Job Please

My eight-year old daughter loves animals. She has been begging for a dog since she was four years old. Lately she has been on a mission to convince her father and me to let her have a dog. I tried explaining that dogs are a lot of work. I tried explaining that dogs ruin hard wood floors (which we just had refinished). I tried explaining that dogs are expensive, and that when they get sick, the doctor bills aren't covered by health insurance. She didn't care about any of that. Finally I had a brilliant idea.

"Let's go to the animal shelter and see if you can volunteer there. Then you can take care of all kinds of dogs," I said.

She was very excited about that. So we hopped in the car and drove to the nearest animal shelter.

"I want to volunteer," she announced to the man behind the desk.

"Well now," the man said, "How old are you?"

"Eight."

"Sorry. You have to be at least sixteen."

She was heartbroken. She still wanted to see the dogs. There were a lot of them - all yapping and smelling up the place. She wanted to take every single one of them home.

On the way home, she spotted another sign: Kennel. "I want to check that place out!" she said.

I guess we'll be asking for a job at that place tomorrow.