The following are some jobs that are available and projects that we hope to undertake. As with most non-profit organizations, we do not have the funds to hire staff to take all these projects on. That’s where you, our volunteers, come in.
Please look through the list and see if there is any area where you may be willing to help. Remember that we do not expect you to do it all alone. We have staff members that will help you to help us reach our goals. No matter where you live, near or far, with Internet access, we can find a volunteer job for you.
Animal Care
This job is better than going to any gym, and we won’t charge you to lift our weights! Hauling water buckets for 40+ dogs is not an easy task, but it builds great muscles and works the heart and lungs. In the summertime, this job is done twice a day if not more, so if you can’t come in the morning, you might want to consider coming in the afternoon and helping to refill buckets and swimming pools.
Feeding over 200 animals generates a whole lot of dishes. Anyone willing to risk dishpan hands?
This job naturally follows the feeding job. What goes in, must come out! This may sound like a dirty job, O.K. it is, but it can be fun too. You are always greeted enthusiastically by all the dogs, and if you throw a ball and play with them, you’ll have a friend for life.
Some of our cats and dogs are long-haired and require regular grooming, others are short-haired and just seem to get matted easily or just enjoy a good grooming. We always welcome volunteers who are willing to take the time to sit and groom the animals. Be prepared for lots of kisses and loving, though!
Walking and Exercise
Our pens are spacious, but the dogs do still enjoy walks so they may explore the fields and woods that surround them. We welcome volunteers to come walk dogs during the hours of 10-3 Tue-Sat.
We receive a lot of feral cats or at least very shy cats that need to learn what humans are all about. If you are a real cat lover, this may be the job for you. At first it may mean just sitting in the cattery and reading a book so the cats get used to your presence prior to trying to touch them. This is definitely a job for someone with a lot of patience, but many of our cats could learn to adapt to humans if given the chance.
Anyone good at doing nails? O.K. maybe not pretty nail polish designs, but more in the line of clipping. The nails just keep on growing and need regular clipping.
Join our severe weather corps of people who will assist one or more of our dogs for a brief time when we have extremes in weather. If you are able to help, please sign up to become a member of our Extreme Sleepover team by emailing Diane White at:
CFCHOME@aol.com or by calling Diane at 434-207-3016.
Diane will then contact you to make sure that you are teamed up with a dog who will be compatible with your living environment.
By helping, you will ensure that ALL of our dogs are comfortable during extreme cold snaps and heat waves.
Grounds
The coming of spring and summer also means the coming of grass. With 160 acres of land, we sure do have plenty of it. We need weed-eater friendly volunteers to help keep the grass in the dog pens trimmed. For those of you with big green thumbs, we have many flower beds that need ongoing TLC.
And we thought FORD stood for “Fix or repair daily,” (no offense to you Ford owners). We sure do have an endless list of things to be fixed around here. There are tables for the dogs to jump on in every pen, many of which need fixing or rebuilding. There is everything from carpentry to plumbing to electricity work to be done, as well as jobs that just need a little brawn.
Administrative
We are trying to get more grant money coming into CFC, and need someone who has time to do some computer investigation and research, searching for donated goods or dollars.
We would like to increase the amount of fundraisers that we do each year, but we need someone willing to come up with ideas and then spearhead them. Any takers? This person would have a brigade of volunteers to help them pull it off.
If you are interested in helping out at a fund raiser, but don’t want to be the brains of the operation, that’s great too. The more the merrier. There are always helpers needed to run booths, answer questions, or keep an eye on animals attending the fund raiser.
For those of you who want to get involved but live too far away, perhaps you could hold a yard sale and advertise that the proceeds are going to CFC. Not only would this help raise money for animal care, but it would help get more recognition for Caring for Creatures.
We have several bulk mailings each year and we can always use extra hands to assemble these mailings.
Animal Adoptions
We’d love to have help with transporting and/or helping to show off our animals to potential adopters at offsite adoption events. You can also help man a table with donation jars, information brochures, and CFC merchandise to sell.
If you are the creative type, you might want to help by creating adoption flyers and posting them at local businesses and public areas. We have pictures of all our animals or you can tale new pictures if you like!
Would you like to work on a one-on-one basis with a dog or cat to prepare them for adoption? Some animals just need a little extra training, support and confidence to get ready for their ‘forever home’ and you could be the one who makes that difference.
