Freshman Claire Busch is her dog’s least favorite family member. Claire’s family acquired their Coton de Tulear in the summer of 2020 and named him Dipper after the Gravity Falls character. While she does her best to care for her pup, he still keeps his distance. 

“He doesn’t really like me that much,” Claire said. “because I picked him up way too much, and then he started running away from me, but he sleeps in my room at night and stuff. But, he’s really cute, and we play a lot and take him on walks, but I’m definitely his least favorite in the family.”

Claire has always loved dogs; she thinks they are just so cute. After getting her own dog, she developed her love for them further, so this past summer she spent one day a week at Mackenzie’s—a dog shelter—volunteering. 

After passing the hurdle of the first day and signing up, Claire has found volunteering to be painless and even therapeutic. Though she does not know if she wants to pursue a career in taking care of dogs, Claire is certain that she wants to keep volunteering and find more opportunities to show these dogs the love her family shows their own dog. 

“[Volunteering is] helpful to you and to the dogs,” Claire said. “It’s helpful for me because I find joy in it and it lightens up my day. [Taking care of the dogs is] very nice and helps you clear your mind in a way. And [volunteering] helps all the other dogs and stuff and as I’m talking about this it brings awareness for other people to maybe start volunteering.” 

Claire recognizes that the dogs in shelters have it rough and that she can’t help them all. She is considering looking into more ways of supporting dogs for this summer, but she hopes more people will get involved as well. 

“All these dogs deserve a good life and it’s hard for them to be in the shelter,” Claire said. “So to have more people going and showing them love and stuff like that [really helps make their experience and life a little better]. And also one of them could fall in love and [then the dog could get] adopted. So just help the dogs out.”

Claire experienced falling in love with a shelter dog; she did not adopt the dog, but it was her favorite and she made sure to give it plenty of admiration. 

“[My favorite dog] was this really tiny 10-pound little fur ball,” Claire said. “I kind of forget what the name was [but] it started with a B. He was just so cute and when we sat down to let him run around us he just always jumped on me and stuff like that.”  

Volunteering at shelters is not the only way to help and care for dogs; there are fairs that show off dogs looking for a home, you can foster dogs, and you can bring dogs to hospitals so both the dog and the sick can get love. 

Claire has more experience with dogs than just volunteering and her own dog. Claire dog-sits for her neighbors as well. She truly is a dog lover. 

“I really love being around dogs,” Claire said. “They are loving, energetic, and are super cute. Being around dogs makes me feel really happy.”