Time Sheet Entry #1

My volunteer work at the Peninsula Humane Society is as a purple dog TLC volunteer. Let me explain what that means. TLC (Tender loving care) is a group of volunteers that work with cats/dogs, usually one or the other at a time, socializing, exercising and hanging out with the animals at the shelter. I originally worked with cats when I was in high school. I have since moved on to doing the dogs. The dogs are color-coded so that volunteers and their various skill levels are prepared for a dog. It goes green, yellow, and then purple.

Green dogs are coded for new volunteers and volunteers who haven't either: completed three months as a green or taken later classes to move up a color code because they like the greens. Green dogs tend to be small with no behavioral issues. Yellows are small to medium-size dogs usually that may have a behavioral issue or may just be a little bigger and stronger and requires someone with a little more experience. Purple dogs can be of any size, but are usually physically strong, larger dogs that need some basic training. Green volunteers can only take out green dogs, yellow volunteers can take out green and yellow and purple volunteers can take out an animal of any color code.

In addition, I am part of a group of volunteers that come in on a certain day of the week and time of day to potty-break dogs that are house-trained. I am part of the Thursday night crew. We get the dogs out between 5-8 so dogs that hold their business are not waiting to relieve themselves until the next day.

Potty breaks tend to be short walks, just so the dogs can do their business, instead of thirty minute walks where we are trying to exercise them. They are still enough time to get to know a dog and socialize with them. The main idea is that for two or more hours, you are there for an animal. You are focused on giving a particular animal care and attention and that is your primary focus. It isn't about you, whatsoever. It's about the dog.

Thursday 28th of January: two hours of TLC work potty-breaking the dogs.

I got out four dogs last night. And because I love them and am fairly certain they are still up for adoption, I am going to attach the link to adoptable dogs to this blog. I encourage you to check them out because they're adorable. Here are the names of the four I got out.

JD / Rambo / Daisy / Pepper

http://peninsulahumanesociety.org/adopt/dog.html

The way PHS keeps track of whether or not volunteers are volunteering is through another website, my volunteer page, where you report your hours, they check to see if you've actually signed any dogs out that day, and then they approve your hours. It's a private site so I don't know if Professor Andrews, you would like me to login and show you my hours, or have me ask for physical sign-off.

Though if we are adding hours of travel, it would be a total of forty minutes roundtrip.