Day 4- More Weeding

        On Friday three of us volunteers made the trek out to Wolf Run for another day of volunteering. In the car we were discussing how we were hoping that they would assign us to a task that different than weeding because we had spent already the majority of our days doing that--which doesn't make for very interesting blog posts!
       But sure enough, when we arrived and found Savannah (the volunteer coordinator) we were instructed to do more weeding. She led us to an enclosure that did not have any animals in it but was instead covered front to back in three foot tall weeds. Her words: just start weeding, avoid the tree because its got thorns, have fun. Paige, Brigid and I looked dubiously at each other and I think I speak for us all when I say we were considering possibly crying or screaming in frustration. They gave us no tools or gloves and expected us to pull the fairly stubborn weeds with our bare hands. I ended up with some nasty blisters on both of my hands and was exhausted by the end of our time there. We worked for about an hour or so and when we stood back to study our work we realized that we had hardly made a dent in the vast sea of weeds.  It was the job that no one wanted to do, and was left to the novice volunteers who didn't know the amount of fun they could be having working on other projects.

The two pictures on the left show the field of weeds in the enclosure. The photo on the right shows the pile of weeds we pulled.

        When we were satisfied with the work we had done, we met up with Savannah and several other volunteers who all dispersed to play with dogs and different enclosures. We followed Kara into the enclosure of a hybrid named Raz. He is a fairly low content hybrid and was extremely friendly and excited to have company. He jumped up to greet us, even tearing Brigid's jacket in the process and covering her face in mud from his paws. He allowed us to pet him for several minutes and seemed to thoroughly enjoy the attention. Then he discovered the meat that was meant to serve as his breakfast and became distracted by that. We stayed and played with him for a few minutes after he was finished eating and then called it a day.

Raz, the low content hybrid

     Heading home, we discussed how disappointed we are with the Wolf Run organization. My group members and I agree that their cause is very special. But they do not have sufficient resources and thus their grounds are lacking. With the right tools, one volunteer could quickly clear the enclosure that three of us spent over an hour trying to clean up and with little result. Wolf Run needs help and that is evident. And asking us to clear almost an acre of land with our bare hands is not realistic assistance for us to give and I believe that our time could have been better utilized.