Life Lessons From Memaw
Rescue Group on a Mission To Save Senior Dogs
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Back in November, I wrote a blog about the path to happiness. I wrote that one way to be happy was to think about others. Volunteering was a great way of thinking about others who need your help. I want to expand on that idea a little more.
Right now we are living in very uncertain times. Everyone is nervous about the economy, their jobs, their families, and themselves. It makes sense. Rarely are we in a “good place” when it comes to our society. Personally, our lives are like roller coasters–up, down, and upside down–and sometimes we are exhausted by it all. What is our goal in life? Well, we all have different goals but I think we all want to just be happy. We can’t be happy all the time, but we don't want someone to ask us “Are you happy?”, and we have to sit and think “I don’t know.”
I admit. I didn’t volunteer very much when I was working and raising a family. I barely had time to brush my teeth, much less help others. I did the odd thing, like be a Sunday School teacher or Girl Scouts Cookie mom, but I felt these things were more like obligations than paths to being happy. Once I retired, I realize that I finally had time to do the things I wanted to do without a specific time commitment. Hence, volunteering and not just getting another job.
Finding the right fit for volunteering is not easy. You have to ask yourself a lot of questions. Who do you want to help? How do you want to help? Where can you do this help? Does this fit with my schedule, my values, my personality? Let me give you an example of my self reflection.
Once I retired, it took about 4 months of asking question after question before I finally found my niche. Who do I want to help? Well, I like children, but I had been with children my entire adult life. I needed something different. What about helping adults? Yeah, I don’t always have a lot of patience with people. In fact, being surrounded by people every day, all day, had been my career. I needed a break from people. Ok, I needed to volunteer without a lot of people interaction. That left animals. I love dogs and cats but I already had 4 cats and 2 dogs. I couldn’t take anymore animals into my home. There are many shelters where I live. I had volunteered at a cat shelter before I was married and I didn’t enjoy it that much. Seeing animals in cages is just too much for me. It breaks my heart and I wanted to volunteer to feel like I was helping, making a difference. Instead, working at a shelter would make me feel sad and depressed by the time I got home. Nope–I’m just not strong enough.
So, I was kind of stuck. I wanted to work with animals but in a productive way, that also made me feel good. Luckily, I saw a post on Facebook. This organization cared for senior dogs and helped them get adopted by fostering the dogs. They needed fosters, adopters, but also volunteers. The volunteers would help with transportation, clerical work, fundraising, and making life easier for the fosters. Hmmmm…this sounded like my fit.
So, 18 months later, I am still with Citizen Canine Senior Dog Rescue. I get to be with the dogs by helping them–taking them to their fosters, taking them to their adoptive forever home, taking them to the vet for preventative care and when they are sick. My interaction with people is limited, which I like. I get to choose how much time I volunteer at the Rescue. Some weeks, I may volunteer up to 10 hours a week; some weeks I may volunteer maybe only 1-2 hours. I also help with coordinating other volunteers with tasks that need to be done that week and keep up the medical records of the dogs. It has been a perfect match.
Some people have consistently asked me two questions with this perfect match. Do I ever feel like I want to bring home these senior dogs? Some of the dogs do die–doesn’t that break my heart?
These are two questions I had to ask myself before I started volunteering, so it makes sense that others ask me this too. Here are the answers that help me decide to volunteer for Citizen Canine.
First, these senior dogs have lived a long life. For whatever reason, their owners cannot keep them. The two people in charge of this rescue, Karina and Miriam, have vetted extensively people who would like to be fosters. They have done home visits, interview the potential fosters, and ask many, many questions. They are so thorough, I know that if people are selected to be fosters, then these fosters are wonderful dog people. The senior dogs that are placed with the fosters are going to have a fantastic life, in a loving house, learning life skills so they can get adopted. I may take these dogs to the vet and get to spend some quality time with them, but I know I am returning them to caring, warm, doting foster home. So, no, they don’t need to go home with me to be cared for. They are getting that awesome care through the fosters.
Second, these are senior dogs. Some will live another 5 years; some will live another 5 days. We just don’t know. We do have dogs that are in “hospice”. That means they are with fosters and we are not actively trying to adopt them out because we know they don’t have much time left. When these dogs eventually die, I know that they have had a long life and their last few weeks were the best that could have been. I also know that when they die, then there is an opening for another potential senior dog that we can match to a foster. We are trying to help as many dogs as we can and give them a good life now and in their new forever home.
So, there is my pitch for you to help in some way. It benefits you and those you help. Ask yourself the tough questions. Research and find out all the different ways you can make a difference. Finally, I’ll leave you with these two things…
First, WGN Channel 9 here in Chicago graciously did a beautiful segment on Citizen Canine. I was fortunate enough to be part of the segment. Here is the link–they really did a nice job!
https://wgntv.com/news/features/rescue-group-on-a-mission-to-save-senior-dogs/
Also, here are links to help you find some volunteer opportunities. This is just from my limited search. Dig deep and keep looking until you find your niche. Good luck!
https://www.voa.org/volunteer/
https://www.volunteermatch.org/
https://www.redcross.org/volunteer/volunteer-opportunities.html
