Volunteering at a shelter

[Taz_Zoee]

I just went to an orientation to volunteer at a local animal shelter. It is such a nice place!! It is called arf for short. Tony La Russa's Animal Rescue Foundation. click here for website
I had first heard about the place while at a friends for a house warming party. Then I also met someone else who adopted their dog from there at the dog park. THEN at work one of the Board Members of a previous association works there!! I figured I must volunteer there.
I filled out the application today. I can't wait to get started. I will probably not be interacting with the animals at first, but every little bit helps.
I'm sure I'll be telling lots of stories about my experience there. Hope you don't get tired of it.

[Miss Z]

Oh I'm sure you will love it! I've been volunteering for a year and a half now and I've loved every minute. As you say, you may be faced with a lot of cleaning when you first begin, but once the shelter see how devoted you are (they get a lot of people who mess them around, who volunteer once or twice and then never come back), you'll be sure to start doing a lot more interacting with the animals (though of course there is always a lot of cleaning every day of the year ).

The only downside to volunteering is seeing some of the cruelty cases come in. This week we've had dozens of animals in from a hoarder. Hamsters, gerbils, rats, chinchillas, degus, ferrets, birds, this guy had the lot crammed in his home. And we've only got half of the critters, the other half went to another shelter!

[caseysmom]

Good for you, you will enjoy it. Me and my daughter volunteered for about a year at one of the local spca's, we only did dog walking and cat socializing, no dirty work, they had people that needed to do community service through the jail doing the dirty work so it was a lot of fun.

Somehow we made it through that year without adding to our fur household but it was difficult.

[krazyaboutkatz]

I'm glad that you're able to do this and I bet you'll enjoy it. I keep telling myself that I need to so something like this but then I might end up bringing more cats home with me.

[Taz_Zoee]

Thanks for the responses.
This shelter only pulls from county shelters. It pulls animals that are adoptable and about to be euthanized. Animals are not taken directly to arf from the public.
The only thing Bruce said to me (and probably will every time) before I left was - no more animals!!!
And I saw Laguna and Tropicana while I was there too. Tropicana is a Border Collie/Aussie mix that is hearing impaired with two blue eyes. I recognized these girls from looking at the website ALL the time. LOL
I also saw a kitty that seemed to be the same size as Paizly and asked her age. They said she was about 3-4 weeks. Now I know that Paizly is much older than that. Cathy had her for 5 weeks and I've had her almost a week. She was said to be 5 weeks when she was originally found. So she must be small.
Ok, I'm off to play with Paizly now.

[Grace]

I volunteered at our local Humane Society many years ago. I would go in every Wednesday morning and take care of the cats. Clean cages, wash bedding - you name it, I did it. I even dragged my husband in one Thanksgiving morning.

Only problem - it was so difficult to come home and leave all those cuties behind. During my 2 year tenure, we adopted one dog, and 4 cats.

[kt_luvs_kitties]

I loved volunteering! It is so rewarding

I love Amber, a kitty from the site that looks like a mini Stash! I would name her Satasha