Debbie Samler is one of those dedicated and hardworking volunteers who help out in various animal rescue centres throughout the world. Here's her story ...
I volunteer with The Humane Society of Calvert County. We're an all volunteer rescue group located in Southern Maryland and are for the most part, a no-kill rescue. That means that the only time we would humanely euthanize an animal is for severe medical problems or severe aggressiveness that we were not able to correct.
The weekend of 8th December, we held our annual Home for the Holidays event at our kennel where people could come and adopt a new pet. While I was there on Saturday for a few hours, two dogs went to their new homes and two others had adoption applications filled out. The ones with applications still need to be spayed so they can't go to their new homes quite yet.
We rescue dogs and cats from our local pound as well as rescue strays and owner give ups. In fact, recently, we were able to rescue a chained dog and four of her brand new puppies. (Unfortunately 9 of her puppies didn't survive the cold weather we've been having.) She is now living with her pups in the home of one of our volunteers.
All of our cats and kittens are in foster homes as well as about 50% of our dogs. The dogs that are not in foster homes live at our kennel where there are a few paid employees who make sure the dogs are taken care of. We also have volunteers come in every day to walk and play with all the dogs. We always do a home visit before any adoption is finalized to make sure the animal is going to a good home. We also offer boarding at our kennel to help raise funds since we're a non-profit organization.
I've been volunteering for a little over two years, and it was one of the best decisions I ever made. I've met so many wonderful people and attended quite a few adoption events during that time. I've also learned a lot about different animal issues, and am currently involved in helping to plan our new educational seminars that will start in February, 2008.
I've personally fostered 8 dogs and 6 cats, and all have gone to great homes, with the exception of 1 dog and 1 cat that I'm still fostering. (I actually ended up adopting two of my foster dogs and one of my foster kittens so I guess that some people could call me a "foster flunkie." I wish I could keep them all, but if I did, I wouldn't be able to rescue anymore. The ones I adopted just happened to get along great with the two dogs that I already own which my daughter rescued when they were pups.) I was planning on fostering my ninth dog in a few weeks time, however, she was one of the ones that was adopted earlier in December.
If you would like to take a look at our website, click on the link below:
www.humanesocietyofcalvertcounty.org.
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