Volunteering…… It’s the cat’s meow!

Do you love animals?  Are you volunteering?  No?  Well why the heck not?!?

I have been at the Monmouth County SPCA as a volunteer for 4 years now and i really can’t imagine my life without it.  I had thought about it for many year and came up with so many reasons why not to do it.  The first one was always it will be too sad.  The second was I just don’t have the time.  The third was I will want to take them all home.  The last one was just the fear of stepping out of my comfort zone.  Ok so lets break them all down!

# 1 It will be too sad.  Well I can’t say that there are never sad moments, but I will say for certain that there are way more happy and amazing ones.  You become a part of a group of people, a family, who save lives every day!  You get to hang out with cats and/or dogs  every day you are there. (I happen to like sitting in a gazebo and becoming part of a cat pile!)  You get to see the happy faces of the people adopting their new family member.  You get to see the happy faces of the animals as they leave the building to their forever home and maybe you played a small part in that! #priceless

#2  You don’t have the time.  I call bull dinky!!!  You have the time.  Trust me no body is so busy that they can’t find some time.  It’s not a job and you don’t have a schedule.  You not only come  in when you can,  you volunteer how you want.  Do you think that it is too sad or you will bring them all home?  Volunteer for events or fundraising.  Can’t get to the shelter?  Well then be a foster and work from home!  You can literally choose what you want to do and when you want to do it.  How’s that for the perfect gig!

#3  I will want to take them all home.  Well that  may still sort of be true, but really you know you can’t and why not put that energy into finding them the perfect home.  I get to work with all kinds of cats getting them ready for the perfect home.  It really is the best thing I have ever done!!  (For sake of disclosure I did take one home in the first few moths of volunteering)  For the ones I really loved I have their pictures, I remember them well and some I even get to visit some in their new homes!  How amazing!!!  Thank you Michael, Peggy, Johnna, Jody, Steve and Valerie!

#4  Stepping out of your comfort zone.  Well that one I highly recommend!!!  Without stepping out of my comfort zone I wouldn’t have met the amazing people I have, saved the lives I have, completed the family I have and started the business I have. Oh and I even got to be on tv and the radio!  SO crazy fun!!!   My life has been changed dramatically for the better and I can’t imagine where I would be now without…….Volunteering!

Sally Williams

Volunteer, Monmouth County SPCA

Owner, The Contented Cat

www.thecontentedcat.net