I’ll admit, when I signed up last week to volunteer cleaning dog kennels at my local animal shelter, a measly little 9 to 11 a.m. shift on a Sunday seemed like no big deal at all.

One week later–more specifically, one week later at 8 a.m. on Sunday–I was hating my life and really, really bummed that I wouldn’t be sleeping until lunchtime.

However, once I got my butt out of bed and down to Greenhill Humane, I was ready to go to work. I’m telling you, there’s no cup of coffee in the world that can match the feeling you get  from removing soiled dog bedding and hosing down kennels.

Seriously, it’s like that movie Hotel for Dogs, but real: You clean the room, make the bed, and put down fresh food, water and toys. Then the dogs come back to their nice and clean suite.

It’s a pretty cool feeling–well worth losing a few hours of sleep.

Here are some of my shoddy camera phone pics (it’s not easy taking pictures while wearing plastic gloving that reek of cleaning solution):

 

 Clean kennels!

 

Brutus the beefcake

 

I probably took ten pictures of Timber…this was the only one where he stood still