Letters – Dog walker calls volunteer effort ‘win-win-win’

To the Editor:

On most Tuesday mornings, you’ll find me at the Lockhart Animal Shelter. I’m a volunteer dog walker, which means I take three of the shelter’s doggies on a hike that usually takes about 20 minutes for each dog.

The dogs need the exercise. Their dispositions brighten and their tails perk up as soon as we hit the trail.

They love it.

The people who work at the shelter tell me that these walks literally make a dog’s day. What I told the people at the shelter is that I enjoy it as much as the dogs do, and that the experience makes my day, too. That’s a win-win situation.

When I leave the shelter and come home to “The Meow Brothers,” I get a very thorough “going-over” – with lots of careful sniffing. Each time, Sam and Hey Seuss (my cats) are stunned and perplexed that I could have associated with any canine in such an intimate manner as to get all those doggy smells on me. They absolutely lose their cool in a frenzy of sniffing. As any cat owner will tell you: causing a cat to be stunned and perplexed is something that simply doesn’t happen that many times in one’s lifetime.

I call that a win-win-win situation.

More volunteers are needed at the shelter. For most of us, spending just one hour a week walking a couple of eager, happy dogs is a healthy dose of “feel-good” that’s hard to duplicate in any other way.

John Duvall
Lockhart