Volunteering at local Humane Society

**wolflady** · 06-06-2003, 01:29 PM

Today is going to be my first day! I'm so excited about it! Since I have been laid off from my job, I thought it would be a good thing for me to volunteer at my local humane society for awhile. I figured it would give me a couple of hours out of the house and away from the monotony of job posting. Plus, it will help ease frustration of job posting. I posted 39 resumes (and wrote nice cover letters for each one) and all I ever get is those lame-brain auto-responses. Not one call. Needless to say I'm getting discouraged.
But, at least in my downtime, I can help some homeless animals! I dropped by yesterday to ask about volunteering and it turns out that they have an excess of very young kittens (too young to be adopted right now) that need some care and attention. Some need medications and all to clear up infections and all, and they decided to put me on kitten care for now! She was very excited about all of my previous animal experience. So, today at 3, I'm going in for my first official day! I hope it goes well, and that I don't come home with too many extra animals!

LOL My husband would not be too happy. He's still on the cusp with Sergei right now. He keeps telling me to find Sergei a home, but I'm still working on getting him to let me keep him!

Kittens will be so hard to resist! I will let you all know how my first day goes! I hope it's good. I've never volunteered for a humane society before. The closest thing was the no-kill cat rescue when I first moved out here to Cali, so I hope this is a positive experience.
**hugs**
Karen

**slick** · 06-06-2003, 01:55 PM

That sounds so exciting Karen. Good luck. You'll find the work very rewarding. Give those little special care kitties a kiss for me.

**jenluckenbach** · 06-06-2003, 04:07 PM

Kitten care sounds like quite a fun job. Beware.....you will get attached. But remember, all the touching and handling will help them adjust to their new homes. Enjoy yourself.

**wolflady** · 06-07-2003, 12:32 AM

My first day went well! I got a tour of the shelter, and I saw the room with all the adoptable kitties, I went through the kennels where all the adoptable dogs were, then they took me through another door where the young and/or sick kitties were. They were so precious! There was a lovely flame point siamese momma cat that was acting as surrogate mom to 5 kittens that weren't even hers. 3 of them were doing well, but 2 of them were not. One of them was so tiny. It had to have been only about 3 inches long! OMG! I tried to get that one to eat with a dropper. I sure hope that little one makes it...
There was also a litter of feral kittens that I started working with. They are about 6 weeks old, so I thought if I got them out for a few minutes each day, they will come around. There were 3 of them in a cage together. 2 of them did pretty well. They hissed, but that was about it. Once I got them out and held them, they seemed ok, but the 3rd one really did a number on my arm and leg! He will need a little more work I think.

I also got to medicate a few of the sick little ones. Several had drippy eyes, so I got to put ointment in their drippy eyes. Some of the others I had to give antibiotics.
I took out each kitten and wiped them down and played a little bit with each one.
After that, I went into the puppy area and took 4 puppies out into one of the back yards to play for awhile, so I got a dose of puppy breath too!! It was such a great day! I felt so good when I left. I'm planning on going for a few hours each day!! Gosh, I can already tell it's going to be hard for me to resist bringing some of them home with me!

**hugs**

**jenluckenbach** · 06-07-2003, 04:52 AM

Sounds wonderful !!!!!!!

**IttyBittyKitty** · 06-07-2003, 09:08 AM

Originally posted by wolflady
My first day went well! I got a tour of the shelter, and I saw the room with all the adoptable kitties, I went through the kennels where all the adoptable dogs were, then they took me through another door where the young and/or sick kitties were. They were so precious! There was a lovely flame point siamese momma cat that was acting as surrogate mom to 5 kittens that weren't even hers. 3 of them were doing well, but 2 of them were not. One of them was so tiny. It had to have been only about 3 inches long! OMG! I tried to get that one to eat with a dropper. I sure hope that little one makes it...
There was also a litter of feral kittens that I started working with. They are about 6 weeks old, so I thought if I got them out for a few minutes each day, they will come around. There were 3 of them in a cage together. 2 of them did pretty well. They hissed, but that was about it. Once I got them out and held them, they seemed ok, but the 3rd one really did a number on my arm and leg! He will need a little more work I think.

I also got to medicate a few of the sick little ones. Several had drippy eyes, so I got to put ointment in their drippy eyes. Some of the others I had to give antibiotics.
I took out each kitten and wiped them down and played a little bit with each one.
After that, I went into the puppy area and took 4 puppies out into one of the back yards to play for awhile, so I got a dose of puppy breath too!! It was such a great day! I felt so good when I left. I'm planning on going for a few hours each day!! Gosh, I can already tell it's going to be hard for me to resist bringing some of them home with me!

**hugs**