Volunteering

So, it was recommended to me to volunteer - to do something. Although I could see the opportunity for growth, I had such a hard time deciding what to volunteer for. I always thought of volunteering as feeding the homeless people, or talking to the elderly. Old people can be kind of grumpy, and I'm not very compassionate about poor people, I guess. I feel that a lot of people make a lot of bad choices and then feel victims to their own circumstances, when they could make better choices and avoid the situations they're in.

So, Steve suggested I do something with animals. Animals don't judge you, don't yell at you when they're having a bad day, and don't really say anything bad to you. In fact, some of them actually like you, and like it when you touch them. They even give hugs.

While trying to decide what to do with Obi, I contacted Stormy at Titanic's Toy Hilton. Stormy runs a bording and grooming shop for cats and dogs. She's the cat person, her husband's the dog person, and she's always taken good care of Beezy when we go on vacation. In fact, Beezy seems to think it's like summer camp when she gets to stay with Stormy.

I asked Stormy what she thought I should do with Obi. She suggested that I contact CAWS (Community Animal Welfare Society) and see if they could take him. She gave me a phone number for Janita, who asked me to send her information about Obi. I wrote a beautiful email - pretty poetic for a cat, to describe him.

And the response from CAWS was that there was no one to foster him, but they would list him if I could foster him. I ran this by Steve, and he said that could take months or even longer. In the meantime, Obi had issues we needed to get him through - the tail issue, plus parasites and bacteria from a bad diet. I told Janita I'd discuss it with Steve and get back to her.

Well, two weeks later, we decided to try to introduce Obi to our three girls. The girls still don't like him. Last night Steve said he went from being the Outdoor Beezy (OB), to being the hurt, tailless kitty, to being the stinky kitty, to being "Shatz the cat", and now he's just a cluless male: Always getting yelled at, but not understanding why. Poor little guy.

Obi gets to stay, and I let Janita know that we've decided to keep him. She said that was great. I also asked if they could use any volunteers, and she was so excited. I agreed to volunteer on the last Saturday of the month.

When I arrived, I met Amy - she was so welcoming, and put me to work right away filling water dishes. She then suggested I help Holly clean out the cages. All the time I worked, Holly asked me about how I got involved, and I got to talk about my four "kids." It was great to have something in common with people I've never met before!

It was a busy day - one dog and one kitten were adopted. I got to talk to some girls who were very excited to be taking home the kitten, and then I ran the dogs out to potty for the rest of the day. Had it not of been for a sprained ankle, I would have stuck around.

Last Saturday, I helped them set up the cages, get the cages ready for the kitties, and put up signs, take food, then I helped sort through the list of name tags and papers. By the end of the day, I was bushed, and happy to be home, with my own four babies who get me, and I get to hold them.

I really like this Volunteer thing.