September 16
Day 3 – NRG Arena, Houston Texas
Today is Saturday and marks Day 3 here at the arena. I finally got the geographical aspect down somewhat. The only thing throwing me off now is the fact that the metro/rail actually is above ground here and intersects with the street traffic. Reminds me of Gothenburg, Sweden somewhat, where you have the trams above ground.
Today I was scheduled to work the Reunion & Adoption area and was working on putting together a list of local shelters that are also filled with misplaced dogs. Many people showed up today, being that it’s the weekend. All of a sudden a woman comes running up. She checked in a little while ago, to walk through the facility to see if we might have her baby. Turns out we do! Everyone gets super excited and I can feel the goosebumps on my arms as I’m watching the commotion building up.
I’m sharing a video of the moment she gets her baby back. I can assure you, there was not a dry eye in the group. This is what it’s all about! This is why we are here. I just love being able to contribute a little bit of my life to this.
In the afternoon I ended up in The Library as I was trying to locate a dog that someone is asking about. #Jodie. For those of you who have not read the past posts, The Library is a section we just opened 2 days ago to where we are keeping the dogs that are fragile, shy or just plain very scared. There are mostly smaller sized dogs in there.
So as I enter to look for this dog for Jodie, the gal in charge of The Library looks up and asks if I’m her walker. “No, ma’am, I’m not a scheduled walker today but if that’s what you need, that’s what I’ll do.” So my first assigned pup to walk turns out to be….David!
Now, I don’t have a clue why I insist that his name is David. Nobody else knows him as David. One of the folks from BF asked me today how I know that’s his name and I told him it’s in his papers. So we look through his papers again and David is mentioned….NOWHERE. It doesn’t matter. We are all starting to call him David. And after googling David, it fits him perfectly. “David was the second and greatest of the kings of Israel, ruling in the 10th century BC. Several stories about him are told in the Old Testament, including his defeat of Goliath, a giant Philistine.” The name fits him perfectly.
David is blind, can’t see a thing, and yet, he walks up and down curbs, stairs, and obstacles like nobody’s business. A few times I feel horribly guilty as he bounces into something because he’s doing so good I actually forget that he can’t see and therefore, forget to guide him.
Fellow volunteers from all corners of U.S.
Another volunteer named Becky shows up, a Houstonian, and we work our way down the line, one crate at the time. Most of the guys are little tiny guys but one that I get assigned is the biggest dog in the Library. He’s not really big, but yet the biggest in there. He’s about 40lbs. I look at his pen and there is a red tape reading “very scared, very shy, please be patient”. That’s the challenges I just love, love, love. First I walk up to the pen and he looks like he’s trying to blend into the wall in the corner as far away from me as he can get. So I revert to what I just learned last week. I got my ‘Low Stress Handling Silver Certification’. One of the things it teaches you is how to approach a shy and scared dog.
(If you are a pet owner, you OWE it to YOURSELF and YOUR PET to go through this class. It’s all online and absolutely invaluable.)
Well, he does not respond so I proceed into his pen, with my back to him and hand stretched out behind me. No response. Eventually I end up next to him and just start to hum some tunes. From the corner of my eye, I can see that he’s starting to show interest.
I don’t know why but at that moment I started thinking about my moms funeral and the first Psalm played was Amazing Grace, so I thought – why not.
I start humming it and to my surprise, he lets his guard down and lets me put the leash over his head and follows me out. We actually walk all the way over to the grassy area (my haven), meaning I didn’t have to carry him. He didn’t do his business, but we did spend about 20 minutes in under a tree, me singing Amazing Grace to him over and over and him putting his head under my chin, cuddled up.
I pray this little guy finds his forever home FAST! He is so loving, a great walker, don’t bark, just a perfect loyal friend.
Sweet little Amazing Grace.
I also found another little guy in there that stole my heart completely. #A165. He is about 5 lbs and was so afraid that I had to carry him out to the pee-and-poo area.
He is severely depressed and showing signs of catatonia. I told the folks in charge that I hope to come back for him when he is up for adoption.
Speaking of adoption and fostering. So I found out, that they will not send pets out to long distance fostering, at least not to start with. But there is a date attached to each dog, which is 30 days from the day he/she was found and that’s the day they are up for adoption.
As of today, we have 410 dogs here and probably about 100 cats.
5lbs of a broken spirit – sweet little A165.
If you know of anyone looking for a pet, please give them the website to BF: Bestfriends.org and ask them to view the gallery of pets that will be up for adoption soon. PetHarbor.com is another one featuring a lot of the pets missing/found.
Other help – I found out that it’s not a law to neuter/spay pets. If anyone is up for starting to write senate/congress about implementing this at the shelters, that would be a great start. Also, here is a link to Texas Litter Control as well as a link to an article about BF Mobile Spay Station.
http://montgomerycountypolicereporter.com/texas-litter…/
http://www.texaslittercontrol.org/
Again, thank you all for sending your continued prayers, energy and thoughs. And thanks to Jodie Woodall Helms and Tina Baciao Roberts for taking such good care of my babies while I’m here!
Love you all….more tomorrow.
Another happy reunion.
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