Volunteering At An Animal Shelter by Mykaella

Volunteering At An Animal Shelter by Mykaella - January 2017 Scholarship Essay

As a little girl, I've always loved animals. Cats, dogs, little bunnies, you name it. About a year ago, I decided to volunteer at a nice animal shelter down the street from where I live. Working at an animal shelter isn’t the most glamorous thing. I can tell you from firsthand experience: Do not wear your favorite shirt when training the dogs how to sit and stay because the big slobbering kiss that the Boxer is going to give you is going all over it. I wouldn’t wear new sneakers when taking the dogs out for a nice stroll either, you never know where you plan on stepping and you most certainly don’t want to accidentally step in any dog waste.

Despite all this, volunteering at the animal shelter is a great experience. It showed me that there are a lot of wonderful pets who are placed into shelters each and every day who really just want to be loved. It inspired me to encourage the people in my community to go out and adopt from animal shelters instead of buying pets. A neighbor of mine decided to go ahead and do so, adopting a little yorkie terrier named Chewy. Lisa claims that adopting Chewy was one of the best decisions she’s ever made. Lisa suffers from anxiety and depression, but ever since she’s gotten Chewy, her anxiety and depression issues has decreased drastically.

“I don’t feel so alone anymore,” says Lisa. “Chewy makes me happy and I’m not sure where I’d be without him.”