HAMPTON, Va. — For seven years, Sarah Davis has spent almost every day ensuring local dogs in need — whether surrendered or found on the street — have a future.
“I was 50-something years old and I’d never found my passion yet and my sister-in-law volunteered here and so I started and I realized right away that it took that long, but I found my passion," said Davis, a volunteer with Animal Aid Society in Hampton.
Animal Aid Society has 50 years of history taking in and sheltering dogs in need, with a goal of finding them their "fur-ever" homes. It is 100 percent volunteer-run.
“We’ve gotta clean all the runs every single morning. We’ve gotta make sure the dogs get fed twice a day so we’ve got two shifts going," said Larry Merrill, the nonprofit's Executive Director. "The medical responsibilities are huge. We’ve got two to three dogs going to the vet, it seems like, every single day.”
And all of that falls into the careful hands of the shelter's 75-plus volunteers, like Sarah.
“She has a regular job that we works but somehow she works 12 to 14 hours for Animal Aid," said Merrill.
There's not only the physical challenge of taking care of 30 dogs. There is also the mental roller coaster of the sad stories that often bring the animals to the shelter on Butler Farm Road.
”(It's) a lot of owner surrenders. We take strays from other shelters that are full," said Davis. "Some [dogs] stay with us forever.”
But the hope is a family will come, meet them and take them home forever. When there's no other choice, but to euthanize a dog, Davis is there for all of those.
“She is their angel. That’s all I can say. She is the pups’ angel. She takes great care of the dogs," said Sam Kay, a longtime volunteer at Animal Aid Society.
So Kay, Merrill and several other volunteers at Animal Aid reached out to News 3 to nominate Davis for an Everyday Hero award.
Davis received the award and a $425 Visa gift card from Southern Bank, which includes and extra $125 to mark the bank's 125th anniversary. After receiving the award, she was quick to shoutout her colleagues.
"I think the world of them because this would not happen without everybody. Everyone’s a volunteer and it takes all of us together," she said.
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