“What happened to him?” I gasp.
“This is Nate. He came to me earlier this week. We think he was neglected by his owner and finally escaped or was intentionally let loose. Then he got hit by a car and lost his leg.”
I stoop down as Nate approaches me and reach my hand out quietly, turning my head away from him so he doesn’t feel threatened. He sniffs it and steps away before slowly coming back to me. “Oh, the poor thing! I want to do more to help. I feel like coming here a couple times a week and helping with the social media isn’t enough. There has to be more I can do for these dogs.”
“If you have any ideas, I’m all ears.”
Pursing my lips, I admit, “I don’t have any ideas yet, but I’m not going to sleep tonight until I have something.”
“Please don’t lose sleep over this,” she says, rubbing my arm up and down with a gentle smile. “Let’s finish prepping group one’s food, and then you can go outside to play with some of the group two and three dogs.”
Carol splits the dogs into groups based on the amount of food they eat and rotates through feeding time to make it less overwhelming. It’s truly brilliant.
I dig the scoop back into the bag and pour food into the bowl in front of me, but my mind is already going one hundred miles a minute as I plan.
Once the last bowl is filled, I look to Carol for approval. When she nods, I grab the handle of the sliding door and draw it back. The dogs from group one noisily pour in from the kennel we corralled them into earlier.
“I’ll keep an eye on them. Why don’t you go find Maverick and play with the other groups?”
I silently exit the room, entering the sticky Texas humidity. I’m astounded by how warm it is here even though it’s later in the day and still only late May. Not a single one of the dogs seems fazed by the heat as they rough house with one another and chase each other around the edges of the enclosure.
Maverick rushes to my side the second he sees me, joyfully circling me with his tongue out. Soon his playmate joins him, and then another dog and another, until I’m swarmed with pooches. I accept the love, choosing to just sit in the grass while they all encircle me, eagerly trying to get some attention. I grab my phone and capture a video, doing a full 360 as nearly twenty dogs crowd around me.
Without thinking, I send the video to Rhett. Heisthe one who showed me the shelter. I’m sure he’ll be happy to see I’m enjoying my time volunteering.
Me
Just another day hard at work
Rhett
Looks like you’re working really hard there
I did just help Carol feed one of the megaesophagus pups. Those high chair-type things are not my friend
Mega-what?
Don’t tell me you don’t know what that means!
Do you even know what it means?
It’s a condition that affects the dogs’ esophagus and makes it difficult for him to eat his food without sitting upright.
I’m glad to see you’ve been enjoying your time there and learning new things. I know Carol appreciates the help
I wish I could do more
My phone vibrates in my palm with a call from Rhett.
“Hello?”
“If you want to do more for these dogs, then let’s figure out how to do more.”
“What do you mean?”
“What are you doing after you finish up at the rescue?”
“I was going to cook myself a late dinner and then lie awake for hours while I try to think of something to help the dogs.”
