Part of a verse in the Bible says “joy comes in the morning.” For animals in Texas, joy comes to animals when music volunteers play for them.
Yuvi Agarwal,12, began playing keyboard when he was 4. A few years later, he “noticed his playing soothed his family’s restless golden doodle, Bozo,” and he wondered if music could help stressed homeless animals, according to AP.
an Idea is born
According to AP, Yuvi’s parents, who both have marketing backgrounds, helped him to found the nonprofit Wild Tunes in 2023 “to recruit musicians to play in animal shelters.” As of June, 2025, Yuvi has recruited “about 100 volunteer musicians and singers of all ages and abilities to perform at nine shelters in Houston, New Jersey and Denver.”
helping animals feel Less stressed with music
Yuvi told AP that “many of his four-legged listeners, which include cats, become excited when he enters their kennel. But after a few minutes of playing, they calm down. Some even go to sleep.”
Yuvi figured out that just like humans who enjoy listening to music without knowing the lyrics, so do animals. He said, “Just enjoy the melody, the harmony and the rhythms. So it transcends linguistic barriers, and even it can just transcend species.”
In the news story, Yuvi said one rescue dog named Penelope refused to come out of her enclosure in Houston to be fed.
“Within a short period of me playing, she went from not even coming out of her kennel to licking me all over my face and nibbling my ears,” Agarwal told AP.
volunteers
One volunteer in Denver, Sarah McDonner, believes her playing classical music on her flute “gives them something to look forward to, something that is different throughout their day,” AP stated in the article.
McDonner, a professional musician who met Yuvi in Houston, “played Mozart and Bach on her flute for Max, a 1-year-old stray boxer that tilted his head when she hit the high notes,” according to AP.
She helped bring the program to Colorado after recently moving to Denver. “I think it’s very important to give them something different from what they’re used to in their little tiny cages … and makes them more adoptable in the long run,” McDonner said in the article.
inspiring people to bring joy to animals with music
“Because his firsthand experience at shelters is undeniable evidence that music helps comfort stressed animals,” AP said, “he plans to grow Wild Tunes into a nationwide program.”
On the About Page of the Wild Tunes website, Yuvi says he hopes to “inspire more people—both children and adults—to use their musical talents to make a meaningful impact on the lives of shelter animals by helping them rebuild their relationships with humans.”
He adds that playing music for stressed animals, is “a positive, rewarding activity that provides practice for musicians, service hours for students, and, most importantly, comfort for animals—truly a win-win for everyone involved.”
And as more volunteers bring music to the lives of animals in shelters, more joy will come their way, not just in the morning, but whenever they hear people who care about them playing music to soothe their stressful souls.
