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Homeless Cat Network Volunteer
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Homeless cats live among us in the shadows and rely on the kindness of strangers for survival. Often un-spayed, they reproduce quickly and their kittens become feral without human contact. Homeless Cat Network (HCN) cares for these forgotten animals, and works hard to correct the neglect that created their plight. HCN has a number of fulfilling volunteer opportunities! Our volunteer work is very necessary, and also very rewarding. Whether you have just 15 minutes to spare once per week, or you have more time to offer, you’ll be saving lives and giving deserving kitties a second chance at life. If you can help, please contact us at volunteer@homelesscatnetwork.com. Following are a variety of open opportunities where we need your help:Foster parents Socialize rescued kittens or adult cats in your home, and prepare them for a permanent home of their own. We urgently need foster parents who can provide loving temporary homes for HCN’s rescued kittens and cats. Training is provided and all your expenses will be reimbursed. As a foster parent, you’ll prepare the kitten/cat for a permanent home by socializing him/her, and providing the kitty with love and care. Veterinary care is a key component, as we must insure that all HCN felines are healthy, vaccinated, and spayed/neutered, and you’ll be responsible for insuring that your foster kitty gets the veterinary care he/she needs. When you feel the kitten/cat is ready for a permanent home, you’ll be able to use all of HCN’s adoption tools to help find the perfect forever home for your foster kitty! This includes having the kitty’s picture and description listed in the adoptions area of HCN’s website, showing the kitty at our adoption fairs at Pet Club in San Mateo, and showing the kitty at our PetSmart Adoption Centers in San Mateo (Hillsdale) and in San Carlos when space is available. Becoming a foster parent means giving a kitten or cat a second chance at life. It’s incredibly rewarding, and you’ll be a vital, appreciated member of HCN’s team! Feline rescuers HCN’s mission is to humanely reduce the homeless cat population in the Peninsula, and our feline rescuers are central to reaching that goal. By using humane traps to catch feral and stray cats, the rescuers have the cats spayed/neutered, tested and vaccinated, and admit kittens to our foster system. Rescuers set their own schedules, so you can choose how much time you wish to spend trapping and rescuing cats and kittens. Depending on the area, trapping can take just a few minutes! Using your spare time to help rescue cats helps to humanely control the homeless cat population, and is often the difference between life and death for many of these cats. Spaying/neutering just one cat makes a huge difference, as does rescuing a kitten that deserves a chance to be adopted into a loving home! HCN has a dire need for feline rescuers in all areas of the Peninsula! Feline rescue is incredibly necessary and important work, and it’s also very rewarding. So please join our team and feel what it’s like to make an enormous impact for felines in need. Training and equipment is provided. Cat socializers Our Socialization Center in San Mateo is a very special and unique place where rescued adult cats have a chance to adjust to life in a home environment after having been abandoned, abused, or neglected. These cats require a little extra love and attention, and volunteers at our Socialization Center provide these cats the care that they need to prepare them for a new forever-home. It’s a friendly and fun environment in a living room-like setting filled with up to 25 cats at a time, all looking for a new friend and a friendly hand to pet them. The cats live in floor to ceiling three-tier “condos” with 3-5 cats living in each unit. We have two shifts per day (one in the morning, one in the evening), 7 days per week. If you can volunteer a couple of hours of your time each week, the cats at our Socialization Center will benefit from your kindness! We also have beautiful adoption centers at PetSmart in San Mateo (Hilldale) and at PetSmart in San Carlos, where cats from our Center and kittens from HCN’s foster program temporarily live while they hope to find their new permanent home. By volunteering at the PetSmart adoption centers once per week, you’ll help care for these cats and introduce them to prospective adopters. Feral cat feederHomeless cats live among us hidden behind restaurants, at marinas, in backyards, and in parks. They rely on the kindness of strangers for survival, which is where you come in! HCN’s team of feral cat feeders provides food and water to our managed colonies throughout the Peninsula. We care for over 600 cats every day, and we need help to make sure that each of them gets adequate food and water. It only takes a few minutes per day to make sure that these cats don’t go hungry. We work in teams, so if you can give a few minutes of your time even once per week, you’ll help us insure that the cats have plenty of food and water. Our managed colonies are located in various cities, from South San Francisco to Foster City. Adoption fair coordinators Help our rescued cats and kittens find homes at our weekly adoption fairs To find homes for the rescued kitties in our care, we hold weekly adoption fairs where we set up information tables, and show adoptable kittens and cats in big cages at pet stores and other venues. We need your help to set up the fairs, show the kittens to prospective adopters, and share HCN information with visitors. If you can help once per month for a few hours, or even 20 minutes on a Saturday morning to help set up, your help will be greatly appreciated, and you’ll be helping kittens and cats find wonderful new homes! Transporter Can you help pick up and drop off kitties on occasion? Some of our foster caregivers need help getting their kitties to vet appointments and adoption fairs due to their work schedules, and some of our rescuers need help getting cats to their spay/neuter appointments. If you can help out just a few minutes per week, you’ll be helping make sure that HCN cats and kittens get the veterinary care they need, and get to adoption fairs so they can find their forever-homes. Cat recovery helper If you have a garage or a spare bedroom where you can care for cats following their spay/neuter surgery, we desperately need your help! After a feral cat has been trapped, our rescuers take them to be spayed/neutered. After the surgery, the cats need to recover in their cages for a day or two before they can be re-released by the rescuer. By being a cat recovery helper, you’ll provide food, water and shelter to the recovering kitties, then the rescuers will take them from you once they’re all ready to go back home. All it takes is a little space where the kitties can recover, and a few minutes per day to provide food and water. Volunteer coordinators Are you organized and like to talk with people? If so, we can use your help! We’ve got lots of volunteer opportunities and we need people to help linking potential volunteers with opportunities that match their interests. If you can spare a few minutes per week, please help by becoming a volunteer coordinator today! Events and fundraising helpers As an all-volunteer, all donations-based organization, fund raising is key to our existence. If you’ve got a few minutes to spare, we need your help to run our bake sales, garage sales, and kitty boutiques, and to help us collect donations and sell goods at adoption fairs, art and wine festivals and other fun events. You’ll be working with other friendly and fun volunteers and will be interacting with the public, and you’ll feel good about what you’re doing because every penny collected goes straight to helping the rescued cats and kittens in our care! |
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