This feature will always be for volunteers, because it always fits. Volunteers save lives, through all of their actions! The action we are featuring in this edition is the dedicated weekend action we currently have going on. If you are going to get the family together all at the same time to pick out the perfect pet for the family, it will almost always be on the weekends. Dedicated volunteers know this and they give up their free time to come into the shelter to help animals find homes.

Dogs need walking, sunshine, exercise, interaction, training, fun, and this is why we need so many volunteers on our EAT Team (Exercise, Attention & Time). Some of our “above and beyond” volunteers not only participate by being on the EAT Team, they give the gift of a voice to our homeless animals looking for a loving home. They tell potential adopters who the animals are and what we have learned about them.

Lefty who was featured in our last edition was one of those fortunate dogs that benefited from a volunteer’s voice. Lefty had a life story to be told and he also had great personality traits that our special volunteers learned and told to a family looking to adopt one on Saturday. Lefty found his forever home because of that voice.

Animals cannot speak for themselves, but spend some time in an animal shelter and you will quickly learn that some animals do a good job of communicating and don’t really need as much of a voice as others. Some animals need many voices to find them a home. Our large breed dogs have the least chance at a new home.

Bella, who could have been a large Saint Bernard/Rottweiler mix, but then again, she could have been any number of very large breeds mixed together, needed a volunteer’s voice to tell adopters that she was a very sweet, very large puppy who just did not know her own strength or size, but who was more than willing to listen and to adjust. She found her home.

Our staff’s hearts are lifted by these special volunteers because they know how great the animals are but don’t get to spend the time they would like with adopters to share all their great qualities, but when volunteers become regulars, they can quickly share the individuality of a certain animal. Then the volunteers can spend the needed interaction time with potential adopters to share their voice, their stories, and their life.

We have seen a steady increase of adoptions on the weekends due to this great volunteer practice of sharing the voices of the animals! Thank you volunteers! We love you, our hearts are healed and given hope by you, lives are saved and well lived because of you!

-Beth Caffrey