Today was our fourth visit to the animal shelter, and before we even left the school I could feel something was different. At 1:25, I asked the girls to close up, put away and lock up their laptops, and meet me downstairs in 5 minutes. I went and got the key and drove the blue Suburban out front, where Julia and Tadea were already waiting for me. Kathleen and Kate, reported Julia, were in the school store grabbing a snack, and the candy Julia was holding suggested she had already made a similar stop. Laura showed up moments later and we headed off down the driveway.
At the shelter, miracle of miracles, there was an obvious place to park, and on our way up the hill we paused to look at the dogs in the big outside pen. In the front office, we greeted the latest litter of kittens awaiting the results of their medical exams before they could be made available for adoption. They were curled up together in a basket, and leaning over them, Tadea commented that it would be best if they could be adopted together. Mentioning that her family had recently suffered the loss of a cat, she squared her shoulders and set off to sign in with a purposeful air that suggested her parents were going to hear about these kittens at dinner tonight. Everyone else was already signing in and finding their volunteer badges, and as soon as we were all ready we headed off to check out the list of possible jobs.
Today looked simple. Most of the cats needed attention and brushing, their carriers needed disinfecting, the indoor dog pens needed to be set up with blankets, toys and treats, and there was poop to be scooped (my specialty!). After a short discussion, we agreed the girls would take care of the animals and I would start working through the other tasks and they would join me when they were done with the cats. However, when they came outside, they told me they had been granted permission to go into the outdoor pens and "socialize the dogs" as they say, especially the puppies and the retired greyhound racers. I finished my work with about 20 minutes to go, and got a turn to snuggle with a Labrador puppy that crawled into my lap as well as one of the greyhounds.
We gathered in the front lobby, signed out, and headed for the parking lot. On the way back to the school, we talked about vegetarianism, and as we arrived they thanked me for driving. Moments later, I was filling up at the local Mobil station and thinking back over the afternoon. On the surface, everything was the same - and yet, as I said, everything felt different. I thought back to that first day just about a month ago, remembering all too vividly the sudden panic I felt as we first opened the door to the front office. It is easy, I thought then, to talk about community service as a theory, an ideal, something well worth doing. It is quite another thing to be physically there, facing the unexpected, wanting to help but having no exact idea what that entails. Facing my own nervousness, I was stunned by the enormity of what we were asking these kids to do.
And then it came to me, what felt different about today. Everything was now routine, from the moment I announced I was leaving the classroom to the moment we pulled back into the driveway. We knew what to expect, and we felt confident that we were good at what we needed to do. And this was after only four weeks, with many months yet to come. How powerful an effect will this service work have over the course of a year? I am so excited to find out!