Volunteering and stuff

After hearing about Gus the Whiner, you might think what I'm about to say is ridiculous. But, I digress. He really is a good dog most of the time.

For months and even years now I've been thinking about ways that I can volunteer someplace. My biggest problem is that there are many places that I would like to volunteer:

- Arkansas Children's Hospital
- Our House homeless shelter
- Various animal shelters
- Church
- St. Jude's 

You get my point. True to my personality, with so many options, I haven't made a choice as to where. I get new ideas all the time. For instance, I read in the newspaper a while back about this high school girl who was involved in animal-assisted therapy, and it made me want to do it. So I researched it a little bit and put it off. (Again - too many options. See my dilemma?)


So the other day, out of the blue, I signed up to volunteer at Children's. I really think highly of Children's and so this was my top choice. I've often heard and thought about being one of those volunteers who just goes up there and holds babies. Who doesn't like holding babies? Or volunteering to read to kids or something of that sort. I believe in volunteering because I think it can be very rewarding.

As I was signing up, I came across the options that you can choose to volunteer for, and one of them was animal-assisted therapy. So I thought to myself, "Just do it. You already know that you want to, and it would be a fun activity for you to do with Gus."  So today I went online to the Delta Society (https://www.deltasociety.org/Page.aspx?pid=261) and ordered the book to do the home-study course in becoming a Registered Pet Partner.

I've heard somewhere that dogs love having a "job" to do - whether it's participating in dog shows, taking agility classes, being 'therapy' dogs, whatever. They enjoy having something to do. And I really think I will enjoy it, too. I can really see myself loving it.