While Andrew and I were in Canada, I volunteered at the local animal shelter, mostly with their foster program, and found it to be an overwhelmingly meaningful experience. If there is one piece of advice I can give newlyweds, whether they are thinking of having babies or not, it is to foster a litter of kittens or puppies. I'm not kidding. Andrew and I learned how each other handles stress, how to communicate quickly and efficiently (and nicely!) and how to jump onto the same page for the good of the whole. We were scared together and sad together and joyous together and there were these tiny little lives depending on us. Andrew was also able to get used to all things foul smelling (compared to kitten diarrhea, baby poo is nothin'). I really think the experience was eye opening in all good ways.
anyway...
That was a very long lead in to the real point of this post - Berry.
What a pretty pup, am I right? If you've seen my facebook page, you know that I'm kind of on a mission to get Berry adopted. He has been living at shelters almost his entire life (he's a little over 4 years old) and it's time for him to sleep in a home. He is good with dogs, mild mannered, walks well on the leash ... WHY IS HE STILL HERE!?! The only reason he is not at my house right now is that he's not a huge fan of cats (this may be a product of stress from the shelter environment) and so I think he'd scare Tank just a little ;) I think he would be a great dog for an actor/artist, a couple or a family with older kids. It's hard to explain just how stressful the shelter environment is on dogs and cats (even happy, homey shelters), but the fact that Berry has remained a mush through years of shelter to shelter life is a HUGE testament to his character and I think he will truly bloom when he has a family to call his :)
Some more pictures from my day at the shelter ...
- shelter staff (and Flurry!) participate in weekly behavior meetings - cats - dogs - laundry, oh my! -
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