“Service to others is the rent we pay for our room here on earth” and what a blessing it is to be of service to our special four-legged (sometimes three, for the extra special ones). To love the ones that have lost faith in humans because all they have ever know from us is violence, and never a caring or loving touch; so they know what it feels like to be kissed and loved and caressed with only loving intent, and heal the souls who have been forgotten, beaten, abandoned and lost. And this is what Woodrock, and all those amazing humans involved in Animal Welfare, do.

My best friend Kyla and I were privileged enough to play our small part in this loving process when we were invited by Petra from #JustOneThing365 to come spend the day with all these special fur kids (of all shapes and sizes, my favourite were the donkeys! ) at Woodrock Animal Rescue.

We were first greeted by the biggest herd of donkeys that I, personally, have ever seen! Stubborn mules just wouldn’t get out the way! (my favourite part of the day if I’m honest). Then we got an amazing tour of Woodrock, to see the incredible work they are doing for the animals. We then got to pet and love all the puppers up for adoption (definitely Kyla’s favourite part of the day, despite her balling like a baby because she wanted to take them all home), then to end the day off we took the shelter dogs for a walk (well, to be more accurate, they took US for a walk!).

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In all seriousness though, spending the day with these people and these animals was a very humbling and heart-warming experience for me. As it always is when I get to do some volunteer work, and I see how unconscious and inconsiderate human beings can be, to their own species and others on one side of the spectrum, and how wonderful, caring, loving and self-sacrificing others are.

We, as the human race, need to wake up and realize that whatever we do to our planet, to our plants and to our animals, we inadvertently do to ourselves. We have a choice. We can either neglect, abandon and abuse ourselves, or we can uplift, enrich, heal and love ourselves? What will your choice be?