assesment day 1

DAY 1

Today I was full of energy and ready to start my volunteer work at the Westerly Animal Shelter. When I got there, at about 9 ‘o clock, I was a little bit nervous. That was probably because I thought I’d be handling those loud, intimidating dogs in the corner. However, that was not the case. I was assigned to a girl named Carrie; she was in charge of caring for the cats. She wore a navy blue “ I love Karate” hoodie and a grey sweatshirt. Her blonde hair went down to her shoulders and she had baby blue eyes. She also had good patience, which was good in my case because I usually mess up the first few times. The first things I did was clean the cages , which is more complicated than you think! (add instructions here). I also got into a scuffle trying to pick up a big, heavy, hairy stray cat to transmit him to another cage. What you are SUPPOSED to do is pick it up by a special skin flap, hold it’s chest, lift, and carry. What I DID was grab it’s scruff and hold chest. However I didn’t expect to be so heavy and I wasn’t holding the scruff tightly enough. The flabby tabby slipped. I scrambled to pick him up but to no avail. Carrie had to rush in and place him in the cage. After some cleaning, we got a tour of the facility in a more thorough way. We saw were the little animals, like rabbits and parakeets , stayed. The old cats and baby kittens had there own places too. In those rooms they were free to run around unlike the stray and feral room. However, in the far corners of the Shelter, were places for dogs and cats that were unstable and needed special caretakers.  Feel sad that they have to be separated from the others and cannot be taken home. If we could talk to animals, they may not be in there.