Shelter Me

- Boomer, where are you, Boy?

- Boomer?

- Sometimes the unthinkable happens.

But with the help of Love Lost and its pet image recognition software, you can upload your pet's photo to our national database.

It's open to all.

So whether you lose or find a pet, Love Lost can help reunite families.

At Love Lost we believe pets belong at home with those who love them.

Petco Love Lost.

- Hi, I'm Kristin Chenoweth.

From years of working on Broadway, screen, and concert stages across the globe, I've always been inspired by the power of kindness.

This year I wrote a children's book celebrating that joy for both people and the pets we love.

It's called "What Will I Do With My Love Today?"

It's about a little adopted girl, me, and a rescue pup who wind up helping each other as well as their community.

As a part of National Volunteer Week, children all across the country were invited to go to their local shelters to read this story and share some love with the animals.

This outpouring of volunteer dedication brought friends and families together for the common good.

- Our community cares as much about the Jacksonville Humane Society as we do.

- I wanna welcome you guys all to the East Valley Animal Shelter.

This is part of the National Volunteer Week.

We want people to understand that they too can play a role in getting these dogs to loving homes.

(people laughing) - I'm so excited to be a part of this episode of "Shelter Me."

These are stories that show the world the more love you share, the more love you get back.

(uplifting music) (gentle music) Y'all ready?

Here we go.

Every morning I wake up and say, "What will I do with my love today?"

- What will I do with my love today?

- What will I do with my love today?

- What will I do with my love today?

- My heart's full of love, I have so much to spare.

And all God's creatures need kindness and care.

(uplifting music) - [Employee] Thank you guys so much for our coming out to read to the animals.

- We definitely like to think of ourselves as the heart of Jacksonville.

Volunteering at an animal shelter like the Jacksonville Humane Society, of course, the immediate benefits are we're gonna get more cats and dogs adopted, but the reach is beyond that.

- Just to see so many people with a big heart too, help with the animals and everything, and so it's definitely, it's nice to see.

- We have right around 80 employees, but we have upwards of three to 400 volunteers who volunteer here onsite regularly and a couple hundred more foster parents on top of that as well.

And it takes all of us.

It is an all hands on deck from the top all the way to someone who comes and just volunteers for two hours a week.

(dogs barking) - Today's playgroup is a little different in that it's being run by our Paws and Stripes volunteers who are veterans from our local community.

Jacksonville's a huge military community.

We have two large naval bases and so it's natural that we then also have a huge population of veterans who have done service.

- I stay at a veteran center, and so I came over, started volunteering and I love the dogs and I love interacting with the dogs, and being able to walk them and feed 'em and help take care of them.

- [Interviewer] Tell us a little bit about yourself.

- I am a vet, Air Force all the way.

Volunteering is so important because a great volunteer program brings in that community in that might not normally be able to donate funds.

They can donate their time, and what's one hour of your time when you come in here and you walk your dogs or you pet the cats?

What I love is getting on social media, and seeing the dogs that get adopted or the cats and saying, "Wow, I walked that dog on Sunday or I walked them on Monday night."

I really love that.

(people talking) - Welcome to the Jacksonville Humane Society.

We're happy to have you guys here and happy to have you guys joining the Pawsitive Reading Program.

Everyone will be getting this book.

- Ooh!

- It's called, "What Will I Do With My Love Today?"

So if you wanna take one and pass it.

- [Denise] What I love most about the Read and Share Program is the book itself, "What Will You Do With Your Love Today?"

- [Instructor] All right, does everyone have one?

- [Children] Yes.

- [Instructor] Yes?

All right.

- To impart in a child to be that thoughtful, that we have this to give and take a moment in the morning to think about what you're going to do with that.

The sentiment in that book really touched me.

(gentle music) - Shh, calm and quiet.

(dog barks) And if you guys see someone you wanna read to, sit down in front their kennel about a couple of feet back.

- This one is very calm.

