Tank Dempsy

I like the idea of volunteering.  It saddens me that my life is kind of busy and when it's not busy I'm recuperating from its busy-ness (I'm digging the word busy right now.  Clearly.)  I wish I had more time to volunteer to help others.

Last weekend I donated my time and Gage's time to assist the Hamilton Burlington SPCA run an Adopt-a-thon.  Their goal was to adopt out 125 animals in honour of their 125 years in service.  They reached 96 I believe, which is a huge milestone.  One of those 96 happened to be a new puppy for the R-C-M household.  Sorry, let me be clear, he's not a puppy but in my eyes all dogs are puppies.  He's 18 months to 2 years (they think) and he's wonderful.  Wonderfully cute and only a little frustrating as demonstrated in the pie chart below.

Pie charts are fun!

So, much to Eric's dismay Gage and I fell in love with this sweet boy.  (Weirdly I could not shake the song "How Much Is That Doggy In The Window?" all day.)  We took him out for a walk early in the day and I had convinced myself that he'd be adopted for sure as the day went on.  Well, alas, the end of our shift neared and poor "Jermaine" (or Jamal or Jerome depending on what staff member or person you asked) hadn't been taken out for a look-see once!  So of course Gage and I felt inclined to take him out to play in the grass one more time.  And then he lured us in with those big brown puppy dog eyes of his.  (Eric said he couldn't help it, he's a dog, but whatever!)

We hadn't completely settled on a name yet.  We were thinking of Radar because his ears are so big they're like satelites, but then Eric came up with Tank Demspy (from Call of Duty) and I'm pretty ok with that.  We'd just call him Dempsy.  So I think that's where we are leaning now.  He's completely awesome with the cats, basically acknowledges them and then just ignores them.  He's a little hyper when he comes out of his crate but I suppose that's to be expected (he's probably so relieved that we keep coming back for him).  He's house trained which is a humungous relief to this lady and he doesn't leave our yard (or presence really) when he's outside.  He's still working out what gentle means with Roan, but Roan is also still working out what firm and in charge means too, so they're an ongoing project.  He walks pretty good on a leash but still needs to master what heel means.  We'll get there though.  He knows how to sit and we're working on 'lay down' and 'shake paw' now.  And he's picking it up! 

So all in all, I am not feeling regret yet at bringing a dog home considering that was actually the last thing on  my mind!  But it does lead me to wonder;  what would happen if I volunteered at a home for the aged...maybe I'd bring home a new grandpa?  Do you volunteer?  How do you donate your time?