Originally posted by punkmommy
HAHAHAHA -Oh I know, between fixing my mowhawk and teaching ABC's ( just kidding, no big hair here) I think you just want to tease me 'cause I'm not in Newark anymore!:beer:
"Newark: The home of people punks hate." That's the motto. Seriously. Also, they changed the UD school mascot to a pair of Gap chinos. Crazy.

I volunteered at a shelter in high school. Now I work to educate people so that fewer animals end up in shelters in the first place. No matter how you decide to help, your assistance is so desperately needed that you should do whatever you can!

Be forewarned that many people who end up volunteering at shelters end up adopting several animals!

The Amanda Foundation specializes in rescuing animals from shelters. I just adopted the cat in my avatar photo from The Amanda Foundation this past Saturday. My cat's name is Krava, btw. That's Croatian for cow, since she looks like a little holstein cow.

http://www.amandafoundation.org

I'm not currently volunteering at a shelter, at least not with finals bearing down upon me. Ack, someone save me from the wrath of academia!

No, really, don't. Deep down inside I love this stuff.

Originally posted by skylark
No, really, don't. Deep down inside I love this stuff.
Ugh. You and me both... Ooh... That reminds me...

Krava is soo cute, she has this 'don't mess with me' look in her eyes

yeah, when i started fostering, I was warned that "almost everyone ends up keeping their first foster dog", but so far I have not kept any of my foster animals, despite getting really attached to some of them. My mom kept her first foster dog. ;)

I just submitted my volunteer application to an animal rescue called "4 Paws" (such a creative name, I know) about two days ago. they mostly rescue cats.
I'm still waiting for a reply, I hope they "hire" me.

I volunteer at the local spca every saturday for 3 hours and when i have school vacation i go in extra days. I really love it, it's a great way to help out and spend time with some fabulous animals!

I do. Before I went there I thought it would be really difficult, but it's really not. The cats are so well taken care of by the vets & volunteers. The dogs get lavished with attention and even the bunnies get cuddled.
It's such a great feeling to volunteer at a humane society. The only downside is, is that you may find a favorite animal and then they get adopted.. but I guess that's not so bad after all. :D

I signed up to volunteer for a shelter starting in August, I'm not sure if they'll have an opening then but if not I'll just volunteer a couple nights a week starting in the fall. I'll probably want to take all the animals home with me! I've already visited there and the cats are ADORABLE!!! I haven't seen the dogs yet but i'm sure they're great too.:)

i used to volunteer at my local humane society, but i soon found out that it is acutally an inhumane society. i began getting involved with a woman who was their humane educator and together we were taking out the adult cats, having them spayed/neutered (as well as taking care of medical problems involving parasites) and adopting them out through foster homes and the relatively local PetSmart. the shelter ended this (because it really made them look bad that they weren't doing this themselves) under the guise that they would be continuing the program on their own. they haven't and it's been 6 months now. i've heard and seen horrific things there. now, the humane educator quit and together we do pretty much the same thing of spaying/neutering abandoned animals, socializing them (some are really messed up) and adopting them out through foster homes (my house and my mom's).

there are some really good shelters out there and some really bad ones. volunteering is amazing, but it can also be very emotionally taxing.

fostering is also really good if you can do it. it is so hard to let them go but so many need good, loving homes and keep in mind that kitten season is upon us.