We do what we can
I started walking the rescue dogs at Corrales Kennels once a week mostly because it seemed doable. So many volunteer jobs turn out to be un-doable, especially over the long run. Helping Melinda Helton walk dogs just one day a week (“It takes one to help one,” April/May) seemed like something even I could manage. Heck, it’s a 10-minute drive from my house.
Still, there are weeks when getting down there seems nearly impossible. With a million deadlines looming, carving out an hour to trudge down the ditch with an unruly dog seems like scheduling time to watch the grass grow. I tell myself that this is precisely why I need to do it — because for one hour, I am forced to let go of all the hurry and worry and just be here now with this dog.
Even better, the walk doesn’t lead to anything. So many acts of charity have a self-serving reward, like being thanked and fussed over and feeling a sense of accomplishment. Walking dogs that come and go offers no such reward. All I am accomplishing is to make one dog a little happier for one day, one hour.
I guess Melinda and Dan, who runs Corrales Kennels, would like me to use the time to train the dogs a little, teach them good behaviors. But I turn out to be lazy and distracted, daydreaming as I walk, telling myself the dogs enjoy being able to dart ahead, wade in the ditch, walk in circles, as with an overly lenient grandma. I tell myself that such little acts of selflessness do add up to tilting the global balance of humanity toward goodness a little — if nothing else.
But I am wrong. While I am doing my good deed and spacing out, things are happening at Corrales Kennels. Melinda’s daily devotion to the cause leads one rescue group to get a volunteer, Amy, to help her out. As the number of dogs and volunteers grows (since some rescue groups already had their own walkers), Dan is spending so much time fetching dogs, he trains Melinda and Amy to handle it. They start taking notes and keeping charts, and soon Amy is compiling a weekly schedule that matches dogs to walkers. As of September, all the dogs for all the rescue groups are getting walked every day the kennel is open.
Last week, we had nine dog walkers, with several of the new ones spending days on end just working with one dog. (See “It takes a village.”) And Dan, thanks to his long dedication to the animals of Corrales, finds himself not only running his boarding and grooming business, but also an informal animal shelter for the Village.
Some people, in other words, are not content to just show up for an hour and do a nice thing. Because they keep an eye on the goal — rescuing homeless dogs, training them, making them more sociable, and finding them homes — the charitable act becomes a real force for good in the community. Rather than dream about the possible impact of doing good, they make it happen.
Keiko Ohnuma
Editor & Publisher