A day with our volunteers: Saturday at the shelter
Saturday, half past eight in the morning. Klára is waiting at the gate with a thermos, together with two students who have come for the first time. You can already hear barking behind the fence – the dogs know perfectly well that weekends mean long walks. That is how most of our volunteer days begin.
Morning: walks and first attention
Every volunteer finds the dogs they are looking after that day on the noticeboard. Newcomers start with the calmer characters, like our senior girl Bára, and only gradually take on the energetic youngsters. Dogs are always walked on a lead along the marked routes around the pond. One volunteer can easily cover ten kilometres before lunch.
Midday: cleaning, bowls, checks
After the walks comes the less photogenic but equally important part: changing blankets, washing bowls and refilling water. Meanwhile our keepers hand out medication and note down who ate what. Volunteers are an extra pair of eyes for us. If you notice a dog limping or refusing food, you tell us and we deal with it straight away.
Afternoon: cats and socialisation
In the afternoon part of the team moves over to the cat house. Nobody gets walked here – here you sit. Shy cats get used to people slowly, and what helps them most is someone quietly reading a book and asking nothing of them. That is how wary cats become animals who can cope with the move to a new home.
At the end of the day
Around four o’clock everyone gathers in the little kitchen for tea. We write down in a notebook what went well that day – who walked nicely on the lead for the first time, or which cat let someone stroke her back. Our keepers and prospective adopters read those small notes, and they often decide whether an animal finds a home.
What you need to get started
Be at least 18 (younger volunteers come with a parent).
An introductory session – it takes about an hour and runs on the first Saturday of every month.
Sturdy shoes and clothes that can handle mud and fur.
The will to come regularly, even if it is just once a fortnight.
For the animals, regularity matters more than hours. A dog who knows you relaxes on the walk and then shows its best side to people interested in adopting.
Sound like you? Fill in the form in the How to help section and we will get back to you with a date for your introduction. Bára is already waiting by the gate.
Photo: U.S. Navy (Kelly M. Agee), public domain, Wikimedia Commons