On Rainy Days

On rainy days, I am overwhelmed with guilt and anger. And I'm wet, of course.

I'm overwhelmed because sometimes when I go out to the humane society on rainy days, no one else has been there to walk dogs. Take yesterday as an example. I had gone to the Williamson Way shelter earlier in the day and walked a dog there, then went to the Baker Creek shelter to walk a second dog at the end of my errands.

I got there, said hello to everyone, and ducked into the volunteer office. And froze. There's a chalkboard on the wall so you can track which dogs have been walked and when. The shelter was full…and the chalkboard was blank.

I went back out to the front desk and asked, "Is the board right?"

"Yep."

"So, no dogs have been walked today?"

"Nope, none of them." Then another of the workers laughed and said, "Better get busy."

I was sort of ashamed. It is easy for me to feel responsible, and so even though I'm a volunteer, and even though I didn't surrender those dogs, or abandon them, or, in Melanie's case, neglect and abuse them, I felt like I'd let them down somehow.

To make it worse, I only had time to walk one dog. I grabbed Peppermint Patty, a high energy dog who a) needed the walk and b) could handle the rain. We went out into the rain, and had a joyous soaking. My shoes are still moist, a full day later, but it was worth it. Patty walked in puddles, shook her coat at me, and repeatedly nosed my hand to let me know how happy she was.

We had a great time. And none of the other dogs got to go for walks that day.

Sigh.