Author Spotlight
Mya Smith
Overanalyzing every move with trembling hands, senior Alex Shrock cautiously scooped up a timid puppy from its cage. It was his first day volunteering at Kansas City Pet Project, and Alex was terrified of messing something, anything up.
“I was worried I was gonna drop a dog or flood a room. It’s really not possible, but I was concerned that I was gonna destroy everything.” Alex said.
Contrary to Alex’s expectation that he would drastically mess up, all of the volunteers and managers at KC Pet Project made his first day enjoyable by welcoming him into the community and teaching him how to get dogs out of their shell.
“The people there are all really nice,” Alex said .“It’s a really fun community. They do a lot of community events like fun runs, bar crawls, things like that, that you can volunteer at. Sometimes people bring in treats for volunteers, which is always fun. It’s just a positive place.”
Alex originally needed to rack up more service hours, since he needed 15 hours per semester for National Honors Society. Brainstorming ideas with his dad, they landed on KC Pet Project because his dad had heard about it from his students. Just a few weeks after, Alex was at the hour and a half long orientation for new volunteers.
For as long as Alex can remember, he and his brother, Willan Shrock have been close. When Alex started volunteering, Willan could easily notice that it was something Alex loved.
“He[ Alex ] loves dogs,” Willan said.“ It’s a great way for him to play with dogs and get service hours while doing so.”
But Alex never expected to be spending his Saturday mornings with puppies instead of his friends. Alex does many things like holding puppies, feeding dogs, cleaning up kennels and making treats for the puppies and interacting and playing with shy dogs.
“Puppies can’t be set onto normal floors because their immune systems aren’t fully developed,” Alex said. “So when they get their kennels cleaned, you either have to put them in a space that has been deep cleaned, which takes about 10 minutes or you have somebody in a sterile gown and gloves who just holds them, which is what I do.”
Alex’s love for animals has always been a defining part of his personality, growing up taking care of his two mutts, Ziggy and Floyd, and planning to major in marine biology. Alex was thrilled he would get to help more animals, especially puppies.
Besides assisting out with small chores around the campus, and bearing with the smell of wet puppies, Alex finds the most happiness when helping puppies that have come from a household that was unable to take care of them, or puppies who may not have had a home at all.
In October, a few months after Alex started volunteering, he met a dog that would show him why he loves volunteering. Gulliver, one of the first puppies that Alex helped, was timid and frail, and had no interest in interacting with any of the other volunteers or puppies.
“By the time that I left that day, which was probably three or four hours later, he was barking and running around in his kennel.” Alex said. “ In a short period of time, he had really come out of his shell. It really showed how socializing a puppy at an early age can help them be well adjusted.”
Alex hasn’t been in his usual routine of volunteering every Saturday, due to a schedule filled with IB classes and band, plus snowy weather, but he plans to get back to belly-rubbing the dogs soon.
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