Recently I began volunteering at our local Humane Society. I’ve been crazy about animals since I was very young, dogs always being my favorite, and I figured my time and energy would be well spent helping homeless pets get taken care of and adopted. I figured correct because it has been one of the greatest experiences of my life.

Because not only am I a dog handler and get to spend lots of time with puppies and training dogs, which are two of my favorite things to do, but I also have become the photographer for the humane society’s site. My job is to take pictures of the new dogs/puppies that come in so we have updated pictures of the available pets on the website. I also put them on my Humane Society blog.

It has been so much fun. I love working with my fellow animal lovers and making myself useful around the shelter. I’ve been able to combine my two passions and put them to work — and good work at that.

There’s just one teensy weensy problem…

I keep falling in love.

I can’t help that all of the puppies are 100% adorable and that I want to take them all home! I was actually doing okay…until today. When I met Bella.

Oh. My. Gosh. I wanted that puppy.

Most of the puppies go crazy when you take them out. Bella was content to curl up in my lap and fall asleep.

I loved the other pups and would have taken any of them home, but this one very quickly stole my heart. She fell in love with me, curling up against me and whining at the cage door when I wasn’t holding her, and I with her. She was amazingly sweet and cute.

But alas, my cruel parents said no. I could not take her home like I so longed to, and chances are I will not see her again since such a cute puppy is sure to adopt out very quickly. But I will never forget that cute little puppy that was content to snuggle in my lap and give me kisses.

And I’m sure I’ll fall in love all over again with another puppy next week. Cause, that’s just what I do.

Well, I’ve finally done it.

This is Stark and Oliver. They’re my new pets. Everybody in the family thinks they’re the coolest thing ever, especially, surprising us all, Jesse. He even asked to pet one and did it when I gave him the okay. He calls them Rabbits.

“Hey Rabbits! Come here! Aww look at da rabbits!”

What? No I don't like reading or music. What gave you that idea?

It’s very adorable.

This one is Oliver.

This one is Stark.

In case you couldn’t tell, they’re named after superheroes.

Oliver Queen(Green Arrow) and Tony Stark(Iron Man).

Lucy finds them to be quite cute, also.

They’re already quite at home and love climb all over me, especially Oliver who enjoys playing in my hair.

Anywho, these are them. They’re so cool! I’m very happy to have them added to my collection of animals.

(Just to clear any possible confusion…that is not my unicorn ornament. That is just a random ornament that was in the right place at the right time.)

That night, Joe and I went over to Skylar’s and hung out for a few hours. After we watched the rest of How The Grinch Stole Christmas, Joe and Gunnar played this NASCAR game that was entirely too boring. Sooo Sky and I just messed around with Harleigh. And then did logic puzzles. It was all cool.

Then, today, we went to the zoo for 4 1/2 hours. By the time we got out of there at 2:30, I was STARVING to DEATH. The restaurant we planned on going to ended up being to expensive, so Mom and Dad decided just to get some meat to smoke themselves(as we were at a BBQ place) and stop somewhere else on the way home. By the overwhelming consensus, we agreed on Sonic.

Also, I must say that Sonic lost some of it’s amazingness in my eyes today as the removed popcorn chicken from the menu. This made me very, very, very, very sad. BUT I still go mozzarella sticks so all was good. And it was food. That was an excellent plus since my stomach had begun eating itself in desperate need of sustenance.

So we finally got home close to 4:30 and gorged ourselves on deliciousness. It was so good…

Anyway.

I got some fun pictures at the zoo today. In case you read the last post about us being at the zoo…

Yeah that picture of the bird didn’t come up. BUT! Worry not. I have one for you right here.

It looks like a Griffin or something. Weird…

Anyway. Here are some other pictures I got.

Today I rescued a baby squirrel. It is 7-8 weeks old. Its the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. That’s about all I have to say right now. More to cone later!

This is a male purple finch named Frito. He visits quite often, and is semi-friendly to the other birds. Frito is a gorgeous bird, and is starting to get used to people watching him. Male purple finches can be identified by their colorful chest and head. Where they got the name ‘purple finches’ is a mystery to me because the chest, head, and back of the male finch are red, not purple. Anyway, the female purple finches are mainly gray and brown.

Angie and Jenny are both house sparrows, along with Sophie who was mentioned before. These birds are practically fearless when facing humans, and as long as we don’t venture to close, they will stay on the feeder during our talking. Both of these sparrows are females. The males have a black stripe that runs half-way down their chest, and auburn colored feathers rather than the grey and brown. They also have a grey patch on their heads.

I have a feeling these are fairly young sparrows. They have a younger look and are smaller next to the full grown sparrows who come by every once and a while.

This is Sheila and Sky. We don’t see much of Sky because he stays in the trees most of the time, which is how he got his name. He stays as close to the sky as possible!

I was very surprised one day when I opened the creaky door that scares every animal off and saw Sheila sitting in the tree staring at me. I had the pleasure of taking pictures of the pretty girl.

Sheila is a very cute squirrel, and she has a very unique way of getting her food. Because of the bird feeders size, the squirrels have a very hard time eating out of it. So Sheila finds her own way to get what she wants.

Step 1: She climbs onto the top of the feeder.

Step 2: Sheila leans as far over as she can without falling off, tipping the bird feeder so that seed falls out.

Step 3: She climbs down the tree and eats the fallen seeds.

All in all, I’ve been very pleased with the animals that I have seen eating out of the bird feeder. I love sitting out on the porch with a good book and watching the birds fly down and have a party in the tree, where I have hung the bird feeder.