Our volunteers start their day at 8.30 and work tirelessly until the job is done.
They don't complain when they are faced with a cage full of kittens or puppies that are messy or if the animal's not so friendly or if they have to tend to sick cats/kittens in the hospital. They don't complain when the shelter is overflowing with animals and some of the team have called in absent; they just roll up their sleeves, put their heads down and get the job done.
Throughout the day volunteers come and go tending to the washing, topping up water, in the afternoons topping up food, cleaning the animals that have found themselves in a bit of a state during the day, sorting the donated food.
Dog walkers arrive; a smile is soon put on our faces to see the excitement from the dogs and puppies to know they are going for a walk and to be paid that special attention that each of them craves for. This time spent out of their cages and the exposure they receive to the outside world makes the difference in keeping their sanity.
To the foster families who continue to open their homes to those animals that need longer care or just to take the overflow, help free up room at the shelter, meaning that animals that for one reason or another can't be put up for adoption yet aren't confined to the limited space of one of our cages for a lengthy period of time.
Outside the shelter there are also volunteers that continue to give their time, fund-raising, spreading the word, emptying collection boxes and food bins, this is on-going and quite often behind the scenes but none the less important tasks that aid the animals and the shelter.
Our volunteers work a modest 10,000 hours plus per year. The total dollar value would be insurmountable and we would never survive. These volunteers have no expectations except to share their love with whatever animals face them on their arrival; these animals are not here because they want to be, they have been failed by the more uncaring humans and have been abandoned, injured ill-treated, or unwanted.
If not for the SPCA and the volunteers who give their precious time who would take in, care for and re-home the poor animals on your streets? We accepted into the shelter more than 1600 animals in 2011, we re-homed them to loving families. We de-sexed over 300 female cats _ this is possible because of our volunteers.
Thank you _ you are invaluable.-->