Introverts find comfort at shelter
If you’re a shy person looking for something to do, have I got an idea for you. My daughter and I have been volunteering at the Santa Fe Animal Shelter (sfhumanesociety.org) for a few years. It’s important to state right at the beginning that we don’t do this altruistically or to put another notch on our volunteering belts. It’s just that after a week or so of dealing with people, well, both of us would rather hang out with dogs.
Friends and family, please don’t take this personally. We love you all, but human interaction is so complex and full of social pitfalls that it’s draining. My daughter and I are introverts by nature. Introverts are not, as is commonly thought, individuals who are oblivious to social interaction. Rather they are often so aware and sensitive to every emotional current that it exhausts them. That brings us to the dogs. We did our shelter orientation in 2015. We spent our first volunteer hours doing laundry and basically proving to the staff that we were trustworthy. Our next step was to learn how to help socialize the resident dogs, to get them ready to be comfortable with people (how ironic). This consists of hanging out with dogs in their kennels.
For the introverted, it’s refreshing to be around beings who are so clear about relationships. Dogs let you know exactly what they think of you. Some dogs sit on your lap. Some, not so trusting and a little nervous, will go to the farthest part of the kennel and look at you. Others will just ignore you and continue to stare under the door. Then there are the dogs who are so happy for companionship that they sit by you, lean into you, their bodies sighing in relief. I note in those moments my shoulders relax and the tension I carry releases. Who, I ask, is helping whom?
We’ve developed a set of our own guidelines for the shelter. When we drive up, we always spend a minute swearing to each other that we will not adopt a dog. We have two, and if we didn’t abide by this hard and fast rule, we’d be animal hoarders. There was a German shepherd, a husky, a Labrador mix and countless pit bulls who have tugged at our heartstrings. Then, when we began puppy socializing, well, it became even more important for us to stick to our pledge. There are people who’ve tried to sneak out of the shelter with a puppy under their coats … and I totally get it!
Next, Sully always makes a beeline to the pit bulls. They are the sweetest dogs at the shelter. We have innumerable pictures of Sully hanging out with pit bulls with names like Athena, Sam and Blitz. I tend to be more generalized, although I did raise eyebrows when instead of the usual 10 minutes, I spent almost a half an hour with that same German shepherd a while back. Hey, we were bonding. That was the closest I came to violating our pledge.
There is a lot going on at the shelter — dog walking, dogs being socialized, individuals with questions about adoptions. There is the occasional kid trying to sneak in to see the puppies. And there is, of course, the occasional escape-artist dog who tricks the socializer and bolts into the hallway. This results in someone yelling, “Dog out!” and suddenly there is a staff member there to capture the errant pup and calm things down. Not that I have ever been that socializer, well, at least not more than a couple of times. I’m just too trusting, I’ve been told.
Busy staff that trust you, dogs who (mostly) love the attention and are straightforward in what they want and need: If you are slightly shy and exhausted by the hubbub of humanity, the shelter is a great place to hang out.