My New Volunteer Role!

[Samsara]

Hi Guys,

I have some exciting news that I wanted to share with you all!

Starting this Valentines weekend, I will be volunteering on a weekly basis at the RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). This is something I have wanted to do for a long time, but I have been waiting for the right 'job' to come a long... (I don't want to clean cages or have anything to do with putting animals to sleep... ).

This year, the RSPCA has created a new volunteer role, called "Meet & Greet", which commences on Valentines Day with a weekend long 'Adoptathon'. My role will be to spend the day with people who come along to find a new pet, and to help them choose just the right pet to take home with them!! This sounds like an awesome thing to do, and very worthwhile, because every cat or dog that I send home with a new family, is an animal whose life I have personally helped to save!!! This way, I know that I am helping to actually save the lives of animals who might otherwise be put to sleep...

I will recieve some training on the first day, and after that I will be donating my time every Saturday from 10am - 4pm. I am very excited!

The RSPCA does wonderful work in saving and rescuing animals of all kinds, and also locates and prosecutes anybody who is found to be being cruel to animals. It is altogether a wonderful organisation!

Unfortunately they do not have any Dragons, so I will have to be content with dogs and cats etc...

[jube]

Cool bananas. Our dog was a rejected pup and has been with us for nearly 4 years. Oh well you never know, would lizards come under dragons ?


Must be the month for doing volunteer work. I'm in the process of raising funds for Relay for Life (Cancer Council) but it's only short-term not long-term like yours so I will say "Good luck and hope that it continues well for you" - GOOD LUCK, Samsara!

[Hans]

Yay. Way to go, Sam.

Good thing they don't have dragons. You'd probably end up with a house full of them

[Samsara]

So true, Hans! And besides, they would probably trash my house and eat my Chihuahua for dinner!

[granath]

How wonderful for you! Do tell us about your rescue stories when you can.

[Cheryl]

Sounds like a great gig, I hope you really enjoy it!

[Hans]

Chihuahua, dinner? More like a snack

I could have a dragon in the house but would be afraid every time of the after dinner belch... even though I have good insurance...

[Samsara]

Heh heh! Yes a snack she would be! I love Dragons but I would become Samsara the Dragon Slayer if one tried to eat my baby!

Granath: I will definately keep everyone posted with my rescue stories, if you all don't mind!

And thanks all for your well wishes. I love animals, and am really looking forward to 'doing my part' in helping them!

[DragonBuddy]

That's great Samsara! I did something like that in back in college. It was sad and I wanted to take them all home with me! It felt good to save a few though. That's a really nice way to spend Valentine's Day. Best Wishes!!!!

[mawra]

Originally Posted by Hans

Yay. Way to go, Sam.

Good thing they don't have dragons. You'd probably end up with a house full of them

You say that like it would be a bad thing

I am glad you found something you could do, Sam.

[GinnyStar]

Originally Posted by mawra

You say that like it would be a bad thing

I am glad you found something you could do, Sam.

We have a few sites that can aid to, click a day to donate, and I am doing some other things too.

I help when I can.

[Anneli]

So how did the first day go, Samsara? Hope it was a lot of fun

[Samsara]

Thanks for asking Anneli! My 1st day went very well, and yes, it was a lot of fun!

My mum decided to come along & do it with me, so she picked me up bright & early, (ok, so maybe NOT so bright, but definately early ), and off we went. When we got there, the staff took us through a little mini traning session. It was a little bit of a farce because it was the 1st day this particular role was trialed, so none of the 'staff' really seemed to know what was going on. But they muddled thorugh it, and basically gave us the info we needed. Essentially, the dogs are color coded, depending on how well they interact with people & other animals.

Blue: suitable with kids of any age & all other animals
Green: suitable for kids over 10yrs old & might be ok with other animals
Orange: not suited for kids of any age or any other animals

This gave us an indication of which dogs to show which families depending on their circumstances. They organise the adoptions in the form of a raffle, just in case more then one person is interested in the same dog. So once someone has decided they want to 'meet' a particular dog, thet put their name on list. It's 1st come, 1st served to prevent fighting (apparantly fighting over the dogs is common amongst the crowds... ). The 1st name on the list gets 1st chance at adopting that dog. If the 'meeting' goes well, the dog is adopted, if not the 2nd person on the list gets a chance, and so on.

Before the crowds turned up, we got some time to meet the dogs, and have a coffee. Then the real fun began! Because it was an advertised event, the crowds were bigger then normal, and about 100 people stormed throught the gates at opening time. 100 people for 40 odd dogs... I could see how the fights might start.... All in all though, the day went really well, and by the end of it, 24 of the 40 available dogs found new homes! And with the event continuing the next day, there was still hope that the remaining dogs would find good homes that weekend.

All in all, it was a wonderful day, and something I really enjoyed being a part of! And the best thing is, I get to do it all again next weekend!

[AnnMarie]

Better than half adopted????? AWESOME!

[Samsara]

We thought so!

[Anneli]

Glad it all went so well for you

Originally Posted by Samsara

Thanks for asking Anneli! My 1st day went very well, and yes, it was a lot of fun!

[Kater]

Glad to hear about your job Samsara and glad to hear your first day went so well!!

[jube]

Woo hoo, now you'll have to update with special stories for us. Last year, there was a dog who's owners "chopped" half his ears off (owners were ratbags obviously) and the dog was sent to the lost dogs home in North Melbourne. He survived and went to a good home. I would have quite happily had him here as he had a face that could tell a million tall stories and all with a very cheeky grin - in other words a face you could fall in love with.

[Samsara]

Jube, I remember that story, wasn't it awful? It never fails to amaze me the lengths some people will go to in order to be cruel to animals. They're psychos, who don't deserve their miserable little lives..... It is one of the reasons that I was so keen to volunteer at the RSPCA. They do such great work!

[Samsara]

Okay, so it was day 2 of volunteering today.

Mum didn't come with me today, as she had to stay home and look after Dad, who had day surgery yesterday to remove some kidney stones... (poor Daddy!)

The day went well, but was no where near as busy as last weekend. There were 18 dogs available for adoption today, and 6 of them found new homes.
One dog, Buster, an 8 year old Boxer, was the star of the day. He found a home today after being at the RSPCA for 5 weeks!!! Everyone was very happy that he found a home, as we were starting to get very worried for him!

Good luck Buster! We hope you will be very happy with your new family!

[jube]

Good luck with it all

[AnnMarie]

HURRAAH FOR BUSTER!!

[jube]

Originally Posted by Samsara

Jube, I remember that story, wasn't it awful? It never fails to amaze me the lengths some people will go to in order to be cruel to animals. They're psychos, who don't deserve their miserable little lives..... It is one of the reasons that I was so keen to volunteer at the RSPCA. They do such great work!

A friend of mine said the same thing. Idjits, aren't they, to be cruel to "dumb animals"? He likes the dogs that needs a good home too ! Both he and hubby take their dogs for a walk by the river, sometimes they'll take them for a swim depending on the weather. Had to laugh last night, his dog wanted some of my popcorn Go Buster!