It was
a bright, cloudy day...if that makes sense. The sun blinded us despite the fact
that it was hidden behind a thin layer of clouds hanging low in the sky. My
fellow blogger Hannah shut off her car, and Hannah, our fellow blogger Celia,
and I stepped out into the chilling air after a 30-minute drive from campus.
Hesitantly, we stepped toward the gate, embarking on our first journey as actual
workers at the Wolf Run Wildlife Refuge.
Joining
up with our fellow bloggers Katie and Kenzie, we started off our day with a
tour of the facility. (Groups that work together stay together.) We made our
way up the gravel pathway, ooh-ing at the wildcats, aah-ing at the fat raccoon,
and completely obsessing over the cutest and friendliest wolf you could ever
meet.
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Nayeli smiles up at the camera while getting a
belly rub. Nayeli is a wolf dog that often visits
local schools and businesses to represent the
Refuge.
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Then I
came to a conclusion: the cuteness was an obsession. I reached the point where
I was practically treating the animals as human beings. I talked to the farm
cats as they walked by. I showed everyone in my Monday morning classes the
animal pictures on my phone as if the animals were my own children. I cooed at
the deer more than my two-year-old nephew.
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Bob the wildcat looks out at his visitors through
the blades of grass surrounding his pen.
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Now, I
am not saying that this obsession is particularly bad. I am saying that when
the tour ended, when we reached the end of that gravel trail beside the pen
full of cute wolf dogs, when the leaders at the Refuge asked us to clean out
the "monkey barn," we stepped up to the challenge. Despite our
fascination with the animals in their surrounding pens, we drug those heavy items
out of the shed, we wiped off the spider-infested desks and cages, we
organized, we mopped. We got that thing clean.
The
point is that we got down to the reason of our visit to the Refuge. Yes, the
animals were cute...extremely cute, but seeing them was not the reason for our
visit. The reason for our visit was to help, to make a difference for a cause
in our community that we truly believe in. We weren't just cleaning out a barn
as a side job just so we could pet the wolf dogs some more. We were cleaning
out a barn that a newly-admitted dog called his home. To that dog, to the
workers who use that facility every day, we were making a difference.
For
that, I am ecstatic for my next visit to the Wolf Run Wildlife Refuge with my
fellow bloggers.
