Shelterlife 💞

Hello dear ones,

it's already been three days in the shelter and I love it so much!! Working with the dogs is incredibly fun and really helps one forget everything else. The attention and love you give to these dogs is returned to you double and triple. I truly wish from the bottom of my heart that every dog finds a lovely home. It’s great that there's a shelter where the dogs are well cared for, but the dogs are also constantly exposed to stimuli and seem to always be on edge.

I don't think I've really told you how a day in the shelter actually goes.

Hermine and I are picked up in the morning by one of the staff and taken to the shelter. First, we swap our sneakers for rubber boots (preferably high and waterproof!!! I had wet feet all day on my first day). Then we head to the puppies to distribute the first portion of food to the little greedy mouths. The portions are divided into three bowls and we have to make sure that as many of the three as possible get their food at the same time and stay at their bowl. They gobble up their food quickly and then rush between our legs to check if there’s anything left with their sister.

Then we start cleaning the kennels (collecting droppings, washing bowls, spraying down the entire kennel with water, cleaning toys, refilling water). This is how we slowly work our way through. In between, of course, we also cuddle, and every now and then we have the opportunity to teach the dogs a little something. Some of them really have potential and are quite clever.

Once I'm done with the kennels, I move on to the dog pools. These get cleaned and then refilled. Lastly, I usually take a round around the yard to collect a few more droppings. Once that's all done, I prepare the food and load it onto a cart. Then the big feeding round begins. The dogs also know exactly what's happening and how it goes.

After work around 3:00 PM, we go home and eat something first. Then we walked to the beach. It's only a 10-minute walk from our apartment. We just relaxed, read, and enjoyed the sun. At some point, two stray dogs came and lay down next to us.

Tomorrow and the day after, we have two days off and I really wonder how I will manage for so long without my little favorite dog...💕