Why volunteer?As a non-profit organization, CAT relies heavily on support from our core group of volunteers and the public. If you’re not ready to adopt a cat or kitten, consider helping us fulfill our mission by donating your time. CAT volunteers help our community’s homeless, sick and injured cats and kittens, helping to end needless feline euthanasia. They make new friends, learn new skills, and help save lives. Volunteers help us not only care for the cats during their stay at the shelter and offsite locations, but also in a variety of other capacities that will sustain and further the growth and development of CAT as the Pacific Northwest’s largest non-profit, no-kill cat shelter and hospital. Who do we need? There are many volunteer opportunities available for people of different ages and backgrounds. Anyone over the age of 16 may volunteer on their own. Volunteers must be at least 12 years old; volunteers under 16 need to be accompanied by a parent who volunteers alongside and who also makes the same volunteer commitment. Volunteers must commit to volunteering for a minimum of 8 hours a month, for at least six months. We are also recognized as an organization in which you may complete community service hours (separate from our volunteer program); following completed community service hours, we strongly encourage and hope that individuals will choose to contribute to CAT through our regular volunteer program. Many opportunities are available at the shelter, hospital, outreach locations throughout the Portland area. In some cases, you can even work from home and help save lives. CAT Honors Outstanding Volunteers To see both the impact of the CAT’s wonderfully dedicated corps of volunteers as well as the range of volunteer opportunities, consider . . . CAT volunteers contribute nearly 100,000 hours of service, the equivalent of about 50 full-time employees. Through the work of an almost exclusively volunteer team, over 400 cats were adopted through CAT’s various off-site adoption center locations, CAT Ambassadors spread the word about shelters and cat overpopulation through more than a dozen outreach events, fostered over 1100 kittens, and drove adoptions through generating on average 7,000 hits each week on CAT cats and kittens advertised via www.petfinder.com. Volunteers counseled adoptions, gave daily loving care to the 500-600 cats and kittens in our care, and coordinated events, in addition to many, many other services. Lea Bishop received the Top Cat Award for most reported volunteer hours. Lea volunteering well over 480 reported hours in 2007. The coordinator of CAT’s adoption center at the Wilsonville PetSmart since January of 2005, Lea counsels adoptions, provides direct care for the cats, transports cats, and often makes special efforts to find homes for CAT foster cats and kittens. Through the efforts of the Wilsonville PetSmart team, lead by Lea, over 122 cats and kittens have found homes through the adoption center year to date. Linda and Caitlyn Campbell, a mother/daughter team, received the Top Kitten Award, for fostering 221 days and 36 kittens in 2007 YTD. Often Linda and Caitlyn foster multiple litters and kittens who need a little extra care, in addition to providing extra support in CAT’s foster program by serving as mentors to newer foster parents. Linda is also an adoption counselor and caregives at the Wilsonville PetSmart. Bob Anderson received the Volunteer Choice Award. Bob has been a reliable and dedicated caregiver at CAT’s Sherwood shelter for over eight years, donating many of his Saturdays to care for our cats, offering clean cages, comfort, and love. In addition, one Saturday every month Bob trains volunteers from the volunteer organization Hands on Portland. His reliability and compassion are very much appreciated by CAT cats and staff. Debbie Brusius and Bev Genung each received Volunteers of the Year Awards. Debbie is a photographer extraordinaire and has put her photography skills to many good uses for CAT, contributing photographs in various CAT publications, including the newsletter Cat Box Tales. Debbie has coordinated CAT’s annual calendar for two years and took all the photographs for the 2008 edition. Debbie is also active in CAT’s foster program, both fostering kittens and mentoring other foster parents. Bev has been invaluable to CAT’s thriving foster program. Bev leads the vaccine program for the foster program (with the assistance of Linda Campbell) and drives to such diverse places as Sandy, Hillsboro, and Woodburn to give vaccines to kittens in foster care. She is also a mentor to less experienced foster parents and has been known to drive out in the middle of the night to give special attention to foster kittens in need. In addition, Bev is also a foster parent herself, often taking in kittens with special needs, such as those on medication. Dana Gilbert received the Lifetime Achievement Award. A volunteer since 1998, Dana embodies the spirit of CAT with her kindness, compassion, positive attitude, and willingness to help. Dana contributes to CAT in many ways. Dana coordinates CAT’s adult cat foster program and fosters many cats herself, nursing back to health and good spirits many a senior, injured, sick, or depressed cat. Dana also cares for cats at the Sherwood shelter every Friday, takes photographs and writes clever biographies to advertise cats on www.petfinder.com, and has sewn thousands of beds for CAT cats and kittens. Why do I volunteer?
“This is one small way to make the world a little bit of a nicer place. And if everyone tries to do even a small thing, it all adds up to a better world.”
“I volunteer because I love animals. The cats need people to help them find the best place for them to be happy and safe. When cats are with people that really care about them, you see them bloom and be who they really are. When they are adopted to a good home that cares and loves them, it makes a very good day.”
“You know, I have two cats. You’d think I’d get enough of cats with them, but I can’t. I love being with cats and seeing how different they all are. On top of that, I really appreciate how much care Evan and all of you who are staff and volunteers have put into these kitties. It’s an honor to work with you, and I just wish I did more.”
Some common worries and our response “I’m afraid that I will feel so sorry for the cats that I will want to adopt one, or take all of them home.”
We hear this a lot. Any volunteer can go through our regular adoption screening process and, if approved, adopt a cat. But the best part is, you can consider ALL the cats at the shelter to be “your cats” that you get to visit whenever you wish. The beauty of a shelter like ours is that if you come back and your “favorite” isn’t there, he or she has been adopted!
“I won’t be able to handle seeing all those homeless cats. It will break my heart.” This a commonly expressed sentiment. But when you consider the fact that CAT works with other shelters to save cats who might otherwise be euthanized due to illness, injury, or space constraints, and that we rescue cats from the community in sometimes horrific conditions, you cannot help but be overwhelmed with happiness that at CAT they are on their way to finding a forever home. It is truly fulfilling to be part of giving these deserving cats a second chance and a safe haven, and to be a part of the happy endings of their stories that sometimes start out a bit sad. |
    |
