4 Paws for Ability
Over the summer my girls, ages 8 and 10, wanted a summer job, however, they are still too young. So I mentioned that maybe we could find a place to volunteer. So all 3 of us sat down and decided what it was that we wanted to do. It didn’t take long to figure that we wanted to do something with animals. So I posted on my Facebook page some volunteer suggestions. Many people suggested 4 Paws for Ability. I had not heard of this organization before so I did some research. I found out that all volunteers needed to attend an Orientation. So that’s what we did. My husband even joined us! All volunteers under a certain age must have an adult with them to help, so the entire family went together. It was awesome! We learned a lot about the facility, about the needs of the shelter, and about what the animals are eventually trained to do. It was so eye-opening. From the breeding to the training, to the placement…It was just great!!
Since all of the service dogs are bred at the facility they had a “puppy house”. The puppy house is where the mama’s give birth and that’s where the puppies stay for the first bit of their lives. Volunteers are able to come to this “puppy house” and just pet, play, and love puppies…You can imagine this quickly became our favorite place!! There are other jobs for volunteers as well: cleaning bowls, walking dogs, bathing dogs, laundry, and mopping floors were some others. So after playing with puppies (our favorite) we went and washed some dogs. That was not as fun, but still very rewarding. The people there were so helpful. We learned that we are able to show up anytime and help! No appointments necessary (except for the puppy house, you must call in advance). Since our schedule changes daily it is so nice to pop in anytime to help, it works out really well for our family. I would absolutely suggest that people volunteer any way they can to 4 Paws for Ability!!
