My 15-year-old daughter has been working this summer. As a volunteer.

She mops and scrubs. She empties smelly pans. She gets to play with Sunshine, Minnie, Rascal, Chocolate Chip, Shiloh, Mama, Romeo, Rowdy, Minnie and other cats at an area animal shelter. She’s enjoying the experience.

My daughter is volunteering at a no-kill shelter, where shelter operators offer the cats and dogs for adoption and give them a place to live if no one takes them home. The animals have become family to the folks who take care of them. School starts in a couple weeks and my daughter is already talking about how she’ll miss going to the shelter a few days every week. But she is planning to work there some weekends during the school year.

My daughter fell for cats as a toddler, when the tabby I had owned for many years became an affectionate playmate.  Afi didn’t seem to mind too much when my growing daughter squeezed her a bit too tightly, picked her up roughly or pulled her tail.  Afi passed away when my daughter was 9-years-old and we haven’t gotten another pet.

I’m certain my daughter will always remember her first job. It is at the animal shelter this summer that she’s learning more about responsibility, following directions, doing the best she can at any task — sweeping and mopping and helping to care for the animals.

My first job was as a babysitter for the 5-year-old boy next door. I was 15 then and had plenty of experience; I had been a babysitter for my three sisters, including one who is nine years younger.  That summer, I worked nights to take care of the boy while his mother worked a late shift.  It didn’t matter that the pay was minimal. I was thrilled.

Are your teenagers working this summer, either for satisfaction or a salary?

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