volunteers over the holidays. Shelters are generally closed to the public on Christmas, and there is usually only a skeleton staff that comes in to feed and clean. Many of the regular volunteers who walk the dogs during the week spend Christmas with their families, making volunteers who do come on holidays all the more valuable. Jody Clark has been spending her Christmas at Aiken’s SPCA Albrecht Center for Animal Welfare since 2012. She is one of a
dedicated group of animal lovers who ensures that every dog in the shelter gets a walk and human interaction every day. “When I moved to Aiken for work in 2003, my best friends from
Winter 2014-2015
Pittsburgh had moved to Columbia, and I always spent Christmas with them,” says Jody, who works full time as a financial database analyst for URS. “When they moved back to Pittsburgh in 2012, I realized this was going to be my first Christmas ever to spend alone.” Jody has two dogs of her own, but felt she needed something more to do than just spend the day with them. So she made a resolution to go walk dogs at the SPCA. In the fall, she started volunteering on Sundays and holidays, and soon became a regular. “I originally thought I would go two hours a week,” she says. “But it got to be that I couldn’t leave after two hours if everyone hadn’t been outside. Now I don’t leave until I know that, amongst all the volunteers, every dog has been walked at least once.” Jody says that Christmas at the shelter is quiet, but that she wouldn’t miss going. She gives all the dogs special Christmas treats, but knows that the thing they really appreciate is her presence. “I am such an animal lover,” she says. “Once you get out there, you can’t help but smile. You love to see the dogs be dogs. I tell the two that I leave at home I have to go see the puppies without a mommy. I love the satisfaction of knowing all the dogs get some attention – A walk, a hug, a pet, they all need some human interaction.” Of course, the main thing any shelter pet wants is a home for the holidays. In the past, the conventional wisdom has always been that you should never give a pet as a gift, and that the holidays are not a good time to bring a new pet into the household. The claim has been that adorable Christmas puppies are often unwanted and discarded by February, and that even wanted dogs can be stressed out by all the activity surrounding Christmas. For this reason, some shelters and rescues have restricted adoptions at Christmas time, though most have allowing prospective adopters to present a gift certificate so that the whole family can pick out a pet together after the holiday. Multiple studies have shown, however, that the fear about giving pets
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