We were asked to help out with a second hoarding situation about a week ago. The 1st picture shows how fast cats procreate. Looking at that chart, you think....wow I had no idea. But you don't see, feel, or are connected to the individual faces. Pictures 2 and 3 show 17 real kittens that we are getting today from a hoarding situation that we are assisting CCC Animal Services with and of course they all have an upper respiratory infection (URI) at the least. The 2nd and 3rd pictures feel different don't they, looking into each individual face and understanding this is a living being that is 100% dependent at this point on a human for them not to die. Without intervention, the upper respiratory may go away, but unlikely without causing chronic painful medical conditions in the future.
This has got me thinking why do people let hoarding situations get this far?
Then I started realizing it's the lack of help. People tell people to get help, to control the situation, and to not allow it to get this far. Daily on social media, I see posts that give the advice: call a rescue they can help, email a rescue they can help, shelters will send out trappers to help you........BUT
the sad truth is there is not enough committed help.
Most rescuers work full-time jobs and rescuing is what we do in place of downtime, family/friend time, and time devoted to other obligations like sleeping.
So again where is the help? Who is the help? And why does everybody tell everybody to get help and then be upset when help isn't there. Who's responsibility is it to help? And why isn't there enough help?
Again, the reality is that there really isn't enough help. Most people don't want to help, they really think it's not their problem, and/or they only want to help on their terms. Who really wants to give up their free time to clean up messes that other people made usually through lack of action. Remember the one cat that was an unfixed stray in your yard and has turned into 30.
There is trapping, assessing, vetting, healing, and returning or adopting out the animals that can be, and all of this takes an incredible amount of time. Our ability to help is directly connected to the number of people and their level of commitment to help.
Sometimes the reason people help, is that they know the number of animals that are suffering every day at the hands of people who don't care, abusers, and people that look the other way. Rescuers are outnumbered, trust me on this. Those who help want to make the world a better place for those animals, even though they didn't create the problem.
Fact is, there are people that want to help; it's just very hard to fine you. Currently, we could really use people who would like to commit to running projects, problem-solving and being leaders. Most of this is computer work, paperwork, and phone calls.
We are in need of people to help with the following projects:
Foster coordinator (Cats)
Foster coordinator (dogs)
Volunteer coordinator/recruiter
Dog administration help
Cat administration help
Adoption event coordinator
Chair special fundraising efforts
In fact, we have had people come and go over the years and another fact is that there is not a lot of time to train. You really learn as you go. I know this sounds crazy, but it's like a Zumba class.
1st class- I'm never going to be able to do it.
2nd class-this isn't so hard
3rd class-I can teach this soon
These Volunteer positions are vital to a successful rescue and a solid commitment is needed. By helping with administration projects, it free's up time for Gina and me to do the really hard stuff involving the animals and to deal with emergency situations more efficiently, it also gives up the space to deal with our own human and animal family crises when we need.
If you want to be an administrative hero, Just send us a message
