Faith in Humanity Restored

So, for the last few weeks I have been volunteering with this guy who is there for court ordered community service. You know, you kinda roll your eyes about it when kids come in for some type of mandatory community service. Court, school, religious - they tend to be a little flighty, not really into it. They just trying to get in and get out and get that box checked. They normally do what you tell them, that’s about it.

So, some kid got himself into trouble. He’s this big dude, too. Football player. Kinda quiet. Could be really intimidating. He tells me he has a dog but his girlfriend has a cat. So, I go over the basics. We chat about how many hours he needs to put in.

Every Monday he’s there with me. He does everything to the letter. Shows up on time, gets right in there cleaning out the litter-boxes, cleaning the cages. . .. You want to think, “of course he’s going to do a good job, it’s court ordered. He doesn't want to screw up.”

But, he’s spending a little extra time with the scared cats and laughing at the kittens playing in the cages. A couple little kittens got to scared and he waited and talked to them at the cage door until he could coax them out and cuddled with them.

This Monday he says, “Hey, listen. My CS is up next week. I’m going to keep coming in though, if that's ok.”

So, here’s this silent-type, giant football player guy who got himself into some trouble, has done a SUPER awesome job cleaning cages, soothing scared kittens and talking to people, showing kids how to hold the cats - holding a tiny little kitten who’s falling asleep in his hand – saying he’s going to keep coming to help out.

Faith in humanity restored.