Be best friends with cute cats and dogs as a Humane Society volunteer
Count it a success: I visited the Humane Society of Charlotte (HSC) and managed not to walk out with every single dog and cat in there.
While my wife would have been ecstatic to come home to a gaggle of furry critters, reality eventually would have set in. Stupid reality.
When I got to HSC, I was greeted by Cancun, who was snoozing in the sun. Here’s Cancun’s page.
HSC’s phone number is (704) 494-7706 and the volunteer coordinator is Dawn Gearhart.
There are plenty of ways for volunteers to help out, including assisting with administrative work, walking the dogs, helping with IT, and cleaning to give the animals a nice place to live.
Potential volunteers first fill out a profile, then attend one of the two hour-long orientation sessions that are given each month. One is held on a Saturday and starts at 10 a.m. and another on a weekday starts at 6 p.m.
To help provide consistent care for the animals, HSC asks volunteers to commit to eight hours of volunteering per month for at least six months.
It’s obvious how much the HSC staff loves all the animals there. This is Lissa. She was hanging out in Ortega’s office. Here’s Lissa’s page.
“You’re committing your time and your energy to get this animal well, or to wait until they’re old enough for adoption, but you know at the end, you have an out,” Ortega said. “The fosters can take them to the park and have some fun, and then we get a lot of information about that dog for the two or three days he or she was gone. Like, does the dog ride well in the car? Does it freak out when it sees kids?”
This is Razzmatazz. I was petting her and she made this face when I stopped. Here’s Razzmatazz’s page.
This story was originally published May 26, 2015 at 11:03 PM with the headline "Be best friends with cute cats and dogs as a Humane Society volunteer."