This suggestion came from my friend and former boss, Carol Marie. CM is a HUGE dog lover. Every time I go to her house, I get loved by a new furry friend who is either visiting or has taken up residence with her. CM regularly volunteers at BARK (Bandit's Adoption and Rescue of K-9s), so she was able to get me set up for a volunteer day.
BARK is a dog rescue; they do not euthanize so they often get rescues from other local kill-shelters when they are at full-capacity. BARK makes sure each dog is well-fed, gets the proper medical treatment it needs, and is loved. BARK found homes for 402 dogs in 2013. On any given day in Virginia, there are approximately 6,900 dogs in animal pounds...so the need for volunteers and resources is always present. New dogs arrive to BARK each week looking for someone to provide care and love to them.
As we drove there, I was expecting a big farm where the dogs could run around all day. Not quite. Because the dogs at BARK are rescues, many of them come from situations of abuse or neglect. As a result, not all of them are socialized to being around other dogs and they might react negatively in a high stress situation. As a precaution, each dog has to be kept away from other dogs until they have proven that they can play well with others.
Each dog is kept in its own pen, but a few have pen mates if the two came to BARK together. Every morning the dogs are individually ushered from their small pen, to one of the larger play pens outside. While they are outside, their inside pen gets washed by a volunteer. After their pen is cleaned, the dogs get walked on the trail around the facility, played with, loved on, and then put back in their inside pens. Their individual play time may be short, but it is super important to maintaining their mental, physical and emotional health. The daily socialization ensures that they will be adoption-ready whenever an adopting family becomes available.
CM and I spent most of the morning walking dogs. The dogs were super excited to walk and run around the trails, so we spent a lot of strength and energy keeping them away from the other dogs on the trail. All of the dogs were so full of life, energy and affection. After a few hours of loving on our canine friends, we left tired, hungry, and smelly, but it was well worth it.
There were several dogs I fell in love with at BARK. I highly recommend you to check out their website if you are looking to adopt or foster a dog. They are always looking for good volunteers and donors to supply their food. You can learn more about the amazing rescue work BARK is doing here: http://www.barkva.org/Home.
