We are GCSU
Pavielle, 21, as well as friend and fellow volunteer Julie Paschall, 21, are waiting inside along with a large overweight Lab named Rico. The place smells, well, like dog. Rico barks as I open the door and Julie holds him by the collar.
“Rico!” Pavielle scolds and the dog lowers his head. He looks at me for a while and decides not to bark anymore. Julie lets go of his collar. The dog, resembling a miniature cow, waddles over to me and plops his rear end down at my feet.
“He’s been so irritable lately. We’re not sure what’s wrong with him,” Pavielle says apologetically.
I tell her it’s alright as I scratch Rico behind the ears. As I lean down to forgive Rico a low, deep growl becomes a bark. His head snaps backward almost taking off my face. I jump and Julie has Rico by the collar once more.
“Rico!” Pavielle shouts. “Oh my gosh are you okay?!”
Observation #1: Rico does not like being coddled.
Pavielle is a senior this year at GCSU and describes herself as tall and lanky like “linguine,” clumsy, easily spooked, “squishy” on the inside and “reeeally” emotional when it comes to kids and animals. She parks the SUV in front of ACE Hardware downtown and lets Julie as well as Stella, a Lab mix, and Lucy, a German Sheppard Husky mix, out of the back.
Julie hands Pavielle a brightly colored leash and the two humans look left, right, left, and then right one more time before crossing. Stella nervously looks at passersby, staying close to Julie’s side.
Lucy, however, bounds in front of Pavielle who is leaning back on her heels to avoid being dragged away.
“When did you start at ARF?” I ask breathlessly.
“Sophomore year I had to do some service hours for my biology class and volunteering at ARF was one of the options,” Pavielle says.
Since that sophomore year, Pavielle has become the glue between the GCSU student body and ARF, which is constantly trying to recruit volunteers.
Approximately 500 animals are brought into the non-profit organization every year and it is guaranteed that Pavielle has been involved with each and every one. Bobbie Thompson, president of ARF and grandmother figure to Pavielle, calls “Pavi” an “all-purpose volunteer.”
“She walks our dogs, trains them, adoption counseling and helps with fundraisers and humane education,” Bobbie says. “She has been a great asset to ARF and the animals.”
Observation #2: Pavielle used to be the organizations Volunteer Coordinator spending at least 200 hours a month at ARF. The strain of senior year has forced her to cut back to only a few hours a week.
Pavielle moved constantly as a child never staying long enough in one place to make friends. Her first real friends were a dog and a 16 hand boar hunting horse.
“They were my playmates. I grew very attached to them,” Pavielle says.
The same dog that was her child best friend had actually saved her life.
“My mom wasn’t paying attention and knocked me into the swimming pool when I was three. She was on the phone and went back into the house,” Pavielle says. “My dog jumped in after me. The only way I knew how to swim was the dog paddle for several years. It’s still my best stroke,” she jokes.
Observation 3#: If my mom had knocked me into a pool and my dog saved me I would devote my free time volunteering to help them too.
Exhausted, we finally reach front campus, and luckily, Stella and Lucy only want to sniff things within a five foot radius of where we stand.
“So what do you find hardest to deal with at ARF?” I ask, trying to escape the leash Lucy has managed to wrap around my legs.
“We had this one Boxer mix puppy that somebody dropped off. I felt we should keep it. I thought he was adoptable.” Pavielle says. “However, other ARF members didn’t think so. So we marked her for euthanasia but I went into a sobbing, hissy fit.”
The only other option the disapproving ARF members gave Pavielle was to leave the puppy with Animal Control, a place Pavielle highly disapproves of.
“A whole bunch of dogs are cramped into one cage. It’s not clean. It’s all just very depressing,” Pavielle says.
Of the cats and dogs that come into ARF, 99 percent find homes. People will drop off litters of two week old dogs and cats. The space at ARF is no enough for all of them so euthanasia is an option but the people at ARF make it a last resort. Most of the animals are referred to other organizations or agencies like the Pavielle’s Boxer mix puppy.
“Saying bye to Sweetie was bad too,” Julie says.
“In Sweetie’s case, she got sick and we couldn’t afford the medicine. We had to euthanize her and that’s the hardest part,” Pavielle says.
She pauses as two college students stop to pet the dogs. The men pout their lips as talk as if they were talking to babies. They give the dogs heavy pats on the ribs and scratches behind the ears.
“I love dogs,” one boy says.
“Well you should come volunteer at ARF,” Pavielle says hopefully but the boys either don’t hear her or they ignore her. They give the dogs one last pat a piece and go on their way.
“We try doing a little PR while we walk the dogs too,” Pavielle says trying hard not to allude to her disappointment.
Observation #4: Pavielle has much more compassion than most people her age.
We head back towards the car but stop short as Lucy feels the need to lounge in a bed of monkey grass.
“Are you comfortable?” Pavielle asks. The dog stares up at her smiling with her tongue wagging. Pavielle gives a gentle tug on the leash and Lucy is up once more.
“So what do you want to do after college?” I ask.
“Well I’m going to law school next year,” Pavielle says. “I’d like to do pro bono work for advocacy both animal and children.”
Pavielle once had dreams of becoming a vet which makes perfect sense. But after an internship in high school Pavielle decided it wasn’t for her.
“I noticed how cold the vets became when putting an animal down,” she says. “They wouldn’t try to save it. They’d just put it down and to me that was just heartbreaking because life didn’t matter to them anymore.”
“So it’s obvious why you’d want to do pro bono work for animals, why kids?”
“I came from not your normal home, so I feel very protective over children,” Pavielle says.
“Why wasn’t it your normal home?” I tested.
“Well my dad was in the military so he was never home and my mom was an abusive alcoholic,” she says. “I had to wash my own clothes, cook my own dinner, and get up in the mornings on my own. I grew up really fast. That’s one reason I want to go into law so I can make sure children can actually have a childhood like I wish I had.”
“Are your mom and dad still together?”
“Yes they are though a lot of kids complain ‘oh, my parents are divorced,’” Pavielle says, voice shaking. “I wish mine had.”
Observation #5: It is inspiring how an absent father and abusive, alcoholic mother can produce such a giving, selfless individual.
After getting entangled in Lucy and Stella’s web of leashes a few more times we make it to the car and head back to ARF.
“So what do you do when you’re not ARFing?” I ask.
“I’ve been president of the International Club for five years now and I was president of the Astronomy Club for four years.” Pavielle goes on to list her involvement in the Fencing Club, her fascination with Korean culture after a study abroad trip there, as well as hippo therapy, which is introducing mentally and physically disabled kids to horses.
“What do you like about Pavielle, Julie?”
“She’s freakin’ random, she’s means. She hurts my feelings.” Julie says, they laugh.
“I have this terribly habit of insulting people when I’m trying to compliment them. Like I was trying to tell her how smart she was compared to other people one time but I just kept calling her stupid. And when I tried to correct myself I just make it worse,” Pavielle says as they laugh harder.
Eventually we reach ARF and get Lucy and Stella back into the kennel. We say hello to the cats and I say goodbye to Julie and Pavielle returning the glare Rico gives me on my way out.
Final observation: Pavielle Ludlow is tall and lanky, clumsy, easily spooked, “squishy” on the inside, “reeeally” emotional when it comes to kids and animals. She is also selfless, generous, compassionate, unique and one of those extraordinary people that most of the GCSU student body will never have the pleasure of knowing.
Their loss.
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Oct 10 2008. Filed under News.
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