Personal Narrative: Animal Shelters

1527 Words4 Pages

When looking at an animal what do you see? Are you able to feel their pain, happiness, or doubts? Spending time at my local animal shelter opened my eyes to the emotions these animals were feeling. Being kept in a cage not knowing where you are and that you are not with your family is scary. What do we expect these animals to do besides sit in the corner and cower? Not only was I able to connect on such an emotional level with them but I felt I was able to show them a little love as well. Walking into the building caused my palms to sweat, knees weak, and made my heart feel like it was going to beat out of my chest. Not knowing what to expect was extremely unnerving, and that was an understatement. Crystal, the manager of Manteca Animal Shelter, greeted me at the door. She gave me a brief tour while walking to the back of the building and seeing one word made my stomach leap up into my throat, Euthanasia. Biting back the tears we continued on to where the dogs were kept. She explained to me what I would be doing for the next four hours, which was basically cleaning the kennels and walking the dogs. Using a pressure washer was a new …show more content…

A woman walks into the shelter with two small dogs attached to leashes and a river of tears streaming down her face. I knew right then what she was doing; she was surrendering her rights to the dogs. She was not able to keep them because her landlord did not allow dogs in the apartment, even though they barely weighed ten pounds each. I shared her pain and wished that I could be the one to take in her dogs and be able to give her peace of mind with knowing that her babies went to a loving home. Sadly I could not, but the one thing I could do was show them as much love as possible while I was there. I was happy to hear that these beautiful dogs were being transferred to an organization that helped place animals into loving homes verses being put down after a period of

Open Document