all seems like a cruel joke or a scene from some bad movie. You see, I have been volunteering at the Oregon Humane Society for the past few months as a dog walker, and, well, I have fallen head over heels for a 7 year old Chow/Huskie mix named Tess. Tess is a calm, sweet dog that has been at OHS since early June, and I can’t figure out why nobody wants to adopt her. She is cute as can be, likes to wear bandannas, and spends a lot of time sitting around scratching herself. Every week I show up for my shift reluctantly eager to see her; I feel conflicted because I know I want her to get adopted to a good home, but I am always a bit relieved to find that I get to walk her at least one more time. I would adopt Tess in a heartbeat if I had any faith that I’d be a good dog owner, but I know with my lifestyle and profession that I just couldn’t maintain a responsible level of ownership. I travel way too much, don’t have a yard, and have a hard enough time keeping myself properly fed and groomed. I’d be a terrible dog owner. It’s an impossible love.
The thing is that people don’t seem to want to adopt the older, bigger dogs. Older, small dogs get swooped up pretty quickly, and puppies go almost instantaneously. Today there was a mob of people who showed up right as the shelter opened because they heard the rumor that a litter of Labradoodles had just come in. The puppies weren’t even ready to be put up for adoption, but the public was already waiting. I tried showing off the lovely and well behaved Tess, but nobody seemed interested.

(here is Tess wearing her flashy pink bandanna)
I love volunteering as a dog walker. I go in once a week for about 3 hours and walk as many dogs as I can. Other volunteers are usually there as well, and we try to make sure all of the dogs get out for a walk at least twice a day. Many of the dogs are housebroken, so the poor things will hold it until someone comes along to take them outside. At first it is pure insanity; the dog wants to get out so badly it can barely contain itself, and all the other dogs in the kennel start barking and going bonkers because they want to be let out too. But once you get the dog out of the kennel and onto the grass so it can do its thing, it usually calms down and is just incredibly happy to be outside. You take the dog for a couple laps around the walking path behind the shelter, or maybe bring it to a pin and play ball with it, then you take it back to the kennel and switch it out for another one. There are often more than 80 dogs at the shelter, so rotating them out for walks is a never-ending process.
Most of the dogs at the shelter are bigger dogs between the ages of 6 months and 2 years. My guess is that people buy these dogs as puppies, when they are cute and docile, but when they become older, bigger, and more energetic the owners realize the dog is too much to handle and they bring it to the humane society to put up for adoption. There are also a number of strays and dogs that have been transferred from animal control, some that have been abused and neglected, and some that were just out-right abandoned. The Oregon Humane Society is definitely top notch, but even the best of shelters is still a pretty miserable place for a dog to live. These dogs have no idea what is happening; it’s like the worlds and homes that they knew just disappeared and were replaced by this terrible reality of being locked up in a kennel all day in an environment of overwhelming sights, sounds, and smells. The dogs get really stressed out, and then stress each other out. Sometimes they all start barking at once, creating an ear shattering cacophony of sound, and creating a sort of collective freak-out that makes even the calmest dogs start to panic.
What is amazing, though, is that each dog retains pieces of it’s past life, and evidence of its personality show regardless of the situation. Each dog is a complete mystery; with a secret history that we can only tap by analyzing it’s reactions. For instance, there is one that I have walked a few times that gets really excited every time it sees a silver car and pulls towards it expecting to jump in and go for a ride. Another one gets very excited when it sees blonde women, and another one that gets really freaked out around kids. There is a beautiful and gigantic Akita named Yumi that I have walked a couple times in the past, but today when I entered her kennel to leash her up, she started shaking and cowering in fear. It was raining outside so I had my hat and jacket on, but I also remembered that I have a new mustache that I didn’t have the last time I walked her, leading me to believe she was mistaking me for someone else, for some mustached man in her past that had been bad to her.
So, to my friends here in Portland with big back yards and a hankering to be a dog owner, please consider adopting Tess or any of the other great dogs at OHS. I’d be so happy if someone I knew adapted my new found love; it would be very easy to convince me to come over and take her for walks every now and then. Please allow this love to live!!!

(here she is a few weeks ago wearing her traditional red cowboy bandanna)