Living

When people find out I work at an animal shelter, a common response is 'I don't know how you do it.' For me, it's not a conscious effort. It's just how I live. We don't think of the tiny details of daily life, or make an effort to breathe in and out, we just do it. The animal shelter is my life and I can not imagine being without it. It's like a partner for me, a companion. It's always with me and it's also a highly emotional experience. I take it with me wherever I go. For me, working at a shelter is not a job that I can shuffle into a neat little pile like a stack of papers that I don't think about until I come in to my desk the next morning. It's a force that motivates and gives me purpose. It allows me to funnel my energy into something that I can give a name to... I can say "this is my cause." This is what I do to be productive. I feel lucky to have a cause. It makes me feel empowered, that I can do something to make a difference, to have a positive impact on the world around me, however small it may be. When I feel I have a purpose, I forget that I am a small woman, I feel as capable as the men I work alongside...ex-military..cops. I am thankful for this catalyst, this energizer that keeps me going.

("Get Your Dog or Cat Fix at the Iowa City Animal Shelter" photograph of a poster left behind after the flood of 2008, which destroyed everything within the shelter)