Karen Hamlett
Gabrielle Freeman
English 1100 #68
2/25/2016
Volunteers needed
“We’re here mostly every Saturday”
The young lady looks at the kitten sitting in the almost too small, bar cage behind me, happily playing with a ball. Her uncertain, brown eyes return to mine, “Mostly every Saturday?”
 |
| Meekers |
I smile, “Yeah, except during the holidays and breaks. Then we go home because we just go to college here. We’ll be here next Saturday, though! If you want, I can give you Haley’s information. She’s in charge of the cats, and you can call her and let her know if you want us to bring him back up here.”
She nods her head, “I just have to talk to my Husband about it. I really want him though! He’s so cute.” I smile at her, and I get my roommate, Haley, informing her of the situation.
Each Saturday, Haley and I drive about an hour from our college dorm room to a small vet named Williamston Veterinary Hospital. Right when we walk in we are greeted very warmly by the reception. All of them know why we’re there, and they’re happy about it, too. We’re the only two who volunteer to help the cats get adopted. It’s hard to get people to volunteer just to help with the dogs, but to get people to help with cats? It’s almost impossible.
I’m pretty sure when Haley found them a couple months ago and asked to work with the cats, they all looked at her like she was an angel. They’re the only no kill shelter in the entire area. Haley, who loves cats more than anyone I know, searched for a shelter to volunteer at almost immediately after moving into the dorm.
 |
| Jinx |
After she talked to Adoptable Companion Animals of North Carolina months ago about helping, they put her in charge of the cats in no time, but she couldn’t cart all of the cats in her small Volkswagen Bug. So, she talked me into helping her with it. I said yes without much hesitation. Soon, it began to be what we do every single weekend.
 |
| Jinx's new owners. |
Each Saturday morning we get up at eight am, pick up the cats, head to Petsmart, set up the tables, and put the cats in cages, trying our hardest to herd people in our direction. With our dog side of the Adoptable Companion Animals of North Carolina right beside us, it’s almost too loud to talk to people. I glace over, getting distracted from what I am supposed to be doing, as the barking grows louder and louder. The dogs bark as people crowd closer to them, getting drawn towards the playful puppies. One young couple puts a leash on a rowdy puppy, going to take him out for a little test run. He pulls them on the leash, trying to get a closer look at the other dogs. I try not to roll my eyes at the sight. Dogs are so much more work than everyone really thinks. You have to give them a lot of training and attention. That one puppy will need to be potty trained and learn how to be obedient. It’s almost like raising a child. On the other hand with cats, you don’t have to take them outside every couple hours to do their business. The owner will just have to clean their litter box every so often. Cats are less maintenance all around. All a person has to do is keep a cat’s food bowl full, its’ litter box clean, and give it a bit of attention and love. Owning a cat is the easy part, but trying to get one adopted is the tricky part.
 |
| Ben being adopted. |
Getting the cats adopted is hard and is a skilled art, a skilled art that Haley has. Everyone likes to call her the cat whisperer. I watch in awe as she easily takes a crazy kitten out of it’s cage. He nestles in her arms and automatically begins to pur. She sits down on the floor with him, trying to get him to be happy and settled in this loud, new environment. Earlier, when I tried taking that kitten out, he was frightened and held onto the cage bars with all his might. Haley has been handling cats for years, her own and cats from other adoption agencies before she transferred to ECU. All of the cats love her, and that can be a problem when she tries to let someone else hold them. I watch as a young woman comes up, asking to hold the kitten Haley is holding. Haley tries to pry the kitten from her own arms, but he clings to her, not wanting to leave her. Finally, when she detaches the kitten from herself, she places him in the woman’s arms. It stares back at Haley, as if Haley somehow betrayed him in that small act. Cats simply don’t want to leave her. But once we get the cat in the arms of a potential adopter, it’s a 75% chance he or she will adopt it. That’s her trick. She throws the cat in a person’s arms and they will almost always fall in love. As each person holds the soft, furry animal and it begins to purr, it’s so difficult to let go. That’s the easy part, making a person fall in love. The next step is to try to convince a person into actually adopting it. Sometimes it works and we are able to talk the person into it. Most of the time it doesn’t.
 |
| Ben |
I smile as the woman holds a cat in her arms, slowly falling in love with it. She smiles down at it as it begins to calm a little. It rubs its head against the woman’s face and begins to purr. I know it’s going to be another long day, it’s only one o'clock, and I still have four more hours before we begin to pack up. But with the sight of the woman asking for the adoption papers, I feel like I’ll be able to power through. After she is done, we will have gotten three cats adopted so far.
We stay at Pet Smart from around 10am to 5pm. Then exhausted and smelling like cats, we put the two remaining cats in their carriers. We clean out each cage and table that we used and fold them up. We place the heavy metal cages and the tables in the storage room, and head back to take the cats to our cars. It takes us an hour to drive back to the vet to drop them off , then another fifteen minutes to unload everything.
As I’m driving back to ECU, I think about how much work goes into volunteering and how badly we’re needed. Each Saturday that we don’t come, those cats will sit in the cages for another week until we bring them back to Pet Smart again. With only two girls volunteering, it’s hard to come almost every Saturday to help out, especially while juggling school work, jobs, and personal lives. Adoptable Companion Animals of North Carolina saves perfectly, lovable animals that are about to be euthanized whenever they can. But the longer the cats stay, occupying the cages, the longer the group has to wait to save those cats from kill shelters. Thinking about all of the amazing cats and other pets out there, getting put down every day, when they could have perfectly good homes, breaks my heart.
 |
| Haley and I. |
Print this post
.jpg)
.jpg)
