CHAPTER 49

2025-05-19

After I recovered from gallbladder cancer, I decided to volunteer and walk dogs. Fifteen years later, I stopped doing this due to another illness. Eight years later, it was more than fortunate that I was able to reconnect and get together with my volunteer friends again.

From 2015 to the end of 2016, I wrote a column called "Four-legged Friends" in the Chinese community newspaper "Evergreen News" (later renamed "New World of SUCCESS"), which mainly talked about my experiences in volunteer work in the Animal Protection Association. My job is to walk dogs.

I started walking dogs ​​in early 2002 and stopped in early 2017 due to a brain injury. I walk dogs ​​because I like being close to animals, but my family conditions do not allow for cats and dogs. In addition, after I had my gallbladder cancer removed in early 2001, I had an idea that I should do what I like while I am still healthy and physically able.

I have loved animals since I was young, especially those that are smart and have many expressions. Dogs have more expressions than cats, so I love dogs more. In fact, my favorite animals are monkeys, but no one keeps them in the house. My parents gave birth to seven children and raised six sons. They didn't have much energy left, and my father insisted on raising sons but not animals. It was not until my sixth brother was in elementary school that my mother started raising a few birds. I raised silkworms when I was in elementary school, and raised goldfish after I got married.

After immigration, my wife and I were busy with life and had no time to keep a pet. Later, I found out that Lun was afraid of all animals. Even if a three-year-old child ran towards him, he would be at a loss and scream. So my home could not accommodate a pet. So I always long to be close to animals.

In 2002, I signed up at the Society for the Protection of Animals (the Association) in Coquitlam, participated in a morning training session, followed an experienced volunteer to walk the dog, and then went dog walking on Sundays. The first time I walked a medium-sized skinny dog ​​which pulled me for more than an hour. A male passerby joked, "It seems like the dog is walking the man." My bones and muscles were sore for several days.

I fell in love with dog walking. My "first love" soon turned into "passionate love". I looked for city government dog shelters and non-profit animal associations to apply to be a dog walking volunteer. In addition to Coquitlam, I also went to Vancouver, Burnaby and Maple Ridge. When comparing the quality of volunteer service, Burnaby ranked first.

It just so happened that my younger son needed to do volunteer work to earn hours so that he could graduate from high school. In mid-2007, we went to the Burnaby Association to register and receive training. Starting from the summer vacation, I took him to the association every weekend to walk dogs voluntarily until the middle of the next summer vacation, when he completed the assignment.

In order to record the number of hours he walked the dog, I wrote down the date, time, dog's name, breed and characteristics in pencil on the wall of the corridor in my home after each walk. The record is still on the wall. At that time, most of the dogs taken in by the association were large dogs. The dogs that we walked with the most were of both pure and mixed breeds, including German Shepherd, Rottweiler, Pit Bull, Husky, Mastiff, Raccoon Hounds, Inu Shiba... and so on.

Every weekend, after sending my wife to work, I would go for a walk with the dogs, enjoying the most relaxing time of the week, then have lunch in the park and return to Vancouver to pick up my wife from work. We would then go to the care home together at 3:30 p.m., take Lun out for dinner, and eat until 8 p.m., then send him back to the care home. I spent my weekends in a compact and joyful manner until I suffered a brain injury in early 2017.

During this time, I met a group of volunteers who love animals very much. About ten of them have been attending regularly and are diligent and dedicated. The volunteer leader is a retired lady who is a professional administrative manager of a law firm. She planned the day's activities according to the conditions and needs of individual dogs, which improved the knowledge and abilities of the volunteers, improved the dogs' behavior and increased their chances of being adopted.

In the ten years that I have known her, I have witnessed that her original intention has not changed. In mid-2016, she fell at home and seemed to be fine, but six months later she was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. In late January 2017, I went to the hospital to visit her but to no avail. Soon after, I was also admitted to the hospital. I could not go to work or do volunteer work because I could not fully recover.

I was fortunate to reconnect with the same group of volunteers at the end of 2024 (nearly eight years later). I was very happy and wrote this article out of inspiration.