V is for ....

V is for VOLUNTEER

I volunteer at the reception desk at our church once a week.  There I type, prepare mailings, answer the phone, answer questions of those who come into the office etc.

Another part of this task is to give food to the homeless.  We probably have at least three requests for food, transportation tickets etc. each day.

This is the food pantry which the congregation keeps well stocked.  As well as food we give hygiene products and in the winter we give blankets.

This is the food pantry:

My second volunteer job is to go into the the Animal Shelter once a week.

This is a new VENTURE for me.  I have been through all the training and spent one afternoon as a "CAT-CUDDLER"!!  What could be better than that?  That is mainly my task -- to socialize the many new kittens coming in (it's kitten season) and to encourage the older cats to socialize too.  This shelter is only three years old and is state of the art.

As well as many individual cages, there are two large rooms like this which hold 4 or sometimes 5 cats. Lots of beds, toys, houses and kitty climbing furniture.

This is Twyla.  She is a beautiful cat .  Quite self assured and well adjusted, but she is not a lap cat.  She loves to be petted and will sit beside you, but does not want to sit on your lap.  Sadly people just overlook her because they want a lap cat. She would make a very sweet pet.

I spent a half hour in this room trying to coax Miss Swan, a dainty black cat, out of her house.  She is VERY shy but I did eventually get her to come out and managed to pet her.  Lots of soft talking, scratching on wood, moving slowly and a couple of bits of kibble that made my hands smell of kibble so then she was quite happy to be stroked and scratched behind her ears.  I'm mad at myself because I got a good photo of her and then accidentally erased it. Did you know that black cats are usually the last to be adopted? Superstition!

Lots of tiny kittens, but I couldn't get good photos because of glass reflection, and today is not my day to go in behind the scenes.

For those of you who are dog lovers, (I am too), just look at these two:

I can choose to work with the dogs after a couple of months, but nearly all of them are far too big for me to handle.  Now if they decide they want dog cuddlers .... 

 The dogs are taken out on long walks each day.  There is quite a large area around the compound that is good for that.  They need dog walkers too.

The adoption rate from this shelter is 75% for dogs and just 34% for cats  :( 

There is just one possible problem arising from my cat cuddling job.  I had an asthma attack after my first experience there last week!  I do have mild allergies and it may be just too many cats! 

 OH NO!  That would be VERY disappointing!