During my Corporate America, cube-dwelling days, I often fantasized about moving to San Francisco, working at the SF SPCA while doing photography. It's been a little while since I moved to San Francisco but I never landed that job at the SF SPCA. Regardless, my life has definitely been filled with a lot of doggy action.
First of all, I wanted to walk a dog and found a volunteer opportunity to do it through
PAWS. I love PAWS and I've made some wonderful friends through it, four- and two-legged. You can read my blog post for PAWS here:
| Walking Radar | |
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[Editor's note: Chung Nguyen is a PAWS Volunteer who has been walking a dog named Radar for a client named Jade. Daniel Marlay is the Director of Volunteer Services at PAWS. If you would be interested in walking dogs for PAWS, see our Dog-walking Volunteer Page.] 
| | Radar |
When I finally moved back to San Francisco and really settled in (as opposed to continuing to crash on my friend's couch), I felt a little lost. My previous life involved a rigid 9-to-6 schedule with built-in social interactions with coworkers. I was now living in a new city, in a new place with new people, and felt a little adrift. Plus, I really missed my dog. At first I wondered if random strangers would let me walk their dog, just to cure this need for brief doggy companionship. Then I realized that was weird. And then I thought about all this time I had on my hands and no where to really apply myself. And that's where VolunteerMatch comes in, and I was introduced to PAWS. From the get-go, I had a great experience with PAWS. Daniel does a wonderful job of streamlining the volunteer signup and orientation process, but never loses the personal touch as we proceed. My previous experience with a lot of non-profit organizations has been a mismanagement of volunteers, not capitalizing volunteers' altruism and consequently making them feel indifferent to the cause in the end. Daniel explained what PAWS was all about and I absolutely love the cause (in summation: "PAWS improves the health and well-being of disabled individuals and the animals in their lives"). 
| | Jade |
My volunteer position is to walk a chiweenie (chihuahua-dachshund mix) named Radar for his owner/guardian/human-mama Jade. Radar is a funny character. He's a small dog with a big personality. He loves to wrestle around with his small buddies at Duboce Park and after months of taking him there once a week, I've gotten to know a lot of the interesting dogs there as well. Radar absolutely hates skateboards and sporadically barks at bicyclists. Radar is a food whore. He's pretty chill when you get him by himself, though you wouldn't be able to tell from the way he plays and wrestles with the other dogs. He also has the softest belly I've ever rubbed. Ever. It's always fun to walk him around the neighborhood and have people down the block yell out, "Hey, it's Radar!" Radar is a bit of a superstar like that. And then there's Jade. Jade is truly one of the sweetest, kindest, nicest people I've met in the city to date. Because of her age and health, she wasn't able to take Radar out for his walks and I could tell that it broke her heart. It consoled her that there was a team of people who were able and, for one reason or another, completely willing to take Radar out on his walks on her behalf. At the end of every walk, she would very warmly thank me for taking Radar out. Little did she know, I was actually the one who came out on top in this relationship. In the past year that I've been walking Radar, I was able to force myself to break away from the computer. I was able to interact with people that I otherwise would not, and they're all so wonderful, different, and interesting. And, let's face it, Radar wasn't the only one who needed the exercise. I'm tremendously thankful that fate brought me to PAWS and, consequently, to Jade and Radar. My life has been all the more positive for this experience and I can honestly say that I am all the more spiritually fulfilled for it. I'll leave you with this quote that I think is simply oh-so-true: “Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole" (Roger Caras). - Chung Nguyen |
And then I randomly saw a flyer months and months ago about an organization that specifically rescued older dogs. As someone who adopted a "senior" dog, I loved
Muttville immediately. I currently photograph the dogs on a biweekly basis and absolutely adore the opportunity to cuddle (see photo above).
Finally, since I take photos of the dogs at Muttville, I thought I would post photos of the pets available for adoption. As someone who adopted a senior dog, I must say that she's made my life better in every way. And others should enjoy the same joy that I've been blessed with!
