We’ve heard one too many stories of kids helping make the world a better place for dogs, especially the ones living in shelters. Today’s story features Evan B., a ten-year-old who spends his weekends at animal shelters in Bronx, New York. He sits by the dogs’ cages and reads them a story or two.
Evan is one of the junior volunteers of Books for Boroughbreds. To him, the job is the fulfillment of a dream as he’s long been wanting to work with dogs. Being allowed to read stories to the pooches was icing on the cake for the young dog lover.
A safe space for pooches
A homeless dog’s journey doesn’t end when they’re turned over to animal shelters. It’s the beginning. While having consistent food supply means the world to them, the shelter can cause their anxiety levels to increase.
Shelter volunteers have observed that all that anxiety goes away when guests spend some time to read stories to these pooches. Evan witnessed how at-risk dogs calm down after listening to his stories. He even shared some instances where the dogs fell asleep after the story session.
Evan usually meets the dogs at the front of the kennel. He would sit down, open a book, and start reading to them. When the dog’s still up once he’s done reading, Evan would hand them a toy as a reward for being a good listener. In most cases, however, he finds the dogs curled up on the bed and snoring before he reaches the last paragraph of the story.
Plans for the future
Some of the dogs that Evan read to found forever homes eventually. The ten-year-old plans to volunteer long-term to make sure that the dogs would find forever homes.
Evan dreams of owning his rescue dog one day. He’s hoping that New York City would be a no-kill state by then. To see Evan in action, watch the video below:
Credits to Evan B