- [Instructor] And yep, just sit down and start reading out loud.

- I gave her a hug and my mom said, "See that?

Sing your love to the world and more love will come back."

It feels good to read to dogs.

I wanted to share it.

I needed a way then I saw a big sign, "Pet adoptions today."

(gentle music) - When I was a baby, no bigger than you, my mommy and daddy adopted me too.

It helps 'em stay calm and confident.

It helps them get adopted.

Puppy hugs, puppy kisses, such tail wagging wiggles.

"Hello thunder pup," I said in between giggles.

- Encouraging them to have it to have a more better life than they had before.

Mom and dad signed some papers with lots of big words to make it official.

He's mine and I'm hers.

- All the girls were in there reading quietly to the dogs and there was one dog that was a little bit afraid of all the people perhaps, or maybe the cameras that were in the room.

(dog barking) And Maggie sat down to read.

And he looked at her and he stopped.

(dog barks) And he started to just sit and lay down and listen to her reading to him the story, and found a little bit of calm in his little crazy life.

- We had a chance to see so many people channel their love in different ways, including reading to the dogs and cats, helping support us across our entire organization.

(gentle music) - I'm Erin Wittstock.

I am the Director of Leadership and Development at Borland Groover.

We are a large gastroenterologist here in Jacksonville.

We actually want our employees to really volunteer as much as possible.

So we actually offer volunteer hours for them to come out to places like here in Humane Society.

- [Employee] Coming out.

- So we have over 50 volunteers just signed up over the next month to come here and help walk the dogs.

And it's very, very important for us to get out in the community and touch base and give back.

- In order for them to get the best care and all the attention that they need, they depend on volunteers to come and give their time.

- 'Cause it comes outta your heart, it's kindness.

Doesn't have to be monetary or anything, it's just because you want to genuine help.

That's what it means to me.

(laughs) - Volunteering is giving my time, helping out, giving back to the community, giving back to whomever I'm helping.

It just means a lot to me, it really does.

I'm out to give back and it's just what's in my heart.

(people talking) (bag crinkling) - National Volunteer Week's a big deal for us here.

We celebrate it every day this week, but it's kinda always National Volunteer Week here.

You know, we're always prioritizing our volunteers.

They are a piece of our team literally every single day.

(engine humming) - Good morning, everybody!

(people cheer) There we go.

Hey, so what a group that came out today.

I'm so proud of all you all.

First of all, thank you so much.

My name's Brian Rau.

I'm the store manager of the Lowe's in Palatka, town just south of Jacksonville here.

We're trying to create beauty.

We wanna have symmetry on all these beds and the main purpose of where we're planting some of the plants in the beds, we're trying to cut down the traffic, walking over the beds.

My store down south of here is known for being very involved in our community.

We've been recognized for community engagement and it's the things that we are a part of.

It's a very big focus for our location.

- Thank you all so much for helping us spread kindness and joy today and let's just have a great time.

(everyone clapping) - All right, everybody!

Not only have we gotten almost every store to commit to participating either with volunteers, or with donating materials, Subaru Jacksonville decided to come out and join us as well and it was great we could get these partnerships together and make this a reality, make this happen, so.

- My son and I feel even more connected because it's something we can look back on, a really great memory and it builds a foundation for him volunteering for the rest of his life, because now he knows what it's like to give back.

(uplifting music) (machine whirring) (machine whirring) - [Volunteer] We're animal lovers.

- [Volunteer] Yeah.

(laughs) - So it really hits home for us.

It's super meaningful because of course we wanna make it a great place for them as well, so.

- [Volunteer] Yeah.

- The people who do good for the community, right?

(shovel clinks) - It makes me so proud to know that our community cares as much about the Jacksonville Humane Society as we do.

- It's so moving to be able to see every way that we're able to touch people, and in turn touch animals and we know that what we try to do every single day is help that end of the leash, help the person and we know that the animals in turn will be who reaps the benefit.

- Thank you so, so very much for coming out today, to spend some time reading out loud to our pets, and I'm sure they talked about this back at the Aphasia Center, but the reason why we do this is when dogs and cats listen to people reading out loud, as crazy as it may sound, their stress levels start to lower.

They start to feel a lot more relaxed, more comfortable here in their kennels.

- The group that we have here is people with aphasia, which is a language disorder usually caused by a stroke or a brain injury that affects the left part of the brain.

So they're super smart, they just have problems getting their words out, reading or writing.

- And the kid and the dog and the pig and the cow.

- To me, this is one of the most amazing things that we do, teaming up.

Reading helps people with aphasia.

Reading out loud helps people with aphasia.

- You're George, says right here, you're George.

- And when they come here, they read to the dogs and cats and it helps the dogs and cats relax and it helps them eat better.

And our friends with aphasia understand that this is helping them.

So it's very empowering for them.

It's a great experience to see what animals can do for people and what people can do for animals.

- George's mother took George to the vet.

"I'll soon get to the bottom of this, said the vet, "Please bark, George."

George went, "Meow."

- Harvey is amazing, he's super smart and he's funny and he is talented.

He's also a physician.

So Harvey was very active in Jacksonville, treating patients and helping people for many, many years.

And Harvey had a stroke a few years ago.

His intellect was still the same but just had trouble because it affected the left part of his brain.

So he loves animals, and he also loves teaching other people about aphasia 'cause he feels like a lot of people do not know what it is.

So he loves coming here, meeting the animals, bonding with them, reading to them.

He gets excited when they calm down and they're not barking as much and it really empowers him.

- Aphasia is a language disorder.

It causes this trouble with speaking, understanding, reading, and or writing.

Aphasia does not affect intellect.

I have aphasia but I'm still me.

(uplifting music) - "No George," said George.

- It's just beautiful to see them light up, and we don't get that opportunity to help others all the time.

So this is just a way for them to show that they have a lot of self-worth and they can still do a lot of things for other people.

So I think this is just a beautiful relationship.

(gentle music) - All right, thanks everybody, thank you.

- Why do people volunteer in the first place?

Because they want to fill some kind of need, and so we need to make sure that they did fill a need while they were here and if they know they filled that need and they were appreciated for it, that joy naturally follows that.

- Big sign, "Pet adoptions today."

- That act of kindness alone is going to bring so much love and so much care to to the animals that are here, to the people that are here, to the children who are reading, to all of us.

It's really, it's just amazing.

It's inspiring and you can literally feel the kindness and the love and I'm really excited to see it.

(gentle music) - Love as much as you can every day and you'll see.

- We had lots of love in our family before, with you thunder pup, we can love even more.

(children talking) - Volunteers bring shelters into the heart of the community.

At the same time shelters bring animals into new and loving homes.

- [Child] I give her a hug, and my mom said, "See that?

Send your love to the world and more love will come back."

- Sure enough, mom is right.

When I checked in my heart, I found even more love than I had at the start.

I wanted to share it.

I needed a way.

Then I saw a big sign.

(dog barking) - So we are gonna be having a ton of volunteers coming in today.

There is a new picture book that's been put out by Kristin Chenoweth and it's gonna be read out to some of the dogs we have here at the shelter.

Our volunteers are also gonna be making cat toys.

This week has been great because it's National Volunteer Week, and while it's great to get volunteers coming in because of this cause we need volunteers all the time.

Morning everybody, I wanna welcome you guys all to the East Valley Animal Shelter.

This is part of the National Volunteer Week.

By having somebody just kind of sitting down and reading to the dogs, especially some of our more nervous dogs, and some of our shyer dogs, it kind of helps 'em get out of their shell, which helps people decide if they want to adopt that dog.

There are people who donate money to causes, there are people who donate tangible goods to causes, but it's the people that donate their time that really make the difference.

(dogs barking) So her book is about kindness and being part of the community, which is all about what the animal shelters are about.

It's a happy place.

We want people to come in, we want them to be happy.

We want them to understand that they too can play a role in getting these dogs out and to loving homes as quickly as possible.

- We were made for each other.

I hugged her and I told her that I'd always love her.

- I could tell that the moment we started sitting with dogs, whether we were reading or not, you could tell that the anxieties were kind of calm.

You can tell that they were just happy to be around people and to have that like personal connection with someone.

- I was just very happy.

There was like right there sitting there, listening.

And he also barked while I stopped reading.

So I felt I had to keep him entertained a little bit.

(gentle music) (dogs barking) - I think it showed me a lot to like how being able to read a book and showing them calmness and that there's a human that can be kind to them, I think is really special.

(dogs barking) - They feel alone, and you could see when when I first sat down to them, they were so excited, 'cause you know someone's in front of 'em, someone's paying attention to them.

And so I felt really good reading to them and being really caring and showing my appreciation.

- What will I do with my love today?

(child laughs) Puppy hugs, puppy kisses.

Look, puppy hugs and puppy kisses.

- We got six German Shepherd puppies that just showed up and we're expecting that they are gonna get adopted before the end of Saturday.

As part of our Reading Share Your Love event this weekend, we're inviting anybody with young ones to come over to the front lobby where we'll be doing some arts and crafts, making some cat toys.

Don't always have a lot of space for cats to be able to get out and fully stretch.

And so by providing the toys for them in their cages at all times, it makes it easier for us to be able to just kind of keep them healthy and happy, which helps 'em get adopted.

- [Volunteer] Hi, handsome.

- We came to get a puppy, a German Shepherd.

I think she's German Shepherd Doberman, hi.

(laughs) I do love you, already.

(laughs) (child laughs) (gentle music) - Well, I mean just like all of our partners, we always like looking at the at the local schools and everything and Tierra Del Soul has always been a great resource for us.

We've been working with them for over a decade.

- Yeah, my name is Kurt and I work with Tierra Del Sol Foundation, and along with Richard and Rolando here.

And I work with basically adults with developmental disabilities and they do volunteer work, especially here at the East Valley Animal Shelter.

We come here every day.

We first gather any dirty Kongs we find, once the dogs are done with them and then we get peanut butter on top of them, right Richard?

- It's important for them to be noticed.

It's important for them to feel like they're no different than anybody else here, 'cause they really aren't.

(gentle music) A great day for me is when all the goals I set to do are accomplished.

I tend to kind of live by the seat of my pants every day.

So it's always a different set of goals.

But generally, if I got all the volunteers trained that I wanted to get trained today, if I got at least a few dogs out, adopted that I was really hoping to get adopted and a playgroup done, that is a great day for me.

- Who's a good boy?

We're adopting a puppy.

My family really wants a puppy, so we just thought, you know, come over here to our local animal shelter and find what we can find.

And we found one and it's awesome.

- Hi, you want a Kong?

Oh, yummy, yummy, yummy.

Come on, guys, whoa.

There we go.

- So give flowers to friends and sing songs on the streets.

Find a way to bring joy to each person you meet.

Jump out of bed every morning and say... - [Together] "What will I do with my love today?"

(gentle music) - This isn't cages.

And cement and stone walls.

You're seeing it wrong.

This is baggage claim at LAX, platform at Grand Central, curbside, engine running, door open, waiting.

This is not goodbye, this is hello.

This is where families grow, where best friends meet, shake hands, speak amidst the barking and the purrs in this spot, right here.

Love occurs.

A cage is unlocked, an arrival gate swings wide.

A heart opens and from inside love leaps out.

Runs out, creeps out, comes out.

Timidly appears or without fear, bowls you over.

jumps into your arms or rolls over.

Stands up on two legs, begs, "Home."

Let's go home, I'm tired.

It's been a long trip.

You ready?

And I'm ready, you ready, girl?

Yes, come on, girl, let's go home.

Just like in airports and bus stops behind each of these arrival gates, a beloved family member or best friend waits for you to show up.

Call their name, pick them up, take them into your arms, gather up their things and bring them home.

First time I was here, I picked up Patches.

I was 13, it was my birthday.

She was a springer spaniel sheep dog.

And when I saw her, she ran into my arms.

I was never more excited than when I opened up the car door and she leapt in.

Come on girl, let's go home.

Here is where I met Nina Simone.

Nina Simone was the last cat I owned in a home I shared with a woman.

Now, one day the woman told me that she didn't love me enough and she left me alone in a home with Nina Simone, who never left my side.

Here is where I met my coolest cat.

His name was Jack, but to me he was Brad Kitten, "Fight Club" cat.

Oh man, that cat was so cool, I wanted to be him.

You know, I would look at him, I'd say, "Damn, Jack's got it all figured out.

That cat knows things."

You know, he actually managed to make me insecure.

I wanted him to like me.

I would hold in my stomach around him.

I went to bed in makeup.

I would let him pick the radio station.

I wanted to be in his gang.

Here is where they found Samson, a yellow lab who went from here to a hospital after being trained as a therapy dog.

He would go straight to the bed, put his head in the patient's lap, and suddenly a laugh is heard.

A hand is raised and a different kind of medicine is scratched lovingly behind the ear.

And they met him here.

Over there is where a 4-year-old boy with autism who had never said a word found Cheetah, went straight up to her, said, "Cat."

Turns out he could talk.

He just needed someone with the patience to listen.

This isn't dogs and cats.

Dogs and cats are just that.

I'm talking about Brad Kitten and Samson and Cheetah, and Nina Simone.

I'm talking about Mr.

Whiskers, you understand me?

I'm talking about Mr.

Whiskers.

I'm talking about Dirk Diggler and Guinness and Ambassador and Captain Fluff.

What you know about Captain Fluff, huh?

What you know about Linus Lamar Odom the cat.

Shout out to Patches, Lady Pill Bottom.

Tell Scratches and Myladar, I got the car running out front.

Window cracked, chew toy in the back, let's do this.

Wrangle Dime, Ball Knuck.

Mr.

Fluffy Butt Esquire, get off the couch.

Boy, you know better than that.

I'm talking about Turtle and Chicken and Dog.

All cats, every one of 'em.

Mad love to Spiro and Dora, Walker, Derby, Pickles, Face Face, Eyeballs and Fur, Fatso, Paw Paw, Bug.

Not on the rug, baby, not on the rug.

Face it, this is not dogs and cats, this is more than that.

This is smiles and laughter and friendship and love.

This is belly rubs and chew toys and endless licking and love.

This is waiting by the door, love.

Coming when you call, love.

This is going after the ball and bringing it back and going after the ball and bringing it back and going after the... Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, wait a minute.

You didn't throw it that time.

You pretended to throw it, but then you didn't.

You still have it, you tricked me, but that's cool.

Now throw the ball and I'll go get it and bring it back.

This is sleeping by your side.

This is purring in your lap.

This is not dogs and cats, this is family.

This isn't cages and stone walls and cement.

You are seeing it wrong.

This is baggage claim at LAX, platform at Grand Central, curbside, engine running, door open, waiting.

This is, hello.

This is where families grow, where best friends meet, shake hands, speak amidst the barking and the purrs.

In this spot right here, love occurs.

A cage unlocked, an arrival gate swings wide.

A heart opens and from inside, love leaps out, comes out, creeps out, runs out, timidly appears or without fear, bowls you over, jumps into your arms, rolls over, stands up on two legs.

Begs, "Home."

Let's go home, I'm tired.

It's been a long trip.

You ready?

And I'm ready, you ready, girl?

Yes, come on, girl, let's go home.

(gentle music) - Petco Love Lost.

A national lost and found pet database can help.

Using image recognition technology so every pet can be back where they belong, - Oh my baby - home with the families that love them.

Petco Love Lost